“If politicians are serious about giving homeowners property tax relief, they must stop putting off the state’s biggest policy challenge and get down to fixing Illinois’ pension crisis.”

A pension actuary’s viewpoint.

Chicago is reportedly considering a massive new bond offering designed to fund its woefully underfunded pension obligations. City leaders are reportedly briefing city aldermen ‘behind closed doors.’ The bond offering would certainly improve Chicago pension plans’ odds of passing stress tests. But it would also increase the size and risk of the city’s overall balance sheet.

The dispute involves an obscure taxing agency known as a “special service area” or SSA, sometimes referred to as a business improvement district. SSAs were conceived as an economic development tool to allow property owners within a limited geographic area to tax themselves to provide enhanced services. But SSAs also can serve as an under-the-radar source of power and funding for local aldermen from which their allies can bestow contracts and jobs.