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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Chicago is going down hill. Talented people are leaving and more illegal immigrants are coming. This will increase a need to raise taxes and businesses would leave as well. [/quote]

Go away, you MAGA troll.  You just hate Chicago because it's blue and it keeps Illinois blue. Chicago is a great city. It's not losing population. [/quote]

Chicago and Illinois are indeed losing population. Whether one looks at IRS figures or moving company statistics, it is losing population. Significantly there is a gap of 20k in income between those leaving and those arriving. I have deep roots in Illinois - can’t imagine any deeper - and the math in Illinois is simply bad. Trump has zero to do with the State’s and City’s terrific pension woes. The City has more pension debt than 43 states combined. So no matter one’s politics, the focus must be on how to draw down the pension debt. Contributions have recently increased but the debt keeps growing. Per household pension  debt in the City is $45000. But this is misleading. Those making the average income of $55,000 or so shouldn’t be expected to contribute much. In fact they can’t as they are working hard to survive. Those who can pay are looking at hundreds of thousands in contribution above and beyond already high taxes. Rather than fixating on Trump, what is the right way to fix pensions? They must be paid in full under the State Constitution. Any population loss is not helpful, particularly high income earners. What would cause you to doubt the urgency of the issue? There effectively is no competing party in Illinois. There are a number of Democrats who “get” the urgency. The pain however will be unpopular.

One thing you may not know is the practical consequences when the funds have no assets. This puts the payment obligations on a pay as you go status. This would crush almost any budget and have a domino impact on other funds. This is far from a garden variety budget problem - MAGA or whatever sunk emotional cost you have in being anti-Trump has nothing to do with this real problem. It started over 25 years ago.

I am not sure why people are leaving the state. Could be for better weather (although surrounding states are not experiencing the same loss), could be because of really high property taxes, or the regulatory environment. Under typical circumstances (no monster pension debt) population loss could be managed. But these are not ordinary circumstances.

The City has a poor credit rating (the schools the worst in the country) but many of the borrowing instruments have imposed liens on the City - such as liens on sales tax receipts from the State. So bankruptcy could be very dicey. Maybe even asset less. Pensioners as a class are mere unsecured creditors and the financial institutions are secured. Judges obviously have some sympathy for pensioners (as I do) but they can’t ignore property rights.

To think this is some sort of maga problem is delusional. Again, you should do the math- it doesn’t care about politics.

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