It's pretty simple math. Not enough money coming in, too much money going out.
Fire 1 of 2 city employees.
California too.
Chicago follows the Detroit solution. As the people flee and revenue falls, raise taxes. Works every time.
Since public employees unionized, home ownership has turned into indentured servitude.
The public is now there to service its servants.
I can't help but think that people have been using pension funds like they have the Social Security "lock box."
Who gets to pick up the tab after the unions and whomever else has had their way with the pensions?
The American Taxpayer.
One silver lining of America’s next recession, whenever that occurs - it will probably drive states like Illinois and Connecticut, and cities like Chicago, into bankruptcy.
Watching the leftist nanny-state cronies squirm will be fun to watch.
“Chicago taxpayers, prepare for another kick in the teeth. In fact, it might be a good time to grow fond of the toothless grin.”
Well, that’s some nice writing!
There’s hope for our wordsmiths yet.
Don’t ask me to bail them out.
You Illinois taxpayers are going to have to stop whining about not liking YOUR responsibilities to support your overlords (government employees) and your deserving welfare beneficiaries (who are entitled to your support). You are privileged to support them and you need to recognize that. You need to accept that and to be happy that you are assigned these responsibilities. (Sarc...maybe)
The vast majority of people commenting actually grasp the problem.
The turnip has no more blood to squeeze out.
Period.
You can wish for it, but there is no more money.
One idiot, though, keeps going on about legalizing weed and how it will bring in 500 million dollars in taxes.
500 million is NOTHING compared to the liabilities owed.
The shortfall in is the tens of BILLIONS range.
These disasters are not unique to Chicago and Illinois. Similar situations exist in many cities and states. Louisiana is one with huge unfunded pension liabilities. If you work for the State of Louisiana for 35 years you can retire with 90% of your last three year average salary. This is usually the highest three in a career. This is unsustainable. For most retirees they enjoy a significant increase in take home pay following retirement.
I worked in private industry and the maximum available under our retirement system was 40 years credit and 60% of the average of your highest five year average salary. You could not retire prior to age 55. If you retired prior to age 65 you were penalized 1.5% per year for every year you retired prior to age 65. So if you retired at 55 you got 45% instead of 60%. I retired in 1997 and there have been no COLAs. The only way there will be any is if the board of directors elects to put money into the fund to provide for this good fortune. This is not about to happen. About four or five years ago the company eliminated the pension plan for all new hires. The employees in the plan were grandfathered, but the newbies are on a 401K only.
Just about every government pension plan is a ponzi scheme including the granddaddy of them all—Social Security. It requires all or most all of the current contributions from workers to pay the benefits of the current retirees, and nothing is being put away for the current workers. They are in for a real awakening some day. The cities and states are expecting the federal government to keep everyone whole. There ain’t that much money in the whole world.
Just borrow money from Puerto Rico.
Does a person need billions of dollars to live rich?
Millions will do......over time.
That’s why Democrats love moving billions of dollars around.
A million stolen here. A million stolen there.
Nobody notices and they buy that condo in Kauai.
“A person in the private sector would have to put in $1.4 million into their pension fund to receive a pension package worth $2.4 million.”
It’s less than that. If you start at age 23 and invest until 65, It’s probably about $500k to get $2.4M.