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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Letting government unions collectively bargain is systematic robbery of taxpayers
The taxpayers approved this in our constitution. It’s not robbery but mutually agreed upon terms of negotiation. You may not like it but the majority of the taxpayers do. It can’t be robbery when both the taxpayers and the union members agree to it. Just more sour grapes from the minority.
Still at it I see
Pay for performance is the only way it should be. If they do not like it they can teach somewhere else. 401 K retirement plans. Teach year round 260 days a year. Time to educate the next generation, they are America’s greatest resource.
If you don’t like Illinois you are free to leave. The rest of the voters want teachers to negotiate fair wages and benefits. Defined benefit guaranteed pensions, paid time off, health care. Time to educate the younger generation that the old geezers want to take away their constitutional rights.
I will teach them how to read a road map to get the hell out of Illinois. They are being cheated out of an education by some of most thankless people on earth. Run for your education and run for your wallet.
Let PPF stay and pay.
Maybe you should read it yourself. Just kidding. We know you have no intention of leaving as complaining about living in Illinois is your favorite hobby.
The link is to an Illinois Policy article about crime and the new police superintendent?
Teacher unions threatening strikes 188 times is not really surprising. It fits the pattern of behavior:
I’ll throw a tantrum if I don’t get my way!
You just don’t understand how hard my life is!
I deserve my allowance, you’re mean for expecting me to do something to earn it!
Any parent recognizes juvenile behavior when they see it.
“I’ll throw a tantrum if I don’t get my way!” Teachers are negotiating their pay and benefits as is their constitutional right. If you offer someone $10 an hour and they won’t do the work for less than $11, everyone is perfectly within their right to not exchange their labor at the reduced price. That’s not throwing a tantrum but just letting the other side know that you will not work for less. You and other union haters believe that an employee has to take whatever is offered or they should just quit. Instead of just quitting, union employees are… Read more »
I don’t hate on the U.S. Constitution.
I remind you again that every authoritarian regime in recent history has carefully made sure to pass laws enabling their goals. Even the former USSR had a constitution giving the Communists lawful authority to proceed with their murderous schemes.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The 10th amendment to the US Constitution provides that states can enact their own laws and constitutional powers. When you hate on the Illinois Constitution you are also hating on the US Constitution. If you don’t like it you are free to organize and get people to change our rules that we all agreed upon. You are also free to move to a location with more appealing rules. Until such time, people… Read more »
The 10th Amendment allows for legalized extortion! That’s a compelling argument.
There is no extortion. You don’t have a right to anyone else’s labor. If you want people to work you will have to negotiate the pay rate. If you don’t come to terms you don’t then get their labor. It’s that simple. Your entitlement attitude is strong.
I don’t think the public has a right to your labor. I also don’t think that you have a right to the job. You made sure the public doesn’t have the right to find others who are willing to work if you find the job too difficult or the pay insufficient. We are compelled to deal with a union that doesn’t seem interested in actually teaching children. At this point, whomever we hired to replace union teachers could hardly do worse. You are aghast at the idea that you should find another job if you don’t like the situation offered.… Read more »
It’s absolutely a celebration of the constitution. The people have decided that public employees have the right to collectively negotiate fair wages and benefits. The people of Illinois have supported and elected politicians that support union employees. You don’t like the outcome of the vote so you throw a child like tantrum. You are compelled to negotiate as required by the people of Illinois. The teachers didn’t require this but the voters of Illinois did. The voters of Illinois have made it very clear that they want labor to have a say in employment terms. It’s nothing more than voters… Read more »
It’s very clear why our schools have descended to the depths they have.
I’m sure the Venezuelans swarming our borders would love to hear your theories about voters creating a worker’s paradise through their votes.
Venezuela’s Welfare Has Run Out. Now They Want Ours September 29, 2022 by Ann Coulter [Snip] How did Venezuela become communist again? As The Martha’s Vineyard Times explained (once the illegals were safely expelled and the island fumigated), Venezuela’s “humanitarian crisis” resulted from that country’s “complicated political and socioeconomic history.” Actually, it’s not that complicated. Poor people in Venezuela voted for it. Oh boy, did they vote for it. The ridiculous peasant Hugo Chavez promised Venezuela’s poor that he would take vengeance on the rich — “the squalid ones” — and give their stuff to the poor. Millions of poor… Read more »
It’s impossible for anybody with half a brain to actually believe this stuff any more. The teachers unions and their cheerleaders are solidly behind it, so there are only 2 possibilities:
1). They don’t have even half a brain or
2). They are greedy, gloating sociopaths who cloak their evil in a disguise of “caring” and legalisms.
I think we can tell who falls into which category.
Free stuff is a seductive ideology for the masses who ain’t got nothing. As we’ve seen in Chicago, it doesn’t even take that many voters to elect leaders who push this stuff. But remember, Hugo Chavez became a billionaire during his presidency. Since he was in charge in redistributing the money, as every good socialist does, he redistributed much to himself. It’s the same story as Animal Farm, and Mao, and nearly every other redistributionist in the history of the world. Anyone who believes that 85 IQ Brandon Johnson will be any different than every other socialist who loots the… Read more »
Seductive for the masses who ain’t got nothing, yes. So what’s the teachers union excuse?
They too think they got nuthin!
Debtsor, Margaret Thatcher said it best in the 80s. The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money.
My big fear is that when Illinois runs out of money they’ll go to the federal government which bails them out and thereby bankrupts the country — just like Venezuela.
You have destroyed the quality of life for millions of people.
That is a fact, say whatever you want, but they are fleeing you in ever increasing numbers. Voting with their feet.
Unions have uplifted the quality of life for millions of people. Better pay and benefits to support their family. Say whatever you want but the Illinois voters continue to support unions.
Leave if you want but Illinois will continue to support unions. Instead you will whine and complain but you’re not going anywhere.
The constitutionality of public sector unions is currently under strong questioning. The massive obstruction to elected officials and government policies will be public union’s undoing not to mention their massive criminal corruption and racketeering. I think that public sector unions will be ultimately deemed unconstitutional. Good riddance and good for the real workers of Illinois and the US: the taxpaying citizenry.
Government employees have the right to freely associate with others just as you do. Nothing in the constitution prevents that and SCOTUS has long held that it is protected by the first amendment. You keep dreaming though. In the meantime, public sector union members will continue to negotiate their best possible pay and benefits as is their constitutional right. What you think has zero meaning in this matter.
Of course people can freely associate with whoever they chose to associate. Even if it’s with career slugs, grifters, thugs, thieves and organized crime mobsters like the leeches of AFSCME, CTU, IFT and SEIU. However, nowhere does the constitution demand that government must collectively bargain with the vermin of Public Sector Unions.
Nowhere does the constitution ban public sector unions from collectively bargaining either. The voters of Illinois have decided that this is a constitutional right. If you don’t like it you can work to change the constitution. The idea that SCOTUS is getting ready to ban public sector unions is laughable. Join the real world.
Illinois school kids, your future is a Chinese boss. Boys, ask your local district to start Mandarian classes when they actually get back to work. This will give you a leg up in your future career as a Cooley.
Girls, I can’t discuss your future in this type of a blog. You could Google on “comfort women” to get the picture.
I get your point and it’s funny but the Chinese won’t be making the natives their slaves. They’d be more likely to colonize us, and then exterminate us.