Posted on 05/28/2014 2:42:40 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Chicago residents who are worried about a $250 million property tax hike because of the pension bill Gov. Pat Quinn is weighing don’t know the half of it. Or maybe three-quarters of it.
It’s time Chicagoans confront the fact that there’s a nuclear property tax time bomb already set and ticking away here. There’s the potential for another $600 million property tax increase coming in December to fix police and fire pensions. And then maybe another $696 million needed next year for Chicago Public School pensions.
Back to police and fire. Public Act 096-1495, passed in 2010, reads, in part, “The city council … shall annually levy a tax upon all the taxable property of the municipality at the rate on the dollar which will produce an amount which … will equal a sum sufficient to meet the annual requirements of the police pension fund.”
Yipes. That’s the law for Chicago. The rest of Illinois needs to wake up and confront this, too. Hundreds of police and fire pension funds all around the state are as badly underfunded or worse. Even if they weren’t, Illinoisans need to understand that if Chicago collapses, Illinois sinks with it. Chicago is the powerhouse of the prairie state, period.
That 2010 law that sweetened pension benefits for Chicago police and fire was approved by Springfield politicians before Rahm Emanuel was mayor. Emanuel has insisted he won’t be levying all those property taxes on Chicagoans, but the $250 million compromise for the municipal and laborers pension funds awaits Quinn’s action and there’s no sign of movement on the other two funds with five days left in the spring legislative session. This mess will be pushed right up against the ticking clock after the November election and before the December levy time.
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.suntimes.com ...
I learned a new word today. Thank you.
I don't think you understand. In blue states like Illinois, they have to pass your law first. THEN, once the law is passed, it's the newbies that have to haul down the pirate flag.
The current employees get grandfathered, and get to keep flying the Jolly Roger, along with the retirees.
But who’s going to bail out Illinois?
Yeah, that's kind of in the back of my mind. However, I believe in the "revenue neutral" approach, if it comes to that...
Rats who rent have no idea the amount they pay would go up with a property tax increase. They’re too damned dumb to understand simply math. I know. I’ve tried to explain to a few of them.
Well, then, Illinois will have to add another tax that all of Illinois will pay to support Chicago, because Chicago is such a “powerhouse” for Illinois. Illinois would be nothing without Chicago. Downstate IL is just Chicago’s backyard, don’tcha know. The arrogance. It’s why I left.
They are worried about the sustainability of their economy aka their pensions whether it is Detroit or the GM UAW, nothing was shut off and in GM's case they were moved to the front of the line and NOT shut down or their "contracts" voided. But their Legacy Systems are unsustainable and they would love for us or Obama to pick up the tab. Keep your eye out on the "Grand Bargain" in Michigan for Detroit, how it is structured might be a harbinger of things to come for all of us, and not in a good way....
That will happen when we change governments. I don’t expect the change in my lifetime.
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