91 Comments - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:13 am: ===During the campaign, Emanuel attacked his runoff challenger, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, for voting for the Washington-era property tax hike. Now Emanuel is weighing a property tax hike that could triple the one his opponent backed.=== “During the campaign, Bruce Rauner attacked Pat Quinn and the Democrats for voting for a 67% income tax increase. Now Rauner is weighing an income tax hike that could be the same or even higher the one his opponent backed.” … and all the GOP GA will be green. - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:16 am: Should have done it years ago. - Amalia - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:18 am: Chicago has to think long and hard about how it delivers services to the public. the building binge of libraries and senior centers and police district buildings and new park buildings cements the notion that all of this can continue to be paid for. it’s folly. - Corporate Thug - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:20 am: About time. 100% agree with Cynic. This has been coming for years. Chickens coming home. - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:21 am: It probably needs to be done and I admire the Mayor for his political courage. So rare in Illinois - Judgment Day (on the road) - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:25 am: Hummmm, interesting… So yesterday’s Springfield news is …. AFSCME loses. So today’s news is - big Chicago tax hikes in your future. -and- “Emanuel has offered to raise property taxes by an additional $170 million for the schools, but only if teachers accept the equivalent of a 7 percent pay cut and the state reimburses CPS for “normal” pension costs. […] But sources said the mayor is unwilling to put that money on the table until the union and the Illinois General Assembly step up to the plate. That will obviously have to wait until the budget stalemate between Democratic legislative leaders and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has been resolved.” Which potentially means that yesterday’s vote just became understandable…. 1) IF CTU doesn’t play ball, then they should take a look what’s likely to happen to AFSCME. Or CTU can find a reasonable compromise. CTU’s choice…. 2) What if Rauner’s intent is to shave enough off of AFSCME to fund the resources necessary for the State’s share of the CPS ‘bailout’. Nah, not happening. That’s all a conspiracy theorist at work. Couldn’t possibly….. - Father Ted - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:29 am: It’s never fun to pay more, but it’s a necessary step toward better financial solvency. I think a lot of people would feel better if the Emanuel administration could point to major efficiencies and reasonable spending cuts to address the other side of the balance sheet. If that has been part of the message, I apologize because I have not heard it. - A guy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:33 am: Catching up is a painful step. It’s steep and necessary, but a tough pill to swallow. There’s more of this coming to a muni near everyone. - phocion - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:33 am: Good for the Mayor - leadership means hard choices. This gives him some great moral authority when negotiating with both CTU and in Springfield. - Former Federal Prosecutor - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:35 am: Yes, finally - FINALLY - Chicago starts talking about raising taxes. Because if there is one thing that city doesn’t have enough of, it’s taxes. - The Captain - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:41 am: Six months ago it was apparent that the state, Cook County board and Chicago were all looking down the barrel at tax increases. None would/will be easy to pass but going last is going to be the most difficult because the anger and opposition will aggregate. Yet state leaders decided to go past their traditional May 31st end date and now they’ll go last, it’s hard to find any examples where this year’s session hasn’t been the worst case scenario for each of the issues in play. - Mason born - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:41 am: Willy Still hoping that one GOP Senator gets to vote no. Even if for no other reason than seeing the look on Radagno and companies face when he does and they can’t. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:43 am: ===Catching up is a painful step. It’s steep and necessary, but a tough pill to swallow. There’s more of this coming to a muni near everyone. === Um, - A Guy -, Rauner wants a property tax freeze. Is that a lie? It’s not going to happen? - Alas - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:44 am: It would have been courageous to speak openly and honestly about Chicago’s finances during the recent mayoral election, but Rahm Emanuel engaged in the usual duck and dodge, smoke and mirrors type of campaign while spending massive sums to be reelected. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:44 am: ===Still hoping that one GOP Senator gets to vote no. Even if for no other reason than seeing the look on Radagno and companies face when he does and they can’t.