Kane County Reporter

Despite residing in one of the highest taxed parts of the state, a retired Kane County-area water district employee has collected more than $3.5 millions in pension payouts over the past 20 years.

Albin Pagorski, a former Fox River Water Reclamation District (FRWRD) employee who happens to have a water treatment facility named after him, has been receiving the money from his pension since 1998 when he retired at age 58, according to the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI). The district serves approximately 180,000 residents in Elgin, South Elgin, West Dundee, and parts of Sleepy Hollow, Streamwood, Hoffman Estates and St. Charles Township.

"Pagorski’s current annual pension benefit is nearly $211,000, despite having only contributed $93,900 to his retirement during his 40 years of work, according to documents from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, or IMRF,” the IPI report said.

Pagorski is not the only government employee whose retirement is burdening Kane County taxpayers.

Approximately 38 pensioners in Kane County enrolled in IMRF receive an annual payout of six-figures. Gregory Hergenroeder, a 40-year FRWRD employee has accumulated $2.1 million after 12 years of retirement, the report said.

The level of benefits, despite being unaffordable, is not caused by the government employees. Rules for pension programs are set by state lawmakers. Nevertheless, the amount of money paid on those benefits contrast with the reality faced by local taxpayers.

As stated in the report, Kane County homeowners "pay higher property taxes than the state average and more than double the national average, when measured as a share of home value,” according to IPI. An average single-family home in the county paid $6,517 in property tax in 2017, according to property data company ATTOM Data Solutions cited in the report.

The average home value for Kane County was estimated at $235,800, bringing the property tax rate up to 2.76 percent, while the national property tax average is 1.17 percent.

Making things worse for taxpayers, IMRF is not the only unsustainable pension fund they are paying for. The report also mentions that many local police and fire pension liabilities throughout the county and the state "have been growing far faster than taxpayers can manage."

IPI points to Streamwood, in Cook County, where "taxpayer contributions to its fire and police pension funds increased 135 percent and 197 percent, respectively, from 2006 to 2016." The report also mentions that, despite those huge increases in contributions, "the Streamwood fire pension fund has an even lower funding ratio today than it had in 2006."

These massive holes in the pension funds are forcing many people to leave Kane, Cook and other surrounding counties while they can.

"Cook and the collar counties each lost more residents to other counties across the nation than they gained from other counties," the report said.

As a way to reduce the burden on taxpayers and to attract and retain more residents, IPI suggests that local governments "must rein in property taxes by controlling the growth of pension liabilities." Another suggestion was the implementation of a 401(k)-style retirement plan for new workers, that would be deemed as "a fair and promising proposal for taxpayers and government workers alike."