Posted on 08/07/2016 4:44:23 PM PDT by Kaslin
With all the trouble that Rahm Emanuel has been having in Chicago lately, specifically with unrest surrounding his police department and other scandals, it’s easy to forget that he’s dealing with another serious problem: his city is nearly bankrupt. As with so many other large, Democrat run municipalities, the chief culprit here is the massively underfunded pension system for municipal workers. Their unions negotiated some real sweetheart deals for them over the years, but the costs were completely unsustainable. When the city began to go broke, no real compromise was ever offered by the unions so Rahm is left to find some way to shore up the funds.
No problem, kids! Hizzoner will simply jack up the utility rates and let the taxpayers foot the bill even more. (Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel will propose a new utility tax on Chicagoans’ water and sewer bills in an effort to shore up the largest of the city’s ailing pension funds, according to multiple sources who were briefed on the plan Wednesday.
Under Emanuel’s plan, the tax would be phased in over the next four years, with the average homeowners’ bill increasing $50 each year until it reaches $200 in the fourth year, said Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, who was briefed on the plan Wednesday morning. The average Chicago homeowner’s water and sewer bill is $114.30, billed every other month, city officials have said.
You may be wondering why he didn’t simply increase property taxes to cover the pension funds. The answer is that he’s already raised them considerably and his elected officials in the city are getting nervous about being run out of town on a rail if they keep increasing the burden in that fashion. But for middle and lower income residents of an already poverty ridden city, jacking up their water bill by 200 dollars may be a bit much to swallow as well.
What makes this even more of a stereotypical Democrat move is the distinctly non-progressive nature of this plan. At least when you increase the property taxes the wealthy tend to pay a bit more. (I believe Democrats refer to that as “their fair share.”) But the utility bills tend to hit everyone pretty much equally, so the city’s poorest residents will feel the pinch the most. In the end, that’s how these things always seem to work. But more than anything else, this should have been a wake-up call similar to what we thought might happen in Detroit when they were dealing with the same issues. The era of massive pension plans for unionized government workers has led to a case of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. But rather than acknowledging this reality, the unions just continue to push back, demanding every penny they can soak out of the system until it collapses under its own weight.
But hey… you just keep on electing those Democrats, guys. I’m sure it will all work out wonderfully in the end.
It used to be said that Chicago was the second largest Polish city in the world, behind Warsaw.
Yes, right out of the DemocRat play book -— steal, tax, steal, tax, steal, tax....and so on.
Standard solution to all their disasters, incompetence, and crime.
Spot on in going from a wonderful place to live to another Democrat basket case.
Now 3rd largest Mexican city (didn’t know that), but once the 2nd largest Polish city in the world (but that only made it better!).
Cities like Chicago and states like Connecticut will go bankrupt. No amount of taxation can reverse the death spiral they’re in. The rest of the country will be forced to bail them out. Precedent will be set — rinse and repeat for the other Democrat strongholds beholden to public unions. If Clinton wins it could get very ugly.
ROFL!! I’ll be 126 and not NEARLY as interested in politics as I am now :)
That used to be true, not sure anymore. In the early 80's a lot of Polish came over from Poland on tourist visas....then ..........poof.
The women took jobs as maids, (I had one),and the men in the construction trades with a reputation for honesty, competence and hard work.
By the late 80's you couldn't find a Polish maid anymore. They assimilated and moved on to better things. Chicago was a great city then, now it's just Detroit on the lake.
Detroit , here we come ,,,,,Chicago
A toast to Gen. Pulaski!
Many there voted in the govt they deserve I guess. People have voted in the same type of evil, liberal govt here in Calif. It’s become a one party state here and we’re circling the drain because of it. All the state legislature seems to do is pass laws to help keep democrats in power.
Yet does everything it can to suppress the 2A!
Oh, I thought maybe he’d sell the white people for slaves. On second thought, that’s kind of what he’s doing.
Soon to go after these criminals, I hope!
A toast to Gen. Pulaski!