=== If Cullerton gave “that one GOP senator” a pass, that would be Cullerton doing a solid for a well-earned break. - A guy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:51 am: Jeesh Willy. I think I read about taxes beyond property taxes going up in this article too. I’ll have to read it again. May I suggest you do as well. If we vape together in the future, it’s gonna cost us buddy. Not to mention just about anything else we do together or alone. lol - Gooner - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:51 am: Courage? Hard choices? The Mayor bashed his opponent for allegedly wanting to do exactly what the Mayor is now proposing. You don’t get points for courage when you flip on an issue that was obvious to all for years. The Spring was when we should have had a real debate over taxes. The Mayor refused. Great. Now let him live up to his campaign and balance the budget without this increase. - Waucondan - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:52 am: I’m not opposed to taxing cigarettes more than other things. But if you’re getting to a number like the equivalent of $7 per pack you’re driving purchases out of the city and creating a black market. What are the taxes on a pack of cigs in Chicago? - Keyrock - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:56 am: “It probably needs to be done and I admire the Mayor for his political courage. So rare in Illinois.” It would have been courage if Rahm did it 4 years ago when it was clearly necessary. Now, when he has no choice (due in part to the bond ratings), it’s just the overdue facing of reality. - cdog - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:58 am: In the Springfield area we pay around 2% of assessed market value for property taxes. Example– $250,000 market value assessment will pay around $5000 in property taxes. What is that percentage in Chicago? - Bluefish - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:59 am: “There’s more of this coming to a muni near everyone. ” Not really. Most towns have been very responsible about making sure that their revenues keep up their expenditures or that expenditures are cut to match revenues. Chicago, on the other hand, has long over-relied on financial slights of hand to avoid reality. That bag of tricks is now empty. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 11:59 am: - A Guy -, The $500 million in property taxes… I thought Gov. Rauner wanted to freeze property taxes. Is that a lie? Property taxes won’t be frozen? - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:00 pm: So courage is again using regressive taxes to raise the needed money. This property tax increase will also conveniently increase the size of the mayor’s TIF slush fund. Also, while money is needed for basic education services, why do we need money for new school construction? The population is shrinking and you just shut down 50 schools. The mayor is the one not putting skin in the game. Since Claypool has been in power, CPS has cut 12 people from central office and hired 5 new people making twice as much. That’s not really a substantial cost savings. The teachers won’t take a 7% pay cut and I doubt that downstate will come through the way the mayor is hoping too. Now, what was it he said about Chuy? That our credit would get downgraded and he’d raise property taxes? Good thing Rahm was reelected. - Strangerthings - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:05 pm: It’s still pointless if you aren’t willing to give anything up at the same time. If you raise taxes and cut some not a lot but some spending. Then you have extra money to pay debts and suddenly over a series of years you pay off debts your ratings go up and by some completely normal obvious miracle you have a city with a solid future where you can afford to pay your teachers and public employees what they are worth. Where because you are a financially sound city you attract businesses that in turn means more public employees on pay rolls to run the bureaucracy. Or am I delusional and all of this is crap? - A guy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:07 pm: ==Property taxes won’t be frozen?== We’ll see Willy. All we’ve had so far is one charade vote on this. It takes two parties to wreck a perfectly good tango. lol - dr. reason a, goodwin - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:12 pm: I’m not an expert on this, but haven’t I heard that the big dollar commercial properties downtown are woefully under assessed? Isn’t that a solution? - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:12 pm: - A Guy -, Emanuel is preparing to raise property taxes. What is Rahm missing? I mean, why come out and say I’m going to raise property taxes by a half a billion dollars if honestly there will be a property tax freeze that will blow up this tax plan. So… Is the property tax freeze a lie? - A guy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:30 pm: Willy, I think the Mayor is going to raise property taxes. I think he has to. I don’t think anyone is going to stop him. Call it an old truth or a new lie if you like. You know better. - nixit71 - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:33 pm: ==I’m not an expert on this, but haven’t I heard that the big dollar commercial properties downtown are woefully under assessed?== You’ll have to ask the good folks at Madigan & Getzendanner. But give them a couple of days. One of the partners is busy attempting to count up to 71. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:34 pm: ===Willy, I think the Mayor is going to raise property taxes. I think he has to. I don’t think anyone is going to stop him.