* Mayor Daley is not pleased at all with the pension reform bill and is cranking up the rhetoric against Gov. Pat Quinn…

Much of the Chicago City Council sent a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn [yesterday] urging him not to sign a pension reform bill passed by the General Assembly as Mayor Richard Daley again lambasted the plan.

Daley has been publicly attacking the bill at every opportunity over the past week, saying it would lead to the biggest property tax increase in Chicago history.

Daley said he doesn’t know whether Quinn will listen to Chicago officials’ pleas not to sign the legislation, but he said he and Quinn have different views on raising taxes.

“(Quinn) wants to tax people. What can I do?” Daley said.

Ouch. More…

“This is the highest real estate tax increase in the history of Chicago, and that’s only for fire and police,” Daley said. “If you put the other unions in there, it’s about $1.2 billion in one year. … This will really hit the people. How are you gonna sell your home even if you’re retired? Who would want to buy your home? Buyer beware.”

* Daley even briefly held out the possibility of a pension fund bankruptcy…

“I’m one who believes that pension funds can go bankrupt and then you reorganize, and that’s the hardest thing to say,” Daley said during a panel with other mayors at the Global Metro Summit.

Talking to reporters afterward, Daley said he simply wanted to paint a worst-case scenario if public employees don’t agree to contribute more to help pay for their pensions.

“And in that sense, (bankruptcy is) the end result of something that would take place, but we should not get to that position,” the mayor said.

Asked about using the term “bankruptcy,” Daley said: “Yeah, well, yeah, just in the sense that it comes to financial crisis, you don’t want to get to that. What we’re saying there are solutions prior to that.”

* Here is what this is really all about…

The problem with the reform bill, according to Daley, is the steep increase in mandated municipal contributions to pension funds, beginning in 2015. The bill further mandates that those contributions be paid for via the property tax.

Actually, the bill itself does not mandate that the contributions be paid for via the property tax.

I just got off the phone with Sen. Terry Link, one of the chief sponsors, who says that some staff experts are saying that existing law may actually mandate this be paid for by property taxes. If so, Link says he and the Senate President would be willing to include language in the trailer bill to change this requirement. The trailer bill will also move that 2015 start date to probably 2020.

Maybe now things can quiet down a bit, but don’t hold your breath.

* I don’t spend much time at the Capitol when the General Assembly isn’t in session, but when they returned to town after the election I noticed lots of paint peeling off the walls inside the 3rd Floor dome. Apparently, it’s going to cost the state big bucks to fix…

Fixing peeling paint inside the Capitol dome is going to cost the state more than $137,000. […]

The peeling paint was discovered last summer on part of the interior dome above the Capitol’s third floor. The paint, which is peeling in about a half-dozen spots, is easily visible to the naked eye.

Although the area where the paint is peeling appears to be constructed of stone blocks, it is actually plaster painted to look like stone. […]

Paint on that part of the dome has been subject to peeling before, the last time in 2005. State officials believe high heat and humidity in that part of the building caused the paint to peel. The entire dome acts as a sort of natural chimney in the building.

They’re using a different paint now, so maybe this won’t happen again. I sure hope not. It looks very bad, and the cost is just huge.

* The prison underwear shortage isn’t necessarily the state budget’s fault, but it’s pretty darned weird and it’s causing problems and forcing the state to pay more money…

State prison officials have averted a potential crisis behind bars: A shortage of undies for inmates.

As part of a supply problem rooted in a global surge in cotton prices, the company hired to supply the material for boxer shorts worn by prisoners refused to deliver because it couldn’t make money on its contract.

Facing the prospect of having inmates with no skivvies, state officials this week hired another company to supply the cloth. The new contract is worth $183,800, which is an estimated $50,000 more than what the state had originally planned to spend, according to documents.

An official at the Florida-based company that pulled out of its contract says Illinois isn’t alone.

Robin Resnick, vice president of sales for J, Weinstein & Sons, said the firm has told other states where it does business that the rapid rise in cotton prices means they won’t deliver at prices agreed to in previous years.

Sheesh.

* Related…

* Tax Hike Could Come Sooner Rather Than Later

* Online budget reports to keep taxpayers informed

* State Fails In Its Support For Higher Ed

* Familiar names on pension watch list for DuPage

* Big hurt on the way as Chicago’s pension math comes up short

* State Senator Jones Says Little Progress Made on Illinois Debt, Other Issues