Posted on 10/03/2019 7:44:16 AM PDT by george76
Rahm Emanuel raised taxes to get city worker pension funds on a ‘path to solvency.’ The shortfall still ballooned by $7 billion.
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A record-high property tax increase. A new tax on water and sewer service. A higher 911 emergency fee on telephone lines...
Emanuel’s series of tax hikes was painful, but he promised the extra money was part of a plan to get the woefully underfunded city worker pension funds on a “path to solvency.”..
in the four years since .. The pension funds are actually worse off.
When Emanuel pushed through the tax hikes, the city worker retirement funds were about $23 billion short of what they needed to pay future retiree benefits. Now, they’re nearly $30 billion in the hole, a Tribune examination of pension fund reports shows.
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Chicago’s pensions are the most poorly funded of the largest U.S. cities,” the Standard & Poor’s bond rating agency stated in a Sept. 23 report
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History of neglect.
For decades, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley and his predecessors did not contribute enough money to prevent city worker pension funds from losing ground. That allowed them to maintain city services without pushing politically unpopular tax increases — even as they further sweetened pension benefits for employees.
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By the time Emanuel took office in 2011, all four pension funds were on paths to run out of money as soon as 2030.
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The Illinois Supreme Court consistently has ruled the state constitution doesn’t allow for pension benefits to be cut. So Emanuel turned to a series of tax and fee hikes. The monthly 911 fee was increased to free up money for the laborers pension. Property taxes were raised for police and fire pensions. A new water and sewer tax was enacted for the municipal workers pension.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
It’s a scam.
They all know that the next time the Dems get total control in Washington they’ll be implementing the Teresa Ghilarducci solution.
Try cutting expenses first.
He's retired and IRA will remain untouched for 5 years.
Dang...wrong thread!
Guess we don’t have to worry about Rahm running for President anytime soon.
Its funny that Democrats always talk about ‘sustainability’ yet their own policies are not sustainable.
Spend and tax, or is it tax and spend? Any difference?
I know somebody who’s paying cash for new car next year.
*************
It might be smarter to buy a slightly used car. The instant depreciation of a new car is substantial. The moment you sign the contract you’ve lost money.
If a casino is the best you can hope for, you are up shite creek.
Promises of riches from the state’s last gambling expansion fell short. In 2009, Illinois legalized video poker and slots to help fund a $31 billion infrastructure spending program. State lawmakers projected state revenues to reach $1 billion by November 2013. In reality, the state brought in less than $70 million by that date. Five years later, total state revenues were supposed to rise to $2.5 billion, but state coffers only saw $1.4 billion by November 2018.
Taxpayers eventually found themselves burdened with $10 billion in debt – a cautionary tale for those relying on uncertain estimates of future revenues for today’s spending promises.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-illinois-gambling-expansion/
I wonder if they didn’t borrow from the fund to fund other things like social programs for illegals.
if a public servant dies before he retires, take his pension to pay for someone else, other than his children...
after all, they didn’t work for it.
“Two other major ideas to fund pensions are in the mix. Both are less than sure bets. One is a Chicago casino and the other is borrowing.”
And I wouldn’t doubt another idea they have in the back of their devious minds is legalizing prostitution. The state is doomed.
“... they’ll be implementing the Teresa Ghilarducci solution.”
There will be lots of abandoned property seized and sold first, I think. It won’t get them much money, but it will psychologically prepare the workers for the eventual nationalization (civitasation?) of their savings and assets.
Indulge yourself in a fantasy, ask the politicians who oversaw the operation and ye shall receive the truth.
“The Illinois Supreme Court consistently has ruled the state constitution doesn’t allow for pension benefits to be cut.”
And that right there is the problem. Public service unions bought the dem politicians to get this sweetheart deal that screws every Illinois taxpayer to satisfy their own greed.
You just have to wonder what happens when the state becomes “officially” insolvent.
As I keep telling my friends still living back there - and a bunch are counting City of Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois retirement plans - that everything will seem OK until the “reset” happens. And when the reset happens, it will already have happened before they have a chance to do anything. The insiders will have their chance to cash out beforehand but they’ll find that they aren’t insiders. There will just be a “here is the new deal” thing and you’ll have to live with it.
Except the model I want is new this year.
Except the model I want is new this year.
“Chicago’s pensions are the most poorly funded of the largest U.S. cities”
Nothing that is 30 billion “short” should ever be looked at as something that should ever have been funded at all.
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