Tag: Richard Daley

More Bad News on the Pension Crisis

If I was Rahm I would so totally throw Daley under the bus on this issue.

The debt from 10 Chicago-area pension plans swelled more than 600 percent to $27.4 billion between 2001 and 2010, according to a study released Monday by the nonpartisan Civic Federation. That’s $8,993 for each man, woman and child in Chicago, according to the report.

The shortfall comes on top of more than $83 billion in unfunded pension liabilities at the state level, driving the cost up to nearly $15,000 per Chicagoan, the report shows.

via chicagotribune.com.

Shear insanity.

 

Chicago Aldermen: White Collar Criminals

An analysis of pension fund documents for 21 aldermen who retired under the plan shows they are in line to receive nearly $58 million during their expected lifetimes, though contributions and assumed investment returns are predicted to cover just $19 million, or a third of that sum.

The pension deal was inked more than two decades ago, but the costs began to kick in recently. Most of the 21 aldermen in the Tribune/WGN-TV analysis have retired within the past five years, and there are 53 more in the pipeline.

Former Ald. Thomas Allen is a prime example. After retiring from the City Council in 2010 at age 58, Allen went on to become a Circuit Court judge while also collecting roughly $90,000 a year from his city pension. During his lifetime, he stands to receive more than $4.2 million in benefits, though contributions and assumed investment returns are expected to cover only $1 million.

via Chicago Tribune.

We’re doomed.  Chicago will not be able to sustain itself under this kind of dead weight.  The taxpayers are going to be asked to provide more and more payments for services they will not receive.

Glad the Tribune is on the story now… but where has it been for the last 20 years?  Where’s the Sun-Times (the “Bright One”) on this?

We’re going bankrupt and no one cares.

IL, 3rd Worst for Business …again

Let’s first get some background on the winners:

In Chief Executive’s eighth annual survey of CEO opinion of Best and Worst States in which to do business, Texas easily clinched the No. 1 rank, the eighth successive time it has done so. California earns the dubious honor of being ranked dead last for the eighth consecutive year.  …

Florida moved up from number three last year to number two. Last year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott penned a tongue-in-cheek letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, warning him that Florida is coming after the Lone Star State’s top ranking. Since Scott took office, his administration has enacted business tax and regulatory reforms that have contributed to the creation of more than 140,000 private sector jobs and an unemployment drop of 2.1 percentage points last year—one of the biggest decreases in the nation.It is perhaps no coincidence that Texas and Florida have the highest net migration of people to their states from 2001 to 2009. (By contrast, New York and California lost over 1.6 million and 1.5 million in net migration out of the states, respectively, over the same period.) People migrate in search of employment, but this can cut both ways. Texas is justly proud of adding to its employment numbers, something Gov. Perry cited numerous times during his brief campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination. Between June 2009—which marked the official end of the recession—and July 2011, the number of jobs increased in the state by 328,000. Nationally, the job growth in that time period was 697,000 according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This translates to Texas jobs making up 47 percent of the national net job creation. However, neither Texas, nor the nation, is adding jobs at a pace fast enough to bring down unemployment to historically normal levels. And Texas’ unemployment rate—while still below the national average—is now higher than that of 26 states

via Chief Executive Magazine.

Wow!!  Congratulations to Florida and Texas for being massive job creators.

Illinois?  You rank 47th.

One CEO commented that “Illinois is in a race to the bottom.”

Congrats Gov. Quinn, Michael Madigan, Mayor Daley, and the rest of the cabal for driving businesses and job out of Illinois.  We’re shrinking while other states are growing.  You’ve forced millions of people to suffer while you’ve enriched yourselves.

Pathetic.

How Retirement Benefits May Sink Illinois

We’re national news again.

…  Indiana’s debt for unfunded retiree health-care benefits, for example, amounts to just $81 per person. Neighboring Illinois’s accumulated obligations for the same benefit average $3,399 per person.

Illinois is an object lesson in why firms are starting to pay more attention to the long-term fiscal prospects of communities. Early last year, the state imposed $7 billion in new taxes on residents and business, pledging to use the money to eliminate its deficit and pay down a backlog of unpaid bills (to Medicaid providers, state vendors and delayed tax refunds to businesses). But more than a year later, the state is in worse fiscal shape, with its total deficit expected to increase to $5 billion from $4.6 billion, according to an estimate by the Civic Federation of Chicago.

Rising pension costs will eat up much of the tax increase. Illinois borrowed money in the last two years to make contributions to its public pension funds. This year, under pressure to stop adding to its debt, the legislature must make its pension contributions out of tax money. That will cost $4.1 billion plus an additional $1.6 billion in interest payments on previous pension borrowings.

