This Seems Serious
In order to cover retirement checks as the city waits for property tax revenue to replenish its dwindling coffers, Chicago will lend cash to its pensions, avoiding asset sales.
The delayed collection stems from a computer issue.
The city advanced $28 million this month to the Firemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund so it wouldn’t need to dump stocks, bonds or other assets to cover retiree benefits, according to city finance officials. City of Chicago CFO Jill Jaworski told aldermen the city is monitoring the cash needs of all four pension funds — covering firefighters, police, laborers and municipal workers — and will lend as needed until Cook County’s property tax mess is resolved, Bloomberg reported.
Yeah, you don't want to be selling assets as the stock market has been setting records more than a few times this month and is potentially on the verge of more records as interest rates are (finally) trimmed.
The City has done this before, short term lending to keep the woefully underfunded funds afloat, but it isn't sustainable. We sure wish that billion dollars wasted on ILLEGAL ALIENS was still around to take care of actual obligations.
Labels: money questions, pension
posted by SCC at 12:05 AM
45 Comments:
The city is running on E shufling money from account to account to keep the bookie off his back.
Don't hold your breath on the property tax situation getting fixed anytime soon. Tyler Technologies, who has been paid almost $30 million dollars to upgrade the Cook County computer system, and has screwed everything up, just had their business status revoked by the State of Illinois.
https://x.com/CitizenVMachine/status/1967990097539895782
Not surprising a mayor from the ghetto would use the equivalent of payday-loans to get out of trouble… Next time he will just pretend it is his water bill and not pay it.
It all feels like a Ponzi scheme- pass the buck!
Enjoying my hard-earned pension-- don"t want to give City any more Tax money--am STILL waiting for County tax bill on my paid for house--(yes a 20 year mortgage and a 30 plus year career made that house possible)
The place is going under and some people just don’t want to believe it.
Everyone needs to appeal their tax bill!!
I imagine the skyway and parking meter cash flow would have covered it but that guy Daley sold them to balance those budgets. But Daley got his....
As always, pensions more important than actually serving the public!
Toni Preckwinkle please accept blame for your great management of county government and screwing the management of tax collections!
A job well done by a Democrat!
We could of had a mayor who knew about budgets backwards and forward but the idiots voted in this Ahole.
hey, how about just raising the parking meter rates to increase revenue?
oh yea, that's right,,,,, the democRATS in the city got rid of that
Billions spent on the illegal criminals and yeti spending billions more to protect them along with the governor three states they are moving out rapidly the top three New York California and we are number three. People are getting out of here as quick as they can. This is a sinking hell hole full of crime corruption And disdain for law-enforcement. It’s ridiculous. What is happening to this one’s proud of the city we all know how downtown looks all the abandoned buildings which he’s going to use to make section 8 housing to put more ghetto rats in there.
It will take a while to change the pensions. Once you see momentum downstate to allow Chicago to declare bankruptcy id retire,its a bit harder to change retiree’s pensions?! Plan on getting half of what you think you will get. The communist government in charge needs more $$ for its voters,they know we are mostly conservative,so they will go out of their way to screw us!
Translation:
Assets = Debt = Asshats' financing.
Thank you for explaining this. The conspiracies that started flying with the headline.
It may be time for the villagers to go down to city hall with torches and pitchforks...this mayor is really fucking things up, and needs to be removed from his duties.
Retire now and get while the money is still there, wait and be disappointed when the money is all gone.
Sit down clown. We earn a pension by serving the public. Come out of your mother’s basement and try it sometime.
Vallas would not be much better. Why? Because his son is a suburban cop? No way. He was part of the Daley cabal. They kept money away from the pensions too.
No it’s not. If you look at other city bankruptcies, the judges first use available funds to maintain on-going public services, then vendors that are needed to keep the city functioning. Pensions maybe guaranteed by state law but they are not guaranteed in bankruptcy court. In some municipal bankruptcies retired public employees have seen their pensions slashed by 50%.
Go see the Juice Man.
AMAZING how asshole Johnson makes these F'ing proclamations about "protecting his people" while flushing money needed by tax payers down the toilet thus NOT protecting the real constituents. The only purpose for this can be the destruction of society. Hope you are all prepared for when the money runs out. I'll be watching from another state.
Love going to Jewel foods and going thru self-checkout. When I'm done, I ALWAYS hit 0 bags used!!! I mumble fuck you Pricktinkle...Bahahahah. I'll never pay the City any bag tax. FU
Maybe ask the illegals to chip in.
That’s an ignorant take. Public servants EARN their pensions through decades of dangerous, stressful, and often thankless work. Work, btw, most people wouldn’t last a week doing. Those pensions aren’t handouts, they’re deferred wages negotiated in good faith. If you think serving the public means cops and firefighters, should sacrifice their livelihoods and retire in poverty while politicians and Wall Street skim off the top, maybe you should reevaluate what ‘public service’ really means. A society that doesn’t honor its commitments to its workers has no right to preach about ‘service to the public. Remember Rahm took our promised healthcare. We earned our pensions!
