Topinka’s son sues for $60,000 in mother’s pension contributions

Joe Topinka, son of late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, has filed a

The late State Treasurer and Comptroller Judy Barr-Topinka

lawsuit in Sangamon County Circuit Court seeking more than $60,000 in contributions she made to her state retirement system while serving as comptroller. The suit seeks to overturn a ruling by the General Assembly Retirement System that because Topinka was paid more in retirement benefits than she contributed to the system over her life, no refund is due. But Joe Topinka, 48, the late comptroller’s only child and a married father of a 6-year-old daughter, said his mother had said the money she put into her pension fund could help her grandchild with education expenses. “I’m just doing my job as executor,” Topinka said. “Let’s just say the board and I don’t agree.” Click to read full story by Bernard Schoenburg of the Springfield Journal-Register