Business leaders are now speaking openly about Illinois’ fiscal failures. Jim Farrell, the former CEO of Illinois Toolworks who is heading a budget reform effort called Illinois Is Broke, said last year that the state is squandering its inherent advantages as a business location because “all the other good stuff doesn’t make up for the [fiscal] calamity that’s on the way.” Caterpillar, the giant Peoria-based maker of heavy construction machinery, made the same point more vividly when it declined in February to locate a new factory in Illinois, specifically citing concern about the state’s “business climate and overall fiscal health.”

via WSJ.

How bad is it going to be?

Back in Illinois, Dana Levenson, Chicago’s former chief financial officer, has projected that the average city homeowner paying $3,000 in annual property taxes could see his tax bill rise within five years as much as $1,400. The reason: A 2010 Illinois law requires municipalities to raise the funding levels in their pension systems using property tax revenues but no additional contributions from government employees. The legislation prompted former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in December to warn residents that the increases might be so high, “you won’t be able to sell your house.”

We’re in trouble.

Local media is still ignoring.  National media starting to ring the bell.

Teaching (Indoctrinating) Chicago Students to Protest

Jones College Prep, a Chicago Public Schools “selective enrollment” school, held “Social Justice Week” in March, a collection of events geared towards turning students into activists. See the schedule of events here.

According to a flyer on the school’s website:

Social Justice Week was created to promote community advancement through dialogue and community service based activism. Moreover, we hope to unify the voice of various JCP and community organizations in which to facilitate collaboration for the betterment of the community at large and promote a unified human rights advancement initiative.

The school is, according to U.S. News & World Report, a Top 100 high school in the country. It’s one of the best of the best–the cream of the crop.

…On Wednesday of Social Justice Week, Black Star Project, a Chicago-based community organizing group, was brought into the school after school hours to teach students about “non-violent” protesting. Led by Phillip Jackson, former “Chief of Education” under former Mayor Richard Daley, the optional discussion was focused on students fighting back against gun crime.

Black Star Project, according to its website, is funded by Open Society Foundations (i.e. George Soros), Best Buy, ING and Toyota Motor Sales, among others.

Jackson’s co-presenter, Camille Williams of the Peace in the Hood movement, made several inflammatory statements about gun ownership and the National Rifle Association. She claimed the NRA is indifferent to gun violence. She also asserted she has received emails from the NRA and/or its members claiming she is “going to hell” for her advocacy and “these porch monkeys deserved to die,” referring to black children killed by guns.

EAGnews.org contacted Jackson regarding these emails, wishing to make them public. We received no response.

When one student stated that she believed everyone should be able to own guns, her opinion was dismissed.

Williams: Right now in Springfield, they are moving to pass conceal and carry so that everybody can carry guns. Are you all in agreement with that?

Student: Um…I am because I think if you take away guns from regular citizens, the criminals and the police are the only ones who have them, so…

Williams: did you look at this?

[At that point, she held up a list to young people who have been killed with guns.]

Student: Yes, ma’am, I did.

Williams: How many of these kids on here are able to carry a gun?

Student: None of them.

Williams: And they are the leading targets.

At this particular session of Social Justice Week, no opposing views were offered.  It appeared only certain outcomes were being sought.  Jackson strongly encouraged the students to develop forms of non-violent protest. “I’m not telling you to do it, but if you were going to,” he said, leading the proverbial horse to the water.

“I’m just saying,” he said on several occasions.

via Breitbart.

Incredible that taxpayers are forced to pay for this nonsense.

Derrick Smith Using William Beaver’s Defense

Today’s Story:

Victor Henderson, the lawyer for accused Illinois State Representative Derrick Smith tells “The Don and Roma Show” on WLS, that the reason federal authorities charged Smith with bribery, was because they wanted him to give up information about possible wrongdoing by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Smith’s long-time political mentor.

via WLS 890AM.

February 25th, 2012:

Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, an old-school Chicago politician who likes to call himself “The Hog With the Big Nuts,” has been indicted on federal tax charges.  …

But Beavers, 77, called the indictment “horse s— I’m not worried about.”

He said the feds only indicted him because he refused to wear a wire on fellow Commissioner John Daley, the brother of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and of former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.

So let me write… again…

Assuming this is true, isn’t this just about the last thing you want to say?  How does this help Beavers Smith or Daley White?  It doesn’t.

Can you imagine some knuckle-dragging bent nose Tony Soprano wanna’be getting indicted and walking out of booking shouting, “They wanted me to wear a wire on Tony.”  Now what you’ve done is tie the two of you together and make both of you look guilty of somethin’.

Absolutely hilarious!!