=== I figured Gov. Rauner would tell the Mayor; Don’t raise property taxes. I mean Candidate Rauner told us all, we need to freeze property taxes. I am sure the Governor will come out and bash the property tax increase, right? - From the 'Dale to HP - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:34 pm: Courage? Hard choices? Rahm put this off for four years and only made everything worse. This isn’t a hard choice, this is him trying to save his behind. - Team Sleep - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:40 pm: During session, I listened to Senator Raoul talk with heartfelt sentiment about how hard he worked and how long it too to get the body cam bill passed. You could tell that it was a labor of love. This. Nope. - Sue - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:41 pm: Seems like the entire tax haul coming out of the proposed hike is dedicated to pensions.. Add the hike the not the highest sales tax in the country and all of this makes Chicago one great place to think about moving to- doesn’t it? - Treble Damages - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:41 pm: == I think the Mayor is going to raise property taxes.== City Council needs to raise property taxes. It was a big step for the Mayor to call for them but given the profiles in courage displayed by the city council over the last two decades on property taxes - and the belief that Rahm is off to DC (along with his huge out of state funded war chest) if HRC becomes President - property tax hikes asked for by the mayor of the city council should definitely not be taken for granted. - Waucondan - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:42 pm: Maybe he needs to get in his tax hike before property taxes are frozen. How does the timing of that work? He raises property taxes then a state law freezes them so residents at least have some security in know the pain is priced in. If they raise taxes now does that get the city ahead of a tax freeze? - A guy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:43 pm: ===I am sure the Governor will come out and bash the property tax increase, right?=== Don’t know Willy. I sure hope not. - nixit71 - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:45 pm: ==Add the hike the not the highest sales tax in the country and all of this makes Chicago one great place to think about moving to- doesn’t it?== As long as Chicago doesn’t scare away Chad and Trixie, they’ll be fine. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:50 pm: === ===I am sure the Governor will come out and bash the property tax increase, right?=== Don’t know Willy. I sure hope not.=== Maybe because the Governor as Candidate Rauner said that property taxes being frozen is critical. Now it’s not? - OneMan - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:57 pm: I mean who didn’t see this coming? From what I understand we have one of the highest municipal property tax rates in the sate (if not the highest) in Aurora and we muddle through and pay for garbage pickup. As for a freeze, I have to say I have never been a huge fan of that one. If your local folks (like mine) want to keep raising property taxes, try and vote them out. There is stuff that Springfield should deal with, this isn’t one of them. - Rusty618 - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:57 pm: Chicago only pays property taxes based on 1/6 the assessed value, while the rest of the state pays on 1/3 the assessed value. I guess it’s time to catch up. - Original Rambler - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:58 pm: My only surprise is it’s not higher. He is paying for the sins of the past, mostly RMD but also his since he waited 4 years. I’ve also come to peace that I’m paying now for services I utilized in the past. No way to run a city but it’s what we’re stuck with. I also voted for Rahm knowing this. I would rather him administer this than Chuy. - ejhickey - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:01 pm: I wonder if these increases are enough? I fear that they may be insufficient to deal with the size of the deficits and debts. Perhaps chicago shoud consider a city income tax on both residents and anyone who works in the city - Midway Gardens - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:09 pm: Cdog - Tax Assessor’s property is value $289K. Taxes are based on 10% of this or $28.9 (rate is 25% for commercial property). State puts an equalization factor of 2.7253 bringing the equalized assessed value to $78.8K. Market value actually around $400K. Tax before exemptions (homeowners / senior), $5.4K. About 1.3% of true market value. Local tax rate is 6.8% of equalized assessed value. That 6.8% is not just the city. The City itself has a rate of 1.473. This excludes library (.134), park (.401), museum (.014), water reclamation (.430). Community college .193, BOE (3.66) and school building fund (.146). And there are Cook County taxes… - Rod - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:09 pm: edog the Civic Federation has done an evaluation similar to what you want in relation to property taxes in the City of Chicago you can find it on their website. So using the simple example in the article I figure my one family home in Andersonville on the north side of Chicago will see a property tax increase of about $1,500 a year. That will take us up but still well below the taxation rate in towns like Evanston or Oak Park. But the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet and that will be the CPS rate increase above the cap which the Mayor now wants to lift, I agree with him on that, because the amount the City will transfer to CPS for capital projects will be no where near enough to stabilize the system. It would be a waste of the CTU’s time to agree to the grand bargain on the pension pick up issue because they would still face cuts. The other problem with this proposal is CPS needs to be controlled by the voters of Chicago especially if they are going to be increasing their property tax rates significantly, which they will have to do even with spending reductions. As we all know it is the only appointed school board in the state. Clearly there is deep concern over an elected school board being fiscally out of control, but hasn’t the unelected board been out of control now for many years? None the less I believe any move towards an elected school board in Chicago has to include an incredibly strong independent Inspector General’s office along with some type of fiscal oversight entity to determine if the district does indeed have a balanced and sustainable budget. - Treble Damages - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:13 pm: ==Seems like the entire tax haul coming out of the proposed hike is dedicated to pensions.. Add the hike the not the highest sales tax in the country and all of this makes Chicago one great place to think about moving to- doesn’t it?