Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Today’s graph

Posted in:

Illinois

* From Bloomberg…

A very well-written story goes along with it, so go read the whole thing.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:05 am

Comments

Great! Here’s proof that it’s the workers’ fault. Those evil workers cheating the taxpayer year after year! s/

Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:13 am
Throw in an actual rate of return and you get……?

Comment by Blue dog dem Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:30 am
The take-away from the story is more cops on the street might help short term but the long term solution is probably more social services and jobs … which doesn’t exactly match up with Rauner’s TA.

But whatever it takes, it will take more money and no one knows where they can get any more money. The first step I would take would be a review of the police department to see how many sworn officers are not on the street and if they could be put back on the street by hiring (presumably cheaper) civilians to backfill whatever they are currently doing. Beyond that, I don’t know what else could be done on the cheap.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:33 am
One thing that wasn’t clear in the story to me is if Chicago has implemented Tier 2 for new hires, and if that was factored into the projections of the pensions requiring 45¢ - 50¢ of every revenue dollar in the future.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:38 am
Wow is this why the Alderman Ed Burke who has been chairman of the Finance committee since the 1980’s was so flustered during the Dan Proft interview the other day?

Not a great record of fiscal stewardship for the Alderman. His solution was to fire talk show hosts who dare to mention any of this.

Comment by Lucky Pierre Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:54 am
Stop funding Chicago pensions and put it into cops on the streets to halt the spreading mayhem. Chicago pensions won’t get fixed under any circumstances. Deal with reality now or the reality worsens.

Comment by WirePoints Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 11:59 am
The amazing results of compounding interest.

Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 12:35 pm
I’m sure someone suggested years ago a subsidiary type police force (armed) paid a good salary but no pension. Good applicants,eg., ex-military police would be abndant. No doubt rebuffed in a heartbeat.

The answer maybe is the citizens hiring private police. I hear that is or will be done in some of the wealthier north side areas. Federal grants to impoverished neighborhoods?

No viable lower cost choices for poor neighborhoods unless they come from the police and their labor unions.

Comment by Cook County Commoner Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 12:42 pm
Looking at the dates on the graph one name springs to mind. Richie Daley.

Comment by striketoo Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 12:46 pm
Here is a question/thought that nobody talks about. Being conservative with the image (can’t be exact) it looks like the great leaders have shorted the pension contributions by 7.4 billion from 2005 to 2014. What did that money end up going to that was so much more important than funding the pensions?

Comment by DHSBob Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 12:52 pm
To thechampainglife:

More like the amazing results of not paying your bills on time, then complaining about the big bill later. Ya’all have gotten a tax break for years. Decades even. All that extra money should have translated into increased growth, revenue and would have paid for itself if you believe the Republican’s world view. Instead of paying down bills, Chicago has built boulevard gardens and little roundabouts in the neighborhoods while the roads have become decrepit - almost third-world levels under Rahm. At least he is trying. Better than Daly.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 12:53 pm
=Stop funding Chicago pensions and put it into cops on the streets to halt the spreading mayhem. Chicago pensions won’t get fixed under any circumstances. Deal with reality now or the reality worsens.=

Great, I’m sure there will be lots of loyalty from the cops who discover they no longer get a pension. Then we have all the science teachers who no longer have a retirement making meth and demanding we call them Heisenberg.

Comment by Carhartt Representative Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:28 pm
That ARC would be much lower now had payments to the plans been in line with the ARC. All those foregone investment earnings.

Daley made huge promises to ensure labor peace throughout his term, and then underfunded those promises so taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for them until he was out of office.

And the money that was available was spent lavishly on pet projects like the scuttled express train to O’Hare, Millenium Park, Soldier Field, and the Riverfront.

He made sure his buddies got paid.

He made sure Chicago got all the goodies and didn’t have to pay for them, until now.

It’s a disgrace. It’s not like he was going to lose if he raised taxes. He just didn’t want people grumbling and he didn’t want anything to slow down his looting of the city coffers.

Daley is the one who did this, but the city’s voters and a media that largely looked the other way were his enablers. The people got a cheap ride for a long time, now it’s going to be really expensive to clean things up.

Comment by jerry 101 Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 1:52 pm
The other thing that isn’t being talked about yet is that the OPEB (Other Post-Employment Benefits) bomb is ticking. In 2018, that bomb will hit the city’s financial statements. Hard. Another massive unfunded liability (the City operates its OPEBs on a Pay-as-you-go basis).

Comment by jerry 101 Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:02 pm
Any system where folks elected for one term can create unfunded contractual obligations than last for generations is going to have problems. Big problems.

Comment by Fred Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:25 pm
The problem is threefold.

1. Those pensions need to be paid
2. There is interest due as a result of not paying.
3. Illinois got used to being able to spend that pension money on whatever they wanted, if they start spending responsibly, that’s a big chunk out of the state budget.

Comment by Carhartt Representative Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:33 pm
Daley did what politicians at all levels have been doing for decades, spend more cash than came into the coffers.

Add Midway airport to the Daley legacy. His best privatisation, partly by accident, was to sell Midway to a group that could not complete the deal when everything crashed. Chicago kept the $200 million down payment and the airport.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 2:45 pm
Use the word Chicago “politicians,” shorted the workers pension fund!

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:01 pm
Daley deserves a lot of the blame, nobody would deny it, but it has certainly not been going in the right direction under Rahm’s stewardship.

Comment by Carhartt Representative Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 3:14 pm
@DHSBOB….

Usually the money went for other pet projects or to keep local taxes low. Filled budget gaps.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:03 pm
“The good news is that Illinois can actually resolve its problems in a very rational way, by simply reamortizing the debt it owes to its own pension systems,” said Ralph Martire. “Illinois, with a level-dollar payment instead of this back loaded ramp we could have, set around $7 to $7.5 billion, can get to 75-80 percent funded–you’re considered healthy at 80 percent–in 30 years, and still pay all of its current obligations over that period of time, to fund benefits to current and future retirees. It’s a workable fix and that’s a number that the state could actually afford.”

Plus, if the tax increase had not been allowed to sunset (Gov. Rauner asked the ILGA to not renew) the state would be in much better shape.

Comment by HRC2016 Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 4:10 pm
== - HRC2016 @ 4:10 pm: ==

Martire’s comments refer to the State pension debt. Because Chicago was allowed to go its’ own way and not participate in TRS (for CPS) and not be part of IMRF (most every other government worker in Chicago), there is a seperate pension shortage debt that Chicago, aka Rahm, has to deal with.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Sep 20, 16 @ 6:18 pm