If the constitution is changed they could change benefits. However, courts are more likely to side with persons earning already as opposed to those who are not collecting. Make your plans accordingly.
Appealing the assessed valuation is the only option I am aware of.
Once assessed valuation is finalized, I am not aware of a process to appeal actual tax billing amount.
Enlighten me, por favor.
🤔
I served you for 34 fucking years and kept my end of the bargain. Keep yours.
If you would’ve done your home work , Police and Fire have not been slashed. Especially in Detroit, if you can google. They had their COLA frozen and eliminated , and new emplyeees had to renegotiate. But police did not have their benefits slashed , federal bankruptcy Judge.
Disagree. If you are receiving a pension a 40% haircut and no COLA is probable. The bankruptcy judge will then implement a 401K with the 9% the active officers contributed to the new system.
---Smart money is that the biggest losers will be those that take advantage of the Drop program.You'll lose the Drop money by 40% and are still a working slob, but can't continue as an active officer in the 401K.
Why the have our unions not leaned on the courts to hold the city in contempt and sieze assets after failing to make court ordered pension payments? Is there no provision for this type of action.. They do it in other cases, audit the assets then liquidate to satisfy the courts order. Good thing the unions "have tour back".. well in pbpa's case, good thing we have me too because it seems that is all they rely on.
They must have learned that play at one of those lake tahoe conferences. Lots of knowledge and idea trading at these things. Absolute must attend!
And no one asks, why the feds dont follow the money trail for the insider contracts. Easiest hits for public corruption and they cant find a single one.
And the feds didnt bat an eye. Blatant corruption. Remember when he was unable to appear for the red light camera case because of medical issues? But that golf game didnt suffer at all thats year.
The stock is trading near it's low, and the director just sold a bunch of shares.
Its a lot more than $30 million.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/06/the-265-million-dollar-tech-bill/
I don’t see the pensions going away because too many political people have their friends and family and themselves taking you amounts from the pension funds look at the Chicago Police Department, all of the so-called commanders and the fire department top staff way overloaded with people actually stealing from the pension funds with the amount they are getting for doing nothing just being politically connected
I hope not. I’m close to the end and started plowing $2500 a month into equities. Trying to build my own fund in case the city does default.
Need system to keep running for ten years to accomplish my goals.
I’d say have feds take over but they incompetent and $37T in debt.
My advice to all is start building your own fund by buying up stock every month.
Pensions will be paid as ordered by the Illinois Supreme Court. Unfortunately, Chicago has a complete embarrassment of a so called mayor, who decided to give hundreds of millions to lllegal aliens.Sorry, cut employees and install a toll on Dusable Lake Shore Drive that goes directly to
Pensions. Your Welcome, Brandon 😎
Haters going to hate pensions, How much are we paying Carlos Rosa Ramirez as Chicago Park District Superintendent and how many pensions as a ex -alderman is he going to collect. Another question, is there any media person who actually cares about the city.
Municipalities that have declared bankruptcy did not lose 40%. The city has too many assets, mainly that huge cash cow known as O’Hare. They’d have to give that up first.
Retired and living out west in a red state. If the checks stop coming, I am personally coming back to Chicago and diving in front of a garbage truck or bus and suing the shit out of Chicago to get my pension one way or the other. I plan on living a very long time and I like the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed. Understand? Fuck You! Pay Me!
Politicians like Johnson are installed in order to destroy, like Obozo and Biden did. Stolen elections have consequences, Trump better button up our election system or the left will succeed in driving the country over the cliff.
Those in power will eventually tell the unions sit down and let’s discuss how we change the pension systems or we will see you in court. The FOP better call their bluff! See u in court bishes!
Homework: https://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2023/07/16/detroit-retirees-find-bankruptcy-cuts-troubling-10-years-later/70188402007/, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/LSB10116.pdf, “ filing for bankruptcy may adversely affect the municipality’s creditors,
especially beneficiaries of underfunded municipal retirement plans (who, along with bondholders, often hold “the lion’s share” of a municipality’s financial….”; When the City Goes Broke: Pensions, Retirees, and Municipal Bankruptcie obligations).”
This study addresses Detroit. https://www.pew.org/-/media/assets/2015/08/after-municipal-bankruptcy-pdf.pdf
It’s a 17 page read. If you’ve done actual research for your home work, you would have found that the federal judge specifically ruled that state constitutional safeguards regarding pension guarantees are not binding in federal bankruptcy proceedings. You would have also discovered that retired employees saw their Cola eliminated and their benefits reduced.
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