Posted on 08/04/2016 7:54:59 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday called for a new tax on city water and sewer bills to stabilize the city's largest pension fund, a move he portrayed as his latest tough decision to secure Chicago's financial future.
Emanuel's plan, which would increase the average water and sewer bill by 30 percent over the next four years, was quickly met with resistance from some aldermen who argued the city would be better off adding business taxes or even raising property taxes again to come up with the hundreds of millions of dollars a year needed to keep the city's municipal workers' pension fund from going bust.
Still, Emanuel projected confidence his plan ultimately would win approval in the City Council, which rarely rebuffs the mayor's proposals and has yet to independently provide its own solution to solidify any of the city's four major pension systems that have been woefully underfunded for more than a decade.
In a speech to about 200 financial investors Wednesday, Emanuel unveiled his water and sewer tax plan while making the case to Wall Street that his administration has done the hard work to brighten Chicago's dark financial picture.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
There are always people who would like to become firefighters in particular. In most communities you are more likely to be treated for hemorrhoids than smoke inhalation.
The very first thing that needs to be done is reworking the Federal income tax. If they dropped the ability to deduct state and local taxes from your federal income, without federal deduct ability of local taxes these localities would be forced to live within their means.
As it stands now, low cost states with fiscal responsibility are helping to pay for high tax states through their income taxes.
Why is the pension fund ailing? It’s a government run program.
As to firefighters, here (and in most other cities, I think) they earn their living as EMT's. The fire coverage is something cities must provide, but actual fires are fairly rare. Firemen are assigned collateral duties to fill their time.
Richard J. Daley - 1955-1976,
Michael Anthony Bilandic - 1976-1979,
Jane Margaret Byrne - 1979-1983,
Harold Lee Washington - 1983-1987,
David Duvall Orr - 1987-1987,
Eugene Sawyer - 1987-1989,
Richard M. Daley - 1989-2011,
Rahm Israel Emanuel - 2011 - Present.
Any number of elections had the citizens told that the pension load was unsustainable but the union & minority vote was the key. This case is just one of many poster-children for why public/government unions are a BAD thing! Until the debt bomb, after ever-so-many bond issues and lip-service debt payments, comes due, it is only a cloud on the horizon. Well, it is here and you can bet that Chicago is hoping that a Hillary and Democrat Congress & Senate will NATIONALIZE their debt - "For the little people!"
They are literally taxing the water that falls out of the sky!
Most of these companies could effectively run fire services as well. Some municipalities already contract them out.
The average Paramedic on a Fire department in a large city makes $60, 000 or more a year + overtime and only works 7 24 hr shifts a month. A private Paramedic makes around $35,000 and works 16-10 or 13-12 hour shifts a month. That savings doesn't even bring up the lower costs of health care and retirement.
Solution? Move from IL ASAP.
Chicago...a typical degenerate city run by LIBs/DIMs forever.
it should be required that all govt employees LIVE in the cesspool they create in order to get their payoff, I mean pension....
Another tax - that should do it.
yep you’re right...not one tear when my husband’s company declared “bankruptcy”.....not one...he lost his retirement and his retirement health care....
Rahm Emanuel says you all have to pay off the democrat voters pensions while you cannot save enough to support yourself.
“The people most able to pay will leave 1st. The people left will not pay their water & sewer bills, or the additional tax.”
Yes, that’s exactly how the system of Democrat Decay works.
I’ve heard about things like that. It must be great for resale values.
There is a difference between employee pensions and Social
security. SS is only supposed to cover around 40% of what you need to live on in retirement. (Less if you are a high income wage earner.) Employee pensions are to allow the person to live comfortably in retirement.
Chicago is probably the worst offender, but most pension funds will have issues because of the Fed drive to zero interest rates in support of ever higher deficits & increased borrowing.
Pension fund returns were based on a mix of corporate & gov’t bond returns averaging 5-6% and then stocks providing another couple % for a blended return of 7-8%. Safe basic widow & orphan investments that do not exist today
I thought that, not long ago, there were many in Chicago not paying for such services and the courts were pretty much calling them a constitutional right that couldn’t be turned off for non-payment - wonder how Rahm expects to make money on this instead of just screwing those who actually pay their own way.....
Tax tax tax tax tax tax.
There is no reason why we continue to provide pensions to government employees. It is high time we end these pensions and structure 401k, 403b pension plans for those in government ‘service’. This is what the average American is required to deal with and most often at a much lower rate of salary.
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