Excerpted from Fran Spielman’s article for the Chicago Sun-Times:
Five days after agreeing to raise property taxes by another $250 million for teachers pensions, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday defended the record increase for police and fire pensions and school construction reflected in property tax bills now landing like a thud in Chicago mailboxes.
His response essentially was, “I told you so.”
“When I ran for office, one of the major issues was removing the doubt over our economic future [caused by] unfunded pensions. All four of ’em were unfunded. I was clear that the period of time in which we put our politics ahead of our responsibility had ended. That we were gonna do the tough things necessary to put our fiscal house in order,” Emanuel said.
Way to go Rahm. You told ’em all right. You sure did “the tough things necessary to put our fiscal house in order”.
You cut spending Uh, no.
You eliminated extraneous and duplicative programs? Well, no again.
You went after the costs of corruption which, everyone seems to know, have been rampant in Chicago for decades? BZZZZZZ try again.
You left everything in exactly the same condition it was, and raised taxes on the suckers still willing to stay in town and pay them? BINGO, we have a winner!!
There is your lesson in how to soak the Chicago taxpayer…while claiming that you did “the tough things necessary to put our fiscal house in order”.
If you are not a Chicago taxpayer, your reaction may be “Oh, how interesting”.
If you are a Chicago taxpayer, your reaction probably starts with “Oh….” and readers will have to use their imagination to fill in the rest.
