Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert will lose his $28,000 annual state pension for his nearly six years of service as a state representative in the Illinois legislature.
The General Assembly Retirement System board of trustees voted 5-2 Wednesday to terminate the pension. Illinois law allows the state to revoke pensions of individuals convicted of felonies connected to their time in the legislature.
Board member Mike Zalewski, a Democratic state representative from Riverside, says Hastert’s financial crimes related to his role as a public official.
“As a result of these payments, they would have affected his public career,” Zawleski said. “His General Assembly service was part and parcel with that, so we felt it was a prudent decision."
Another board member, Republican State Rep. David Harris from Arlington Heights, said he sees no connection between Hastert's crime and his legislative pension.
“If a person goes out and robs a bank on his private time, and it’s not in conjunction with being a member of the General Assembly, he may go to jail for robbing a bank," Harris said, "but that doesn’t necessarily, automatically forfeit any retirement benefit in the General Assembly Retirement System."
Harris said the board should have followed a recommendation from the Illinois attorney general's office to reduce Hastert's pension to $9,000 dollars a year.
Hastert’s legislative pension payments of roughly $2,300 per month were suspended last year after he was sentenced to a 15-month term at the Rochester (Minn.) Federal Medical Center. He is scheduled to be released August 16, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Hastert, now 75, pleaded guilty in 2015 in a hush-money case stemming from his sexual abuse of students as a high-school wrestling coach in Yorkville more than 35 years ago.
Hastert's attorneys didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. Hastert could appeal the decision in state court.
The Illinois Teachers' Retirement System previously revoked the pension money Hastert earned for his time as a teacher in Yorkville.
Hastert also receives a pension, estimated at more than $73,000 per year, for his tenure in Congress representing the 14th Illinois Congressional District.
- Illinois Public Radio's Brian Mackey contributed to this post.