Hear hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He could also increase the tax on gun permits for gangbangers.
$114.30 billed every other month or $57.15 per month looks pretty cheap to me. I am paying just over $80 per month for water and sewer.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
About $60 per month here for my family. Some places include garbage pick up with water and sewage, mine doesn’t. That’s another $50 quarterly from a choose your own contractor.
Say what you want about Michigan but they’ve already done that- in 1996.
CC
MFer, they just stuck a new garbage fee on the water bills. And now more? MFers.
Pay over $200 a month in Florida despite being surrounded by unlimited amount of water.
Really? Cheap? I pay $40 a month for water and sewer....you must live in one of them Democrat run cities.....
Valerie Jarrett STILL Receives A $36K Annual Pension For Part-
Time Chicago Transit job---(does not include lucrative bonding deals)
dailycaller.com ^ | 2/17/2016 | Chuck Ross / FR Posted by rktman
Chicago is known for its L-train. But it's the gravy train that White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett prefers to ride.
In addition to the $173,922 Jarrett earns per annum as President Obama's senior adviser, she is also paid an annual pension of $35,660 for the eight years she served as chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority, according to a Chicago Sun Times investigation.
Jarrett was appointed to chairman of the agency - a part-time position - in 1995 by then-mayor Richard Daley, whose brother, William Daley, served as Obama's chief of staff. Jarrett served as the former mayor's deputy chief of staff and was appointed to numerous other positions during his term. (Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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Wonder how many transportation bonds were issued while Jarrett was at Chicago Transit? Her pension payout would pale against her hidden income from lucrative Chicago bond deals.
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More on Chi/go's bonding scams.
A muni-bond expert exposed Chicagos bond financing scheme as a house of cards. An examination of the city's bond documents uncovered taxpayers paying billions for greedy politicians shady financial legerdemain, including:
<><>(1) using long-term financing to cover day-to-day expenses,
<><>(2) using bond proceeds to pay pension obligations, and,
<><> (3) misappropriating returns from the interest rate swap portfolio (a sub rosa ATM for paying the citys day to day expenses).
The stench from Chicago's poplitical sleaze is permeating the putrid city hall air... starting w/ Obama's ex-COS Chi/Mayor Rahm Emanuel. ....and remember, these kingpins of Chicago criminal politics moved into DC with Chicago kingpin Barack Obama.
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ANALYSIS Bonding is eternal taxation----the insider deals bonding companies made w/ shady pols to get bonding business would tell a tale of greedy pols accumulating riches through massive govt corruption.If these bonding deals were effectuated by way of referendum at the ballot box----and misled investors into buying tax-fee muni bonds----the SEC would be interested.
EMAIL enforcement@sec.gov
Massive govt corruption might include forgery, falsification of official records, fraudulent state budget entries, tax evasion, illegal wire-transfers, misuse of public office.
Tax-exempt municipal bond investors (including public education bond investors)-- have legal grounds to sue if they were deceived about deceptive bond offerings. In many cases, bond issues are approved by voters---at the ballot box--so that voters may have also been misled WRT uses of fraudulent bond offerings.
Also culpable are:
<><> bonding companies underwriting possible fraudulent bond issues;
<><> banks holding possibly fraudulent bond proceeds;
<><> State/city's modus operandi in allocating tax-exempt bond proceeds,
<><> the sub rosa acceptance of bond proceeds.
<><> state/city vendors accepting possible fraudulent bond proceeds.
<><> publicly-funded state/city agencies advocating the uses of fraudulent bond proceeds.
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The SEC, FBI, banking overight agencies, and the IRS, would be interested in the activities of state/city entities WRT bonding.
EMAIL---FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
EMAIL--enforcement@SEC.gov
Contact the IRS Fraud Unit
EMAIL Banking oversight agencies
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Taxpayers should find out which Chicago banks are facilitating this.
<><> Which banks are designated the official repositories of municipal tax dollars.
<><> Which banks are dispensing the ill-gotten proceeds....and to whom.
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