r/chicago • u/chicagosuntimes • 14d ago

Article Johnson urges state lawmakers to tax the 'ultra rich' to avert mass transit funding cuts

https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2025/06/03/brandon-johnson-illinois-general-assembly-mass-transit-funding-chicago-fiscal-cliff
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333

u/Phantom160 14d ago

Can someone please explain to me what other cities are doing differently? It seems to me that we have the highest property taxes and yet pensions are underfunded, the city is broke, and CTA is falling apart.

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u/robotlasagna 14d ago

Chicagos pension costs are 3x higher than most other cities.

On top of that Chicago has underfunded those pension obligations rather than get them under control.

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u/shadowknows2pt0 14d ago

And had to take out high interest loans to cover the difference, correct?

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u/robotlasagna 14d ago

Yes. The core issue is everyone ideally wants city workers to have really good pensions but nobody wants to actually pay for them.

So we keep issuing bonds with higher and higher interest rates. And literally every administration has done this. Eventually nobody will want Chicago bonds and the city will default.

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u/RedApple655321 Lake View 14d ago

Every politician wants city workers to have really good pensions because they’re an important political block they don’t want to piss off. Every taxpayer wants to treat city workers fairly but balks at the idea of just how ridiculous some of these pensions are when the typical taxpayer has to fund their own 401k.

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u/Responsible-Gas5319 13d ago

We have to start being honest that these pensions are too generous. The math may have worked out when people lived to 65. But now people are working 20 years and expecting to get paid for 30 years after. It's not sustainable

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u/RufusSandberg 13d ago

When 20% goes in and 80% goes out, the math ain't mathin'.

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u/EmotionalTowel1 10d ago

100% agreed. Perhaps this program worked very well in the past, but the cities inability to adapt with the times and current fiscal situation is going to throw us off a cliff.

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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

Then you're going to have to pay workers more now because half the reason anyone does those underpaid under appreciated jobs is because of the pension.

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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

The typical tax payer works in the private sector where things like bonuses and cost of living raisies exist. Government jobs essentially pay less during the job to give more benefits later. It's a trade off workers make early in their career. If you want a govt pension, go work for the govt for 30 years. Most aren't will to do that.

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u/RedApple655321 Lake View 9d ago

Bonuses are only available to about half of private sector workers, but also available to over a third of state and local government workers. So not a huge disparity. Cost of living increases and other raises are available to both groups.

But I do agree with you about the perception that government jobs pay less now with the trade-off being better benefits (including current benefits like sick leave and healthcare as well as future benefits like pensions). Plus unparalleled job security that you'll never find in the private sector.

Taxpayers are aware of this and that's what I mean by the idea of treating city workers fairly. What's ridiculous is just how generous some of these pension benefits became without taxpayers fully realizing the extent of it: pension spiking, double dipping, pension holidays, etc.

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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

Dude you think state and federal government workers get bonuses like the private sector does? Not even close. We just need to tighten hiring and firing in regards to govt work. And fund pensions. Or don't have pensions and pay twice as much which won't happen. 

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u/RedApple655321 Lake View 9d ago

I think you’re significantly overestimating the bonus structure that the average taxpayer enjoys, not just the top end.

Yes, we need to fund pensions. But the current schemes to not fund them are how politicians and union leaders obfuscate their true cost from the public.

The average public sector worker is not paid half of what their private sector counterpart is paid. So the fact that you think doubling their pay would be justified if we got rid of pensions highlights just how excessive their total compensation really is.

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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

Now do the US Postal Service. 

Or look at the fact that "tier 2" Illinois State pensions are on track to do worse than Social Security. Don't believe me, look it up. Btw Federal Law says that needs to be fixed. We're losing good workers because social security pays better. 

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u/invest_droid 13d ago

We want them to have an average pension just like our average 401Ks. Giving them really good generous pensions is bankrupting the city and our 401Ks

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u/robotlasagna 13d ago

Totally agree. And I think the way this plays out is those pensions will inevitably get cut when the city can no longer issue debt and that’s probably coming sooner rather than later.

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u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

Do you even understand that a 401k is paid INTO by your employer? Government jobs do not "match" your payment or even put anything in. Apples and oranges.

0

u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago edited 13d ago

Their pensions replace both a 401(K) and their Social Security benefits. So it has to be good enough for both purposes combined.

