Great Job Conehead

Just making it worse as he goes along - another downgrade:

• Ratings agency S&P downgraded the city of Chicago’s general obligation debt late Monday, citing structural imbalance in the just-passed 2025 budget, limited options for new revenue down the line, and a lack of willingness among city leadership to cut spending.

  S&P analyst Scott Nees said in a release that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 budget left a “sizable structural budgetary imbalance that we expect will make balancing the budget in 2026 and outyears more challenging.”

  A downgrade isn’t only a reputational hit; It could also increase the city’s cost to borrow money for long-term projects like Johnson’s $1.25 billion housing and development bond, which is slated to go to market early this year.

The First Rule of Holes is when you're in one, stop digging. But here's Conehead readying a $1.25 billion bond to be sold via connected banks so that his people can get "their share" of the bribes, kickbacks and percentages that always accompany deals like these.

But don't worry - there's still one more step to go before total insolvency:

• The BBB rating means the city has “adequate capacity to meet financial commitments,” according to S&P, but that the agency views the city as more susceptible to “adverse economic conditions.”

  BBB is a step above the lowest investment-grade, BBB-, which is still a notch above junk.

That just means selling the last few items in the cupboard, like O'Hare and Midway, maybe even emptying the museums of artwork and displays.