== Agreed - which makes it a very tough vote for a city council member. A voter is hit with the largest tax hike in Chicago’s history and in return the voter gets larger class sizes, less police, dirtier streets, less park programs, etc. That’s the problem with putting off addressing debt - now city council members will need to pass the largest tax hike in Chicago’s history (and it’s just the beginning) and in return, the voters get nothing (or cuts) except debt payments. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:15 pm: - nixit71 - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 12:45 pm: ==Add the hike the not the highest sales tax in the country and all of this makes Chicago one great place to think about moving to- doesn’t it?== As long as Chicago doesn’t scare away Chad and Trixie, they’ll be fine. Exellent point. This will not stop well educated young adults from moving to Chicago. For a large urban city in the US, Chicago is a bargain. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:17 pm: So using the simple example in the article I figure my one family home in Andersonville on the north side of Chicago will see a property tax increase of about $1,500 a year. Very similar to my situation. We’ll be fine. Now we just need the unionized city workers to start paying for their benefits. - nona - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:23 pm: Neither candidate Rahm nor Rauner spoke honestly about taxes during their campaigns. Post-election tax hikes of this magnitude fuel public cynicism about pols. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:28 pm: ==Seems like the entire tax haul coming out of the proposed hike is dedicated to pensions== Umm, isn’t that a bill that has to be paid? Do you have a problem paying the bills? The Supreme Court made it pretty clear these things have to be paid. So, we can figure out a way to pay them, or we can be like you and continue to whine about them. I think I’ll chose the former. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:29 pm: Neither candidate Rahm nor Rauner spoke honestly about taxes during their campaigns. Post-election tax hikes of this magnitude fuel public cynicism about pols. People are stupid if they didn’t think tax hikes are coming. The issue is, who do you trust more with our tax money? Chuy or Rahm? Quinne or Rauner? - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:37 pm: Rahm should also be reducing head count at the City. - Midway Gardens - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:46 pm: Rod, an elected school board got us into the last crisis. No silver bullet. Add that the CTU will push to get their people as a majority in an elected school board and that would deepen rather than solve the problem. - Treble Damages - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 1:54 pm: ==we can figure out a way to pay them, or we can be like you and continue to whine about them.== Voters have more than these two choices. Voters can also vote aldermen out of office and, like they did in the D-City that I will not mention, they can simply move to the suburbs (or out of state) if there property taxes paid do not give them the quality of life they expect for the money they will be shelling out in new taxes to over debts that they themselves do not feel they incurred to pay debt for retirement benefits they themselves will never receive. A little sympathy for the taxpayer will go a long way here in slowly digging Chicago out of its massive debt hole. If taxpayers are abused, they tend to vote with their feet. RM had a good post on this phenomena a few days ago on how much wealth Illinois has lost by recent transfers of population out of state. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:06 pm: The state is hemmoragimg people. Chicago is actually doing quite well. It is losing lower income folks and relaxing them with highly educated and highly compensated. - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:08 pm: =Very similar to my situation. We’ll be fine. Now we just need the unionized city workers to start paying for their benefits.= The unionized city workers have been paying for their benefits. The city has not. In the last 10 years, Chicago has paid One Billion Dollars for teacher pensions. Actuarially, they should have paid Four. Social Security would have cost them Two. Meanwhile, the CPS teachers have been making their payments. The situation isn’t much different for police or fire. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:09 pm: Relaxing should read replacing. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:10 pm: Pensions should be eliminated going forward. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:11 pm: ==Pensions should be eliminated going forward.