Chicago Weekly Crime Tracker – Wirepoints
April 16, 2024
77 Comments
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/14/2024.
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$30 million over four years: How teachers unions influence Illinois politicians. – Wirepoints
April 15, 2024
20 Comments
If you’re frustrated with Illinois’ educational results, you may want to follow the money from teachers unions. In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates.
One tricky way Illinois politicians are hiking your taxes – Wirepoints
April 13, 2024
22 Comments
Lawmakers conveniently ignore the full impact of inflation when it comes to ordinary Illinoisans. Take the personal exemption on the state income tax. For tax year 2023, the exemption will not rise with inflation as it should under current law. And that means a higher tax bill for everyone.
We must focus on cutting the cost drivers of Illinois property taxes if we’re ever going to deliver relief to taxpayers – Wirepoints testifies to the IL House Revenue and Finance Committee 4.10.24
April 11, 2024
57 Comments
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Pensions are the single biggest finance problem Chicago has…and it’s only getting worse – Wirepoints on WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show
April 11, 2024
16 Comments
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
If only Ill could restrict pensions to ONLY those who live in ILL. Given the excessive level of the promised pensions and the lack of revenue to pay for them, eventually all but Public Sector workers/retirees would move out of State, and we would reach an equilibrium. Taxes assessed against the workers/retirees would reach a level sufficient to pay for their own overstuffed pensions (AND benefits).
As that commercial says ……. “Voila, problem solved”
If Tier 1 benefits are the problem, freeze all Tier 1 benefits across the board in all state entities. Incentivize school districts to freeze Tier 1 salaries by tying their state funding to any freeze. For example, every $1 in increased Tier 1 compensation results in $5 loss in state funding. Or force the local school district to provide a matching contribution to the retirement system for every $1 raise (or whatever the normal cost would be).
Right that the problem is Tier 1. All unfunded liabilities are for Tier 1 work already performed.
Right, but we’ve still got 25-30 years of Tier 1 benefits to accrue. Those costs should be reigned in ASAP. The only way to control them is via salaries and health benefits.
Yes, thanks for that important addition. It’s inexcusable that we haven’t addressed that.
Issue a “promissory note” to the pensions? I literally laughed out loud. Rich Miller has to be the most obtuse writer that Illinois has among a collection of some real trophies. He is Illinois’ version of Paul Krugman, but only missing the economics degree and the brain (and I don’t think Krugman is all that, either). With ideas like this, why, we could solve ALL of Illinois’ problems overnight! Why didn’t any of the rest of us think of this?! In seriousness, I like where the democrats are going, here. They are playing the smoke and mirrors game (again), essentially… Read more »