Thursday, July 23, 2015

More Debt for CPS

  • Chicago’s newly constituted Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize up to $1.2 billion in long-term bonds so the district can pay for ongoing capital projects, fees on past borrowing and some costs of refinancing old debt.

    That’s on top of the $1.1 billion the board approved last month in short-term lines of credit — and it won’t stave off about $200 million in cuts and 1,000-plus layoffs the district already announced.
You know what they say - if you owe the bank a million dollars, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a billion dollar, the bank has a problem.

That being said, you don't cure a money problem by giving the CPS more money any more than you cure an alcoholic by plying him with moonshine.

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24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"That being said, you don't cure a money problem by giving the CPS more money any more than you cure an alcoholic by plying him with moonshine."

Truth. And it makes no sense to pay off a credit card by opening another credit card. (Unless you work for the city finance department of course.)

7/23/2015 12:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"You know what they say - if you owe the bank a million dollars, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a billion dollar, the bank has a problem."

If you own $10,000.00 in CPS Bonds, your investment advisor is the problem.

7/23/2015 12:35:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Insanity.

7/23/2015 12:49:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

But it's for the children. Do you want the children to grow up uneducated?

7/23/2015 01:01:00 AM  
Anonymous BIG Spender said...

Watch out for a bankruptcy.

I don't see how they can keep digging a deeper hole?

Forget Chiraq, this is getting to be more like Athens.

7/23/2015 01:11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This will all lead to bankruptcy in the future. Creditors will get first crack at any assets owned by the city. Pension funds will go bust.

7/23/2015 01:20:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

2/3 of CPS waste is salary. One area where CPS hit on the nail with position getting cut is for Special Education aides. These aides are nothing more than child transporters in rooms and will sit and stare into space or text on their phones when forced to be in classrooms with the kids. I should say kid as many of these aides are assigned to one child throughout the entire school day and year. If the student they're assigned to is absent, these aides are out of sight and out of mine as they're not required to help in any other areas. The avg. salary of these child transporters is $35K.

Also, CPS needs to do is also stop letting $80,000-$100,000 Special Ed. 'Inclusion' teachers just be placed in rooms as co-teachers with teachers in specific areas and instead put them in rooms by themselves to teach. Most inclusion teachers have specific teaching content areas and should be leading classes and doing the lesson planning. Instead, you'll find many inclusion teachers leaving the room before the bell, coming late to class, and not doing much in the classroom and allowing the regular teacher to do al the work. What's the cost, in terms of yearly salary, to have regular teacher (Avg. salary of $75K) and inclusion teacher (avg. salary of $80K) to be in a room together? $155K+ (And. it's financial madness when a regular teacher, inclusion teacher, and Special Ed. aide are in a classroom together. That's a $190K in salaries at one time in a class.)

Another area CPS needs to start evaluating to see if the amount of employees on staff at each high school are needed is clerical positions. Clerical positions are the hidden gem for many CPS staffers, only a high school diploma or equivalency is needed. These positions can reach as high as $60,000 after 6 years of experience with another $28K in benefits. And, to do what? 99% of clerical positions at CPS high schools are women and many of them spend 60% of their time working, while using the other 40% of the time to send chain letters to each other, play solitaire or other online games, shop, and do personal business during work hours.

Overall, CPS needs to take a closer look at each school and see if certified employees are needed to work in 'non-certified' support staff positions and to see which 'support staff' employees are actually qualified to work in their positions.

CPS' mantra should be....DO WE NEED IT (OR THEM)!!!!

7/23/2015 04:27:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The taxpayers of the city are the ones who are going to wear this while all the teachers and contractors who live in the suburbs walk away. Enforce residency for the CPS and require the construction contracts be manned by city residents and not people from suburbs and Indiana.

7/23/2015 05:46:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is Rahm intentionally shoveling money into the CPS fireplace?

"I burned it all so you teachers couldn't get any."
What a shit-ass...

7/23/2015 05:50:00 AM  
Blogger Mr. SouthSide said...

Moonshine? Where? I'm in!

7/23/2015 06:17:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought Rahm was the financial whiz kid. Isn't that how he ran his campaign against Chuy? Rahm's camp kept saying Chuy had no plan.
You call this a plan Rahm?? Must be that Rahmenomics that us peons just don't get.

7/23/2015 06:49:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As the Reverend Ike once put it --

"So you owe all those people all that money and you can't pay them.

They've got a big problem."

The congregation roared, stamped their feet, cackled, double-high-fived.

*

7/23/2015 06:57:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well considering all the rocket scientist that are graduating from any CPS run school, I'd say that is a bargain.

7/23/2015 07:08:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

More charter schools! More money found! More building new schools, and buying closed catholic schools like st turibius!

http://chicago.everyblock.com/news-articles/jul22-two-new-charter-high-schools-proposed-southwest-side-6988148/?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

7/23/2015 07:13:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! The pols keep making Chitroit more and more of a city I would want to raise a family or open a business in.

