There’s an eleventh hour stay of execution for the City of Chicago on Gov. Rauner’s desk, as reported by the Sun-Times:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday appealed to his old friend, Gov. Bruce Rauner, to avert the need for an “unnecessary tax increase†in Chicago, by signing legislation giving the city 15 more years to ramp up to a 90 percent funding level for police and fire pensions.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported this week that Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), Emanuel’s closest ally in Springfield, has ended 10 months of cat-and-mouse by sending the legislation to the governor.
Cullerton had been holding the bill — approved by the Illinois House and Senate last spring — amid concern that Rauner would veto the legislation to squeeze cash-strapped Chicago and strengthen his own hand in the budget stalemate over the governor’s demand for pro-business, anti-union reforms.
It’s not a reprieve, just a stay. It doesn’t reduce the amount the city owes. The city will still need to pay into the fund. It still doesn’t have any money to do it with. It still needs to make interest payments. Barring other reforms its fiscal picture will probably be worse in two, five, or ten years than it is now. However, it will kick the can safely beyond Mayor Emanuel’s present term of office and, if I’m any judge of politicians, beyond the next election.
It doesn’t solve anything.
