Five million dollar man

Meet Dennis Gannon, who stands to earn five million dollars from the City of Chicago during his retirement. And he hasn't actually worked for the city since 1991! Even better, for him if not for the taxpayer, his retirement income started at $150,000 a year (in 2004) even though he never earned more than $56,000 as a city employee.

This is possible because--only in Chicago!--Mr. Gannon left the city payroll to become a union officer, and the city pension plan not only let him continue to accumulate pension credits while working for the union, but based that pension on his union salary, which was $200,000 a year.

Mr. Gannon's good fortune is not a matter of interest only to Chicago taxpayers, since Mr. Obama's current stimulus plan is about half devoted to bailing out states and municipalities. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford