Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

In print or online Wednesday, this newspaper's latest expose of rampant public pension abuse ought to stir your fury, and your sympathy: fury that pension officials enabled this corruption, and sympathy for the rank-and-file union members, as well as the taxpayers, who are victimized.

You'll learn how Chicago labor leaders eligible for grossly inflated city pensions also stand to receive union pensions for the same work periods. One labor leader stands to collect about $450,000 a year from three pensions � a city fund for laborers, a union district council fund, and a national union fund � all for the same stretch of his career. The actuarial computation is that his three pensions, over his expected lifetime, will pay him some $9 million.

What you won't learn from the news story is what we hope federal investigators will explore in lavish detail: Why did some of City Hall's top finance officials allow these outrages to occur? How could they, in their oversight roles at city pension funds, expose union members and taxpayers to future calamities? How could they permit themselves to have fiduciary responsibility to protect the public purse and responsibility to pension funds that draw vast sums from that same public purse?

We're talking about a city pension system that is underfunded by approximately $20 billion, maybe more.

We're talking about public officials in positions to realize that the implosion of city pension funds (1) would profoundly hurt union workers who expect to collect stable pension payments, or (2) would extort vast sums from taxpayers to cover the obligations of empty pension funds, or (3) would do both.

We're talking, then, about the abandonment of professional and personal responsibility by pension fund officials who had to know the real story here: A foolishly loosey-goosey interpretation of state law permitted de facto public pension payoffs to union leaders who, in return, delivered labor peace to City Hall.

That state law attempts to prohibit double- and triple-dipping from public and union pension funds. If you're a union official who draws a city pension, you can't earn a separate pension from a "local labor organization." The way city pension fund officials have been reading the law, though, it's OK for you to draw that second pension, and maybe a third, if they come from your union's district council or national headquarters. Those, you see, aren't � labor locals.

A lawyer for city pension fund overseers says the law is vague. Maybe so. How did fund officials react to that vagueness? Did they sound an alarm and demand clarity? Did they tell labor leaders that the law's intent to block double- or triple-dipping is obvious? Did the fund officials, in short, act to protect pension funds for future retirees and act to protect taxpayers from future obligations?

For now the answers appear to be: No, no and no. Instead, the pension fund overseers � they're all city officials and union officers � aided and abetted this scandalous looting of city pension funds.

With each new revelation, the need for independent investigation of egregious pension-rigging grows more obvious. We'll stick with the tripartite recommendation previously prescribed on this page:

� FBI agents can assess whether any pensioner fraudulently claimed benefits when he or she asserted eligibility for a public pension. The feds also need to probe the conduct of city pension fund officials, and of city officials who directed payments into these funds.

� The city of Chicago's inspector general has authority to explore the use, and potential misuse, of city funds. We'll be watching Wednesday to see whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed budget for 2012 increases or decreases funding for that office.

� The U.S. Department of Labor has responsibility to protect union pension funds. This situation screams for investigation by Labor.

These authorities can decide whether any of this conduct is illegal. But even a dictionary knows it meets the definition of corrupt: contaminated, morally unsound, debased, venal.

Who should pay for this? We're counting on three prompt and aggressive investigations to provide that answer.

Also check out�..

Story: Head of Chicago pension fund tried to collect an unearned union pension

Story: Double-dipping labor leaders stand to reap millions from union retirement funds while also collecting city pensions

Pension games