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.
For mismanaged municipalities, counties, states, etc., there is never enough pain to go around for homeowners or businesses.
No kidding, the public school system along with pensions are the major driver of the increases in tax bills/levies. Who would have ever thought that?
For those of you that are mathematically challenged that is a compound rate of 5.25% per year to CPS while enrollment shrinks!
If you worked in the private sector and experienced a 5% raise for 9 years straight you’d have something to write home about.
I doubt there’s a single privately employed WP reader who has experienced this kind of wage growth. Now you why it’s so hard to get ahead in Chicago by private employment.
Someone starting out of college 30 years ago would have earned a salary around 27 to 30k per year and now would earn around 125 to 139k per year if they received a 5.25% raise each year for the last 30 years. Sorry Joe, but plenty of WP readers earn more than that now. I’m guessing you’ve been out of the workforce for quite some time.
I believe I read where Walmart and Home Depot on the southeast side got tax exemptions while the citizens taxes soared. Those are 2 companies we shouldn’t be holding tag days for