Chicago! Baby I don’t want to go!

You may have heard – the City of Chicago pays 80% of their property taxes to their pension deficit. Of course that leaves very little money to do any actual work, but that seems to be the standard these days, in cities all the way to Chico, California.

In February, Illinois Policy reported, “More than 80% of Chicago’s property tax levy – including all of the automatic annual increase – goes to pensions..”

Furthermore, “the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, which has an additional $14 billion in unfunded pension liabilities that are not included in the city’s financials, has its own property tax levy specifically…” I get an instant visual of an old sow with sagging teats, trying to outrun a pack of snarling piglets.

In 2024, IP warned that “Pension costs used to consume 41% of the city’s property tax levy, but now take 80% of it. Even worse, on net, every new property tax dollar...”

We’ve watched this disaster unfolding in Chico for the last 13 years. We’re headed for Chicago. Baby, I don’t want to go.

Here’s one thing we shouldn’t do – allow unions to make campaign contributions. In Chicago, the mayor is leading the charge to raise taxes.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-26/chicago-mayor-struggles-to-find-revenue-fix-for-debt-ridden-city

Mr. Johnson is a union shill. His campaign was over half-funded by the unions – well, duh. Of course they want a man in charge who will guarantee they will get their 70-90% pensions without paying rational contributions. In a clip from Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, Johnson declared, very enthusiastically, “Chicago is a union town!” You have to ask yourself, what does that mean to the rest of us?

In Chico and Butte County we have staffers on automatic pay schedules, thousands of dollars in salary increases per person, per year. City management has created new positions at salaries over $100,000. Employee contributions remain at less than 25%, some less than 10%. For pensions of 70-90% of their highest year’s salary, with annual increases.

This might be okay if CalPERS was solvent, but they aren’t. They make poor investments, based on personal interest and personal gain, they demand more money from Chico every year, as city management pours millions more into the deficit every year. It’s like a broken toilet.

Speaking of a broken toilet, the city of Chico is facing the awesome failure of past administrations to deal with the failing sewer system. The pipes Downtown are over 100 years old in sections. They’ve been failing for years and the city has known it, but just “kicked the can down the road…” (Mark Orme used exactly these words pitching Measure H) Now it’s time for the taxpayers to fix it!

Just like Chicago.

Remember, a couple of years ago, Chico used a mailed ballot scam to pass what amounts to a sewer tax – they changed to “consumption based” sewer charges. The difference between a “volume based charge” and a “consumption based charge” is being charged for what you actually flush down your drains to the sewer system, or being charged in addition for the water you use on your lawns and gardens that never goes to the sewer. Meaning, with consumption based, you pay twice for the water you bought from Cal Water. They used mailed ballots because they knew people didn’t understand their rights and it would pass without a whimper. Read here.

See how these people are? Our city clerk, who has a legal responsibility to protect the voters, presided over that charade, because she, along with the city manager, was offered automatic raises over the next two years. They will retire at over $200,000 within the next three years, and you’ll be paying for it.

Here’s another prediction: the city will pursue a new tax measure for the sewer within the next two years. Put your money in the hat, I’ll bet my last $5.