7/23/2015 07:34:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Six places Chicagoans will flee to if property tax increases are part of Chicago’s pension fix



There’s one simple reason why Detroit finally filed for bankruptcy in 2013. When it came time to pay its bills, the Motor City had run out of taxpayers.

Taxpayers fled Detroit for decades as the city’s tax bill kept growing and its vital government services, such as public safety, were slashed.

Detroit has lost more than 1 million people from its peak population of nearly 2 million in the 1950s.

You can’t blame them for leaving. Families weren’t getting their money’s worth and they believed, rightly, that conditions would only worsen.

That’s just the predicament Chicagoans face today. Each household owes more than $61,000 in future taxes to pay down the massive long-term debt – more than $63 billion in bonds and pension shortfalls – that their city and county governments have racked up.

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/six-places-chicagoans-will-flee-to-if-property-tax-increases-are-part-of-chicagos-pension-fix/

Chicago's Population Grew Last Year—By 82: but let's not kid ourselves is the tax base growing? Are people moving here? Consider the number of births being offset by the number of people moving out. Yeah...think about that. 82 net gain.

Don't get so high and mighty about the welfare programs like food stamps. You might just be on the receiving end in the very near future.. If there's a program left that is. Social Sec. disability is set to run out of funds in 2016 so what do you suppose will happen to the crime rate if that happens?

It's fucked up man and all the politically run lapdog media wants to tell you about is transgender rights, gay rights, women's rights, black lives matter and all this other divide and conquer bullshit. In the big scheme of things that's all minority stuff compared to the economic collapse that will effect each and every one of these groups and more.

So don't look at that. no-no, look at the transgenders in the news. Keep all the shit that really matters to everyone off the front pages. Must control the narrative, the talking points don't ya know/

7/23/2015 09:22:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sure, you can cure an alcoholic with moonshine - give him enough to kill himself. Then you don't have to deal with him any longer.

But CPS has some retired bank execs on the Board - they should know better when it comes to debt and financing and refinancing, etc. and I suspect they do, but they also realize just how much money the banks will be getting from this debt issuance/refinancing/etc. and they are getting a piece of it somehow.

Follow the money folks, follow the money.

7/23/2015 09:51:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who would lend these people money? Some day the music will stop and the bankruptcy judge will lower his gavel. Would hate to be caught holding CPS notes.

7/23/2015 03:15:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
But it's for the children. Do you want the children to grow up uneducated?

7/23/2015 01:01:00 AM

I thought it was unejumecated?

7/23/2015 04:21:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

everyone will be forced to a 401k its only a matter of time, the political folk will do it one way or the other.

7/23/2015 05:17:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

7/23/2015 09:22:00 AM

You beat the same old drum over and over again. Please explain this to me: the housing market is back in Chicago back to peak prices. Some areas have gone back to peak prices. People are tripping over themselves to buy houses in the city. For big prices too. Check out this house: https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/4211-N-Sawyer-Ave-60618/home/13484271 It is located at 4211 N. Sawyer, zip code 60618. If you go east of Sacramento/3000 West then a similar home is for like $800,000. If you go east of Western then it pushes past 1 million dollars to 1.5 million dollars. Now go more closer to the lake and houses like this are 2 million dollars. Go into Lincoln Park and towards downtown and prices are even higher. So all of these people moving in to the city paying big bucks are all stupid right? And you are the only smart one. Chicago is going through a housing revival and people can't wait to move in here. These are people we want, educated and professionals.

7/23/2015 05:45:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"You know what they say - if you owe the bank a million dollars, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a billion dollar, the bank has a problem."

If you own $10,000.00 in CPS Bonds, your investment advisor is the problem.

7/23/2015 12:35:00 AM


Which entity insures CPS bonds and Chicago bonds? I would like to short that company.

7/23/2015 05:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"You beat the same old drum over and over again."

7/23/2015 05:45:00 PM

Ah. It's our realtor again, with about the ninth iteration of all this million-dollar stuff.

"Please explain this to me: the housing market is back in Chicago back to peak prices. Some areas have gone back to peak prices. People are tripping over themselves to buy houses in the city."

We know. "Hot, hot, hot" is the endless cry of those with something to sell.

Has a gold mine, oil field, diamond pit, or other source of productive new jobs and wealth been discovered within city limits, or is this just another real estate bubble?

7/24/2015 06:54:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For no reason I can understand, Chicago real estate prices in at least some areas are moving up. Some areas are close to or even above their previous highs. It is clear that people who can afford pricey homes are willing to pay the prices being asked.

A lot of other areas though are still in the dumper.

My suggestion is keep an eye on what is going on in your area. if the housing market starts to pickup in your area and you can afford to sell, maybe it is time to think about it.

The bubble can only last so long.

7/27/2015 03:06:00 PM  

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