This week, our guest is Illinois pension expert Jeff Tucek. Jeff is a retired management consultant who spent 23 years in the automotive industry. He led many strategic and operational improvement engagements with US automakers and suppliers, in particular General Motors. Jeff was a partner with Chicago-based firm A.T. Kearney, and an executive with the Dallas-based Electronic Data Systems (EDS). He is currently the Pension Director for the Illinois Tea Party. Jeff will talk about the Illinois pension crisis, some of the solutions being kicked around for solving it, and how we can expect the public sector unions to respond.
CHAMPION NEWS – TOP STORIES:
Overpaid Public Workers- The Evidence Mounts: Recently, an analysis by two Bureau of Labor Statistics economists, published in the winter 2012 Journal of Economic Perspectives, concluded that the salary and current benefits of state and local government employees nationwide are 10% and 21% higher, respectively, than private-sector employees doing similar work. This study didn’t even factor in the market value of public-pension benefits, nor did it include the value of retiree health coverage.
The MVP Project- Protecting the Right to Vote for Military Personnel: The right to vote is one of the building blocks of freedom in the United States, and a decisive way for ordinary people to communicate approval or disapproval of their government officials. Considering how much our military professionals risk to protect that right, I had always assumed they would be one of the most adamant groups about voting and registering to vote; I was floored when I learned that the opposite is true.
CHAMPION NEWS – WEEK N REVIEW:
