By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

QUINCY, Ill. – School board members in Quincy, Illinois want to end the district’s tradition of giving employees big pre-retirement bonuses, a move they say will help address the state’s pension crisis.

Teachers, administrators and other public school employees in Quincy who agreed to retire early received 20 percent bonuses in each of their last two years before retirement, until the state capped increases at 6 percent in 2005, the Quincy Herald-Whig reports.

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Now, board members want to end the practice entirely, beginning immediately for non-union employees, followed by negotiations with the district’s unions to eliminate the unnecessary increases before next school year.

“Board members said they were taking this step in an effort to cut down on rising pension costs that have contributed to the statewide pension crisis that’s become an ongoing burden on Illinois,” the news site reports.

By eliminating the end-of-the-career bonuses, the state pension payouts for the district’s employees will be based on a more realistic and fair representation of their incomes. The size of retirement pensions is calculated by using the employee’s final salary. Last minute bonuses artificially inflate salary figures.

Retirement bonuses are common in many school districts. If every district in Illinois followed Quincy’s example, it would be a significant step toward curbing rising pension costs.

School board members said “there were a lot of excessive raises” given to employees in the past, and ending the giveaway was “a prudent thing to do,” the Herald-Whig reports.

“I believe this is a fair move,” board member Scott Stone said.

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We agree, and we encourage other school districts in Illinois and throughout the nation to follow suit.