== Eliminated? Entirely? That’s absurd. - Treble Damages - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:12 pm: Tone - I saw that article as well. I think the story said that the new arrivals were highly educated but not highly compensated. - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:12 pm: =Rod, an elected school board got us into the last crisis. No silver bullet. Add that the CTU will push to get their people as a majority in an elected school board and that would deepen rather than solve the problem.= Yes, because Rahm’s big money backers will sit this one out. The bankers Rahm have appointed to the school board have made this problem. Look at Tim Cawley’s toxic swaps. The conflict interests are just as frequent with the monied interest Rahm likes and they’re more expensive. http://hpherald.com/2014/12/03/its-time-for-an-elected-board/ - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:13 pm: =Pensions should be eliminated going forward.= So instead of the one billion the city paid the pension fund, they should have had to put two billion into social security? - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:19 pm: Yes, eliminated. Defined contribution. - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:20 pm: People like Tone would just like others (not him) to work and then die. It’s nasty to have to make up the money (other peoples’ retirement money) that you’ve enjoyed with lower taxes. But it’s time to pay them back. And as for teachers taking a 7% pay cut, on top of increased taxes????? My advice, get out. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:23 pm: ==Yes, eliminated. Defined contribution.== And that saves money how? You still have the liabilities of the current pension system to deal with, plus now you have additional funds necessary for social security and for the employer portion (unless you don’t believe the employer should also contribute). I’d suggest you do the math before you make proposals. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:25 pm: It won’t save money now, but it will helpy children. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:25 pm: ==A little sympathy for the taxpayer will go a long way here in slowly digging Chicago out of its massive debt hole== I have no idea what that means. Who knew that sympathy was the cure for our problems? - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:26 pm: You know you could only do Defined Contribution for new employees right? - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:29 pm: Yes, but at least save future generations from the union pigs. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:30 pm: Bad form - Tone -. Bad form. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:31 pm: ==from the union pigs== And there we have it. Everything else you said just went out the window with that little gem. The true hate comes out. - Wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:39 pm: So Tone, I take it you trust the candidates who lied about taxes during the campaign rather than those who were honest about the issue? Lying earns trust in your world? - Alas - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:57 pm: Chicago would be closing more schools apart from the arrival of numerous immigrants in the “sanctuary city.” The children of the new residents are crowding the public schools. Long time residents are not using the CPS quite so much. - Alas - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:01 pm: ” Chicago only pays property taxes based on 1/6 the assessed value, while the rest of the state pays on 1/3 the assessed value. I guess it’s time to catch up.” Isn’t that the purpose behind the state equalization factor being computed into property taxes? - Sue - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:22 pm: Demoralized- your positions would have more merit if the pension participants at least agreed to pay for their own employee contributions rather then continue with the pick-ups. Employer pick-ups are more the rule then the exception. So let’s see, our hard working public servants get a total free ride on their pension costs and then if they reside in Illinois escape income tax on the receipt of the benefit at least as far as state taxes go - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:33 pm: =Demoralized- your positions would have more merit if the pension participants at least agreed to pay for their own employee contributions rather then continue with the pick-ups. Employer pick-ups are more the rule then the exception. So let’s see, our hard working public servants get a total free ride on their pension costs and then if they reside in Illinois escape income tax on the receipt of the benefit at least as far as state taxes go= How is it a free ride if the employees pay their share and the employer gets a pension holiday and makes no payments. The employer pension pick up was a Godsend for the city, who would have had to pay actual money if CTU hadn’t agreed to the pension pickup. 60% of the suburban districts now do basically the same thing. