Ted appeared on Chicago Tonight with Laurence Msall of The Civic Federation and Michael Belsky of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy to discuss the problems with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s upcoming 2020 budget proposal.
Ted said that most pundits and politicians only talk about the taxes they say she’ll need to close the city’s $838 million budget gap. None of them are defending ordinary Chicagoans from more unaffordable hikes. “We’ve got a shrinking city that’s already junk rated – and so is CPS. And we’ve got home values that are negative when you take inflation into account. When you keep taxing more and not have Lightfoot using the bully pulpit to call for major reforms out of Springfield, I think it spells more trouble.”
Read more about Chicago’s financial crisis:
- Chicago’s Pitch For New Bond Refinancing Is Mighty Fishy
- Chicago teachers strike: Why is no one talking about pensions?
- Here is the list of benefits Mayor Lightfoot is offering to the teachers’ union and why it’s terrible for Chicagoans
- Why Chicago’s Lightfoot should push for a pension amendment, not tax hikes
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.
Illinois Teachers have all the power, have all the money and perks and free heathcare, but what is their area of desperate vulnerability? They NEED the love and respect of the people, and from time to time the people are presented with undeniable evidence that teachers are not worthy of love and respect. Evidence of Illinois teachers as rapacious predatory sociopaths includes: Willingness to eat their young: pension entitlements feed on new recruits’ contributions prior to vesting. Why not convert, stop all new defined benefits plans in favor of social security +defined contributions plans like everyone else in America? This… Read more »