TIF Slush Fund Garners Contributions
Another in a recent series of articles that points the spotlight at how TIF funds are used to reward connected companies and screw taxpayers out of actual capital projects - and pension funding:
- [...] Chicago is facing a pension shortfall for its police officers, firefighters, teachers and other municipal workers. If you've followed this story, you've probably heard that the only way Mayor Rahm Emanuel can deal with the situation is to slash those workers' pensions and to jack up property taxes on those who aren't politically connected enough to have secured themselves special exemptions.
This same fantastical story, portraying public employees as the primary cause of budget crises, is being told across the country. Yet, in many cases, we're only being told half the tale. We aren't told that the pension shortfalls in many locales were created because local governments did not make their required pension contributions over many years. And perhaps even more shocking, we aren't told that while states and cities pretend they have no money to deal with public sector pensions, many are paying giant taxpayer subsidies to corporations -- subsidies that are often far larger than the pension shortfalls.
Go read it all. It's like the alternative media finally discovered they have an investigative set of balls.
Labels: corruption, pension
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
19 Comments:
It's politics, complicated and convoluted, but necessary to maintain our democratic form of government.
And why is there not any criminal investigation into the politicians and government leaders who failed to make said contributions to the pension funds?
And why, in light of the previous question, is there time for investigating the wood made in Gibson guitars?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/08/31/140090116/why-gibson-guitar-was-raided-by-the-justice-department
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424053111904787404576530520471223268?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424053111904787404576530520471223268.html
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/06/160468/feds-gibson-guitar-settle-environmental.html
"...[...] Chicago is facing a pension shortfall for its police officers, firefighters, teachers and other municipal workers. ..."
Notice there is never, has never and will never be a shortfall for the pension and retirement benefits of Chicago Elected officals.
Keep your Chicago voting address and stay in the fight.
"Keep your Shitcago voting address and stay in the fight"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
When I came on the job as a young guy, I was promised a pension from the City when I retired.
My portion of my pension was taken out of my pay, every payday, and with that I assumed that the City was doing what was promised to me and paying their share.
They weren't and that is what caused the crisis we are in now.
It is hard for me as a law enforcement officer to understand that the City was ordered to pay their share to the pension fund and just blatantly said, "we ain't doing it." And then to blame the police, fire and teachers for causing it (pension) to run out of money?
For some of us, our pension, is all that we live off of when we retire.
At the time I came on we did not pay into Social Security so some of us when we turn 65 won't get ANY SS to add to their income.
And here is the good part..... if we as young officers when to work at a second job paying into the pension then at age 65 we can collect SS. BUT and this is a BIG BUT, we as law enforcement only get about half... yes I said half of what our SS should be. This is because we have a government pension!? A pension that WE paid into.
So, our Mayor wants to cut our pensions, we only get half of our Social Security, and Walmart may have stopped hiring senior door greeters.
Sounds like we shouldn't live to 65 I guess.
Don't allow collection of a pension until 63. A healthy person under that age can still work.
Incredible! Everyday another new discovery, another new find. Hey news media lets make a new show starring treasurer hunter rahm every week he can " discover" another pot of gold that he hid.
The next step is to INDICT those responsible for the failure to meet the LEGAL obligation and squander those funds.
Excellent reporting. Rare nowadays.
In the most recent primary election, Illinois had a record low voter turnout. As a result, Rahm's vacation buddy was nominated as the Republican gubernatorial candidate.
Rahm Emanuel, himself, was elected mayor with the lowest vote total in over ninety years.
The only way you matter in the equation is by voting. Not getting involved empowers these jackals.
The politicians' greatest fear, which is seldom realized due to apathy, is that a larger voter turnout will develop. Big turnouts spell defeat for entrenched politicians.
The only way to get better results from government is to vote incumbents out often enough that they begin to fear for their jobs and worrying about losing their salaries and pensions.
There will be no investigation of
Chicago corruption because the mayor
is a product of the current presidential administration in the
White House which in itself is
corrupt and underhanded.
One can probably count honest politicians on the fingers on one hand and have a few left over.
It's all about money, power, and the
ability to influence peoples lives
while enriching your own.
Have you noticed that the majority of these politicians never worked a real job in their lives.
They spend their entire lives with
a government job and retire when they decide to pack it in.
Then they pass the job on to another family member.
And it won't end until the voters
decide they have had enough and from the current state of affairs
that decision is still a long way
off. Thanks SCC for your forum that tells it like it REALLY is.
At least TIF has a chance of helping out a community or industry. The $100 million dollars that the Illinois House approved is nothing but flushing money down the toilet to honor the worst president in US history.
So where did all the money go?
Let Matt Taibbi explain it in a way that ordinary people can understand. He was on "Chicago Tonight" just a couple of days ago. One hell of a perceptive financial writer.
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates..."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
Absolute must reading.
"Keep your Shitcago voting address and stay in the fight"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
4/17/2014 06:09:00 AM
You laugh. Well, while my pension is in play, you better believe this isn't funny. I'll maintain my address here as long as it takes, wherever I might be 'staying'.
The alternative media has had investigative balls for decades. The age of the internet just makes it easier to reach people and keep stuff from going down the memory hole.
"It's politics, complicated and convoluted, but necessary to maintain our democratic form of government."
That's funny. http://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4
7:38am is right , raise retirement for all city workers to 63,
60 for police and firemen . That would save millions a year. No cola raise until mandatory retirement age , your choice leave early or wait until mandatory retirement age to collect cola .
9:08am....is so Right...keep voting, have a large turn out, scare the heck out of them...toss all second timers out of their political seats...they are no good if they stick around....they become corrupt.
"It's politics, complicated and convoluted, but necessary to maintain our democratic form of government."
4/17/2014 12:17:00 AM
Agreed. You -- not just someone else over there, but you personally -- should be lied to and stolen from and taxed to death and beaten into the ground by these people.
"Sounds like we shouldn't live to 65 I guess."
4/17/2014 07:27:00 AM
You're right. That is the new plan.
Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief --
White House health-care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the 'overuse' of medical care.
Unnder Ezekiel Emanuel's "complete life" plan, only people from 15 to 40 matter. Before that, natural selection; after that, gradual denial of care as your age increases.
"An obvious example is not guaranteeing care to people with dementia."
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203706604574374463280098676
...and yes, Ezekiel is Rahm's brother.
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