just before it goes completely black. Remember all of those estimates of difficulty the Chicago Public Schools will face in paying this year’s expenses let alone the new, improved, higher expenses called for in the new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union? In all likelihood it’s going to be even more difficult for the CPS to pay its bills than I thought. Moody’s has just lowered the rating on its bonds:
Sept 27 (Reuters) – The credit rating for the Chicago Board of Education was cut to A2 from A1 by Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday, which cited the “moderate” increase salaries for teachers under the new labor accord that has yet to be ratified.
The school system, the nation’s third largest, has not budgeted for those pay rises, Moody’s said.
The outlook on the debt – about $6.4 billion – remains negative.
Other factors cited in the downgrade include spending down its reserves, the overhang of unpaid pension fund installments, and the state’s fiscal problems which will probably decrease, delay, or both the state’s contribution to the CPS’s revenues, roughly a third of the total.
The article goes on to substantiate nearly everything I’ve been saying for some time, e.g. raising the property tax rate must be approved by the voters.
Yet the voters seemed to support the outcome. Were they uninformed, misinformed, stupid or what?
Steve
They just wanted to get their kids back to school. Also, I strongly suspect that most of them, incorrectly, didn’t think they’d be footing the bill.
See, I thought your headline and contnuation were pretty funny in a dark kind of way. You do that often.
“I strongly suspect that most of them, incorrectly, didn’t think they’d be footing the bill.”
Who did they think would be footing the bill?
The rich. Property owners. Remember that the majority of Chicagoans are in the first and second income quintiles (nationally). Poor, working poor, lower middle class.
My guess is that somewhere along the line we’re going to start getting complaints about rents or the lack of availability of affordable housing. The dots won’t be connected.
Yeah. Sardonic.
Our household is very quick, lots of wisecracking. Michael has seen my wife and me in action. He could testify to what our home is like.