Ted talked with Tom Miller of WJPF Radio about Gov. Pritzker’s rejection of Mayor Lightfoot’s proposal for the state to take over Chicago’s pension debt. Ted says there’s some good news to take from that. It means state and Chicago politicians are running out of ways to kick the can on the pension crisis.
Read more about Lightfoot’s proposal and how politicians’ are running out of can-kicks:
- Lightfoot wants state taxpayer bailout of Chicago pension debts
- “Wealthy” Chicago households on the hook for up to $2 million in debt each under progressive approach to pension crisis
- Ignoring the elephant in the room: Mayor Lightfoot skips pension reform
- Rhode Island Supreme Court Shows Illinois The Way On Pension Reform
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
I was looking at LAUSD’s balance sheet and my jaw dropped. It’s insane. $6 billion cash, and $7 billion unfunded pensions and $15 billion unfunded health benefits. I know that half of our lawmakers don’t know how to read a balance sheet but I think the other half don’t know the difference between a debt and an asset.
https://achieve.lausd.net/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/Domain/328/Fiscal%20Year%202017-18/LosAngelesUnifiedRpt18.pdf
One main reason for Chicago’s $15B and the states $73B in unfunded healthcare costs are the astronomical RX drug prices which are paid without question and never negotiated and that the taxpayer is always responsible. Another reason is every medical test known is used to diagnose a broken toenail or ingrown hair as long as some one else pays for it. Public employees should be on the ACA healthcare system with taxpayers only paying for Bronze. If they want Cadillac plan it’s their responsibility. We are taxed out.
I’m surprised it’s ONLY $73b. But I think we need a broader solution which is for the president (any president) to go after the medical monopolies that have been allowed to jack up prices for decades with impunity. Obama’s ACA was nothing more than a band-aid meant to help him get through his 8 years without the risk of the medical system imploding on itself. But nobody in Washington is willing to tackle this issue. This is why I get annoyed when I see dumb people scream about access to health insurance, rather than scream about the actual root problem.
Hank- What are you’re thoughts about Sanders/Warren Medicare for all? Does that alleviate Illinois (taxpayers) responsibility for lifetime healthcare which $73B is probably on the low side. What about Medicaid? The costs should then shift to the entire USA. I’m sure they will “OPT” out of that also.
Sanders and Warren, like the rest, are ignoring the problem — blatant price fixing. If I remember correctly, medical lobbyists have tried to get antitrust exemptions from the feds. What good is another program that doesn’t fix the root problem? You’re just moving it somewhere else to give the illusion of change. Most people won’t need general purpose health insurance if you just bring the damn prices down through transparency and open-market competition.
The catch22 is that the medical system has gotten so bloated, any attempt to end the scam will almost certainly cause a depression.
There may be one self defense against rapacious teachers and administrators who willingly destroy communities for their own narrow self enrichment. TIF -for-All is a mechanism which may be employed by newly minted municipalities, or municipalities scrubbed clean of predatory sociopath political class long enough to institute binding ordinance. TIF-for-All uses the same obscene distortion of statutory intent employed by political class predators now on behalf of their own narrow enrichment and enrichment of their sociopathic whoremasters. However in TIF-for-All, rather than having 35 years of property price inflation-based property tax revenue diverted by political gangsters to their whoremasters and… Read more »