Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Warns of Doubled Property Taxes to Fund Spiraling Pension Costs

Massive taxpayer funded liabilities are crippling many cities and states.

Chicago is in one of the worst of these predicaments.

Next year they face a giant lump sum *Balloon* payment crisis that they apparently won't have money for.

Therefore, the government there is going to have to borrow excessively and increase taxes somewhere in order to pay off pensions.

Property tax is now the target, and they are issuing bonds faster than the brokers can print and dry the ink.

What makes these shortfalls happen? Corruption? Mismanagement? Or is it just that "Pie-in-the-Sky" attitude and mentality?

Illinois has one of the worst pension messes in the nation as the cost of government employee benefits is sending state, county, and local governments into bankruptcy crises all across the state. No place has more trouble than Chicago, prompting Mayor Rahm Emanuel to warn that property taxes will have to double to serve that spiraling debt.

In 2015 Chicago faces a looming financial disaster with a municipal pension system that is in worse shape than that of any other major U.S. city. Chicago is under the gun for a whopping $1.07 billion balloon payment on its $19.4 billion pension debt for city employees. Chicago's mayor is struggling to figure out how to pay the balloon payment, which is equal to one third of the city's entire budget. According to The Wall Street Journal, the balloon payment alone could pay for the salaries of the Chicago Police Department's entire 4,300 officer force or for the re-paving of all 16,000 blocks of roads in the city.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Warns of Doubled Property Taxes to Fund Spiraling Pension Costs


_pensions.bustedout.il.guv

reply to post by xuenchen

Best thing one can do right now is to become ordained and declare your land property of the church.

xuenchen

What makes these shortfalls happen? Corruption? Mismanagement?

All of the above, and the insidious idea that Goverment
can always change the laws to make legal theft by taxes.

I can just imagine the policies he would implement as POTUS.
Scary!

reply to post by xuenchen


What happens when people can't pay their property taxes???

They lose it all! Who gets it? The bank or the state!

This is just more of the same ole same ole.

Want to find where the money went? Just look toward the bankers and wall street.

Will the government go after them? pfffffft

When we the people mismanage our finances, we get hammered by fines and penalties. When the government mismanages it's finances the people STILL get hammered and the government holds out their hands as if they are blameless and walk on off to the bank laughing.......

Yup, the people in POWER make decisions without thinking about the future because they know that they can just change the rules and just ROB the people later to make up for it.

And as mentioned above... they think its ok

So the US spends almost $700 billion in defense/military spending, almost $50 billion in foreign citizen/military aid.
A major city needs $2billion to pay pensions and the feds wont help.
Detroiters are getting screwed out of their pensions too.
If he is able to do this and it is at all successful, it has a good chance of spreading to other cities in need.
Maybe even become federal.

o0oTOPCATo0o
So the US spends almost $700 billion in defense/military spending, almost $50 billion in foreign citizen/military aid.
A major city needs $2billion to pay pensions and the feds wont help.
Detroiters are getting screwed out of their pensions too.
If he is able to do this and it is at all successful, it has a good chance of spreading to other cities in need.
Maybe even become federal.

I agree, we send money for aid all over the world when we should be using it here at home to help our people first.
Its like having your roof leak but instead of fixing that first you go to the other side of the state and help a stranger fix his leaky roof first and even pay for the job.

reply to post by xuenchen


Id say very likely part massive corruption and part failure to comprehend 6th grade mathematics. Politicians ALWAYS seem to stumble on those two points when it comes to overspending somebody ELSE'S money. I think this will trigger a mass exodus of residents, further eroding tax base.

Scott Walkerreply to post by xuenchen

Three words the progressives can't stand: "Scott Surplus Walker":up
Wisconsin

The strategy: Promise public employees certain wages and benefits, including pensions; public employees vote for you; public employee unions come to the table to bargain and bargain with the candidate who bought their vote; new contract contains pay-off in the form of making good on those promises. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Who's not at the table ever? The people whose taxes have to make good on those public employee wages, benefits and pensions that are promised.

It's a wonderful vote buying scheme until the chickens come home to roost like they are in Chicago and like they have in Detroit and other towns and cities all across the nation. Eventually, you really do run out of other people's money, and it's happening on the watch of this generation of politicians and to our mothers and fathers whose pensions may not be made good on.

I warned you.

derka derka derka