Skip What Now?

The previous temptation to kick this can down the road has led directly to the financial crisis Chicago finds itself in.....and you'd think that the morons in charge might learn a lesson about that.

Nope:

• The harried search by the City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson for ways to avoid raising property taxes — and in turn, the ire of their constituents — is leading them back to a question all too familiar in the halls of power in Chicago: Should they spare taxpayers financial pain and themselves political headaches now, even if it costs far more down the road?

  Some officials are rallying around the idea of diverting surplus dollars from past years’ budgets that were set aside to keep the city’s pension funds afloat. The “advance” or “supplemental” pension payment Johnson wants for 2025 is $272 million, just shy of the $300 million tax hike he called for then abandoned last week in the face of an overwhelming council revolt against it.

  Cutting that pension payment is among the most straightforward fixes floated to fill the gaping property tax hole in Chicago’s budget. But there are plenty of warnings against skipping it, including from Johnson’s budget team and municipal finance experts.

Wasn't there a State Law passed that required payments to the pension funds? Are the FOP and the PBPA and Firefighters Local keeping track of this? there's legal recourse if they start skipping payments, yes?

It sounds like the government eggheads are going to claim since this is "supplemental" that it isn't part of the regular payments and can be redistributed at Conehead's will?

• Regardless, the city will make its regular, required pension payments to its four funds in 2025, totaling roughly $2.6 billion.

  “When you say supplemental it sounds like extra,” Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski said. But the city’s four pension funds are in such dire straits, the supplemental payments only help stop the bleeding, she said. Continuation of the smallish payments now would help shrink the city’s pension contribution tab by $3.9 billion through 2055, according to Jaworski.

Sounds like they're about to play fast-and-loose with some major cash in the knowledge that they're all going to be out of office when the bill comes due.