How to solve the pension debt crisis (Chicago: apartment, foreclose)

[dtcbnd03]

Originally Posted by Sunbiz1

Everything is taxed in this state, they merely find new means of wasting the additional revenue.
I doubt one more will change their ways.

Getting rid of Madigan would be a better solution:

"Don’t look to Madigan to be an agent of change. His obsession is power politics. If only we’d also heard him say he must “do better” to balance the state budget, to solve the public pension crisis he helped create, to help employers and make Illinois a magnet for jobs."

Illinois Democrats, force Michael Madigan's hand - Chicago Tribune

100% agree. Madigan is a literally a democratic dictator and why term limits are so so important. Replace him with any democrat at this point and redistribute the power he has accumulated across the democratic party and I'd be much happier.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Sunbiz1

Everything is taxed in this state, they merely find new means of wasting the additional revenue.
I doubt one more will change their ways.

Getting rid of Madigan would be a better solution:

"Don’t look to Madigan to be an agent of change. His obsession is power politics. If only we’d also heard him say he must “do better” to balance the state budget, to solve the public pension crisis he helped create, to help employers and make Illinois a magnet for jobs."

Illinois Democrats, force Michael Madigan's hand - Chicago Tribune

I hope you're wrong on that because Madigan isn't going anywhere, until he dies. And even when that happens, what speaker are the Democrats going to put in there who's going to make things better?

I'd argue it might even make things worse as the Democratic Party seems to be getting more progressive, which means you might start to see things like rent control and our aforementioned progressive tax, and other "new revenue sources".

IMO, the dumb myopic voters are the real problem. Too bad they don't seem to be the ones moving to Texas and Nevada!

[chet everett]

Make no mistake the reason Madigan is powerful is because he controls huge amounts of funds to throw at candidates. He also is not afraid to use his minions to find shill candidates to muddy close races as well dropping support for candidates who cross him.

Madigan was not born rich nor powerful. His dad, a ward superintendent back in the days of wall-to-wall patronage got young Mike a job on a garbage truck. Mike eventually figured out the real stink in Chicago was from the courts and got his law degree from Loyola which, via his pop’s clout, lead to a job as a law clerk in Daley’s City Hall. Didn’t take long for Mike to realize he’d make out better with a legislative job which is essentially part time and a law firm that fixed property taxes.

It is extremely unlikely that any other politician has traveled a path even remotely like Madigan; when he dies so too does the last remnants of his era as Madigan has consciously knee-capped anyone that could follow in his wake, the same way all paranoid Mafia Bosses and third world dictators do...

[Liledgy]

Make no mistake the reason Madigan is powerful is because he controls huge amounts of funds to throw at candidates. He also is not afraid to use his minions to find shill candidates to muddy close races as well dropping support for candidates who cross him.

Sounds like the same thing Ruiner did on the republican side.

[Liledgy]

Originally Posted by Liledgy

Dose, bru, lep and dtc, what does your employer contribute to your pension, 401k, etc?

I’m still waiting for a few of you? Probably because your getting considerably more money from your employer ( I know I am) than what the teachers get from the state.

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

100% agree. Madigan is a literally a democratic dictator and why term limits are so so important. Replace him with any democrat at this point and redistribute the power he has accumulated across the democratic party and I'd be much happier.

Although Madigan is a big problem I don't see just getting rid of him as the solution. In my opinion the entire Democratic party is the problem and their attitude that the people should serve the government, their unholy alliance with government worker unions, and their lack of fiscal (discipline doesn't even begin to cover it more like they are fiscally insane). This is why nationally they have been spanked in several of the last elections. They serve only their cronies and not the people in general particularly the middle class.

At this point It seems like whoever is in charge it is like arguing who should captain the ship after the Titanic hit the ice berg. The damage has been done, the credit cards ie pension debt has been run up so high and the cycle towards desperately raising taxes and driving more residents and businesses out of the state is now so ingrained that nothing is going to change for the better.

[Liledgy]

Crickets! 90% of your u want The politicians to cut the states share of the teachers pension, which is 8.3%. You say it’s to generous, it’s unions power, bla bla bla. Yet very few of you will divulge what you are receiving from your employer. More than likely, it’s a lot more than 8.3%. Considering that just the the social security portion would be 6.2%, which the state doesn’t pay into for the teachers.

[rocky12345]

If Illinois pension funds are so terribly underfunded, and workers don’t get ss, what will happen to those poor souls when the day of reckoning comes for the state and the pot is dry? Will we have a generation of workers who will be living in poverty in old age? Or will the feds bale out the pension funds?

[Sunbiz1]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

100% agree. Madigan is a literally a democratic dictator and why term limits are so so important. Replace him with any democrat at this point and redistribute the power he has accumulated across the democratic party and I'd be much happier.

[/quote]

"If Illinois is ever going to see the economic and spending reforms it needs to bring back growth, jobs and fiscal sanity, lawmakers need to take the power back from Madigan. In particular, they need to rescind Madigan’s power to:

1. dole out committee chair positions and the stipends that come with them,
2. control who votes in committees,
3. dictate when a bill will be called for a vote, and
4. control what bills make it to a vote.

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/repor...ative-process/

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by rocky12345

If Illinois pension funds are so terribly underfunded, and workers don’t get ss, what will happen to those poor souls when the day of reckoning comes for the state and the pot is dry? Will we have a generation of workers who will be living in poverty in old age? Or will the feds bale out the pension funds?

My guess is there will not a a fed bailout rather a fed mediated bankruptcy and the pensioners are going to get some fraction of what they were promised. We really need to go to a 401k system like almost every private sector company and the federal govt did with TSP and federal employees.