Bankrupt Illinois Cities Forced To Cut Services To Fund Pensions

Mish talk ^ | 20 Sept 2019 | Mish

[flamberge]

I gave the two reasons that prevent this.

Nothing prevents this.

The money is gone. So also is the "rule-of-law". Judges will order whatever they please. Might as well order the sun to rise and set at more convenient times. The State simply cannot seize enough assets to deliver on outstanding pension obligations. They certainly cannot collect enough taxes to pay them.

Taxpayers will be driven into bankruptcy and tax-sale foreclosure. When that stops working, pensioners will get the shaft.

What is a Democrat politician ever going to do, if he does not want to end up "swallowing 500 aspirin tablets" - or swinging from a highway overpass?

Under "pretense-of-law", the State may issue unbacked warrants in lieu of cash payments. That could maintain the fiction of pension payments long enough for the politicians to get away safely.

It's gonna end up as "somebody else's problem". Best not to be "that guy".

[FLT-bird]

If you were a taxpayer living in one of those cities.....why would you continue to live and pay taxes there? They take your money to pay for local services and give you NOTHING in return as instead that money goes to pay off retirees who were given lavish retirement packages by long since retired politicians?

There’s nothing in it for you as the taxpayer. Leave. Don’t let them steal another penny from you.

[DUMBGRUNT]

why would you continue to live and pay taxes there?

Moving on is far easier said than done.

Until recently our elderly parents were nearby, also our children and grandchildren live in the area.

Until I retired, had a very good job, unlikely to duplicate.

I have known more than a few that escaped, only to return a few years later, for a variety of reasons.

I only know two in the age fifty -retirement group that made it. And both drive 100-mile one-way commutes every day to work here.
One a horseman with large ranch, the other a gentleman farmer.

[PGalt]

Socialism is Legal Plunder - Bastiat (1801-1850)

[Svartalfiar]

Too bad. The workers did the time. City needs to keep the promises. This will change once the baby boomers are dead. Nobody has pensions like the baby boomers anymore. This generation had it made in the shade.

Escept they way overpromised and now are starting to not be able to deliver. What happens when the cities can't afford it, and go bankrupt? They're unincorporated and turned into county land. Then that city's pensions go to zero! Or is the State gonna come in and bail all of them out?