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:34 pm: ==Demoralized- your positions would have more merit== I’m not sure what you mean by that. Does my position that the pension liability has to be paid somehow lack merit? Because the Supreme Court said it, not me. ==our hard working public servants get a total free ride on their pension costs== No, all public servants don’t get a free ride on their pensions. Are you speaking of CTU exclusively here? Also, you act as if these public employees live in a vacuum and are somehow not subject to the same taxes as everyone else. ==and then if they reside in Illinois escape income tax on the receipt of the benefit== All retirement income “escapes” the Illinois income tax. That isn’t unique to public employee retirees - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:41 pm: “- Treble Damages - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 2:12 pm: Tone - I saw that article as well. I think the story said that the new arrivals were highly educated but not highly compensated.” I don’t think the study talked about income levels of the highly educated new comers. But you can look at the census for that. The fastest growing income demographic is households of $100K+ income levels. - chi - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:43 pm: Oh man- who will save future generations from the Tone’s of the world?? - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:46 pm: I am not a leach to taxpayers. I am a net contributor. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 3:48 pm: Tone, you’ve reverted to troll status. - Sue - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 4:13 pm: Car hart-you assume the employees pay their fare share when in reality most public sector employees benefit from the employer pickup - Amalia - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 4:39 pm: reducing head count does not even begin to get at the issues with government budgets. what the Lt. Gov..is doing…if she is doing it..is truly important. the only way to move forward with fiscal integrity is to take a good long hard look at government structure via jurisdictional mergers, and structure of services, especially from which geographic locations services are delivered. People get attached to their school (see Dyett)/park/police section/library and the personnel who work at each place. the personnel want to stay there. mayhem in labor and, especially, parent protests ensues even when the location is not functioning or in the case of Dyett, 15 students in a senior class. business would not remotely function that way and while government is not business, the business of government has to get more virtual, fiscally nimble, and in the process lower all costs, including personnel. - Jack - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 4:47 pm: When is there ever going to be political will to raise taxes of the wealthy elite and put an end to corporate welfare. - Tone - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 4:57 pm: Taxes are being raised on the wealthy. They typically pay a lot in RE taxes. - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 5:01 pm: ==you assume the employees pay their fare share when in reality most public sector employees benefit from the employer pickup== Most public employees do pay into the retirement fund. You want to absolve the employer from having to pay anything? I’m not getting your argument here. - Very Fed Up - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 6:08 pm: Knew this was coming. Already highest sales tax in the nation, property taxes now. Next order of business will be to double the state income tax - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 6:33 pm: You see, Demoralized, that in the minds of some taxpayers (apparently public employees, say teachers are NOT net contributors because they apparently don’t pay any taxes, as in…..ever /s) the money they paid in taxes is always and everlastingly their money. They dole it out to those in public service, but gosh darn it, it is their money. Of course, when those public servants purchase goods and services with money, somehow, it doesn’t count that those businesses are taking money away from the pockets of those public servants. It’s really hard to understand that warped mentality but I think we see some of it routinely by haters on this blog. The same haters that fed at the trough of what public servants gave them. - Just Me - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 7:34 pm: The Alderman debate on Chicago Tonight was like watching my high school debate team, especially the fight between Moreno and Waguespack was especially precious. - Cathartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 8:49 pm: Sue, the teachers have made their payments. The city has not. If the city even put in what they would have been required to put in for social security, the situation would be much rosier. - RNUG - Thursday, Sep 3, 15 @ 10:45 pm: == you assume the employees pay their fare share when in reality most public sector employees benefit from the employer pickup == That varies by governmental unit. Quite a few school districts pick up the employee portion. Lots of municipalities don’t. The State doesn’t for SERS, although they did for a few years before reneging on the deal they had struck. You need to understand that an employer picking up the employee contribution IN PLACE OF giving out a raise is actually a net gain for the employer and taxpayer. Doing so results in both an immediate cash savings on salaries AND a lower salary base that is used to calculate the eventual pension. That’s not blowing smoke; that is an actual fiscal fact. If you don’t believe me, ask Steve Schnorf … he was one of the architects of the State’s temporary pickup that would have actually reduced the pension liability IF the State had kept paying in the employer portion also, which they didn’t. However, the State reneged on the deal and then the State had to shell out the skipped raise(s) to make the unions whole, which partially undid the initial savings. - Alas - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 8:27 am: After the tax bombshell was announced, Rahm Emanuel made another public appearance at Wright College on Thursday, surrounded by police officers. Members of the general public were irate and some cursed at the mayor. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.