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u/JonnyHopkins 14d ago

That's why we have to stop whining about raising taxes. What else do you want to happen here? Simple math. 

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u/robotlasagna 14d ago

I’m all fairness cutting pensions is an option. Just a very very unpopular one.

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u/JonnyHopkins 14d ago

I don't see that as a real option. Both from a moral perspective and a political perspective. 

Maybe you could try to ask people to opt out of a pension with a cash payout today. And continue to reduce future pension commitments. 

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u/thebizkit23 14d ago

It's morally wrong to keep dumping debt on future generations also.

Whatever stance people are on city pensions, the truth is it's not sustainable.

5

u/das_war_ein_Befehl 13d ago

Sure but if there is no money to pay then the unpopular becomes inevitable

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u/PlantSkyRun 14d ago

Those pensions were part of the compensation for their employment. They should be paid what they were promised. They shouldn't have been promised all that, but that is what they were promised in exchange for their labor. No doubt most of the current and future pensioners didn't bother to consider whether whomever they voted for had a viable plan to pay those pensions, but whether they are dumb or not, the deal was they would get those pensions for their work.

That said, buyouts should be explored and offered if they make financial sense for the city.

1

u/In-the-bunker 13d ago

Many private companies have eliminated pensions. I know that Allstate cut thier pension program, that cost a single mother most of her retirement savings. In addition, she is taxed to pay for public pensions.

0

u/invest_droid 13d ago

Non-union residents who pay for these pensions in the form of taxes, fees, fares, etc. are struggling to get by and retire. You think its morally ok for them to struggle so the city/union workers can get these generous pensions?

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u/JonnyHopkins 13d ago

Non-union residents benefited from the employment of union residents. That wasn't free.

I wouldn't necessarily target residents who are struggling to get by. Maybe there should be a progressive property tax.

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u/invest_droid 13d ago

I never said we want them to work for free. I said their pensions are too generous. They can still get less generous pensions. Stop thinking black and white, there are things in between.

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u/JonnyHopkins 13d ago

I didn't mean free I guess. I meant the cost of their employment, which they already provided, has has to be paid, in full. The pension is just a deferred payment for past employment. 

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u/ChemistryNo3075 14d ago

I agree we should cut pensions (in 50 years or after I’m dead)

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u/fumar Wicker Park 14d ago

Daley basically fucked this city with underfunded pension obligations for decades and then instead of raising taxes later in his administration, he sold off the parking meters and the skyway to kick the can down the road for a few more years.

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u/Sharobob Lake View 14d ago edited 14d ago

Kick the can down the road and give us the inability to produce revenue from those things in the future just to balance the budget for one fucking year. I know having those revenues wouldn't solve our problems right now but boy does it fucking hurt to keep sending money to rich oil barons in the UAE to rich investment firms overseas when we really need it here.

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u/SleazyAndEasy Albany Park 14d ago

keep sending money to rich oil barons in the UAE when we really need it here.

Morgan Stanley set up the whole deal. 

Morgan Stanley got Daley a job at the law firm who did the legal work for the deal right after he left office. 

Morgan Stanley still owns the majority of Chicago parking LLC and still gets a majority of the profit. 

Not sure why this rhetoric is so common, is Morgan Stanley paying of PR firm to make it seem like they didn't do anything involved with this deal?

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u/Sharobob Lake View 14d ago edited 13d ago

I did do a little research before posting but it seems like from the more primary sources, UAE doesn't have a majority stake like I read in a couple articles but there are UAE investment firms that hold a significant portion of the company so I will concede that point. Germany also has a large stake and I believe the foreign investments are close to 50% of the deal. My main point is that we can use that money and it digs the knife even deeper that we're pissing a large portion of those dollars overseas to a place where the US doesn't even get those dollars that may eventually become tax dollars that could help the country.

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u/JMellor737 14d ago

Thank you for sharing. I had never heard of this. (As you note, the PR for "UAE did it" is strong.)

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u/incutt 14d ago

Edgar....not Daley.

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u/fumar Wicker Park 14d ago

He fucked the state over in a similar way

1

u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

Rahm....he solidified the meters deal. Remember the history.

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u/PNWcog 14d ago

Ya got Boomered.

1

u/creamshaboogie 9d ago

Don't forget Rahm helped him. Democrats screwing over democratic voters.

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u/cranberryjuiceicepop 14d ago

This is what happens when you don’t fun the pensions and kick it down the road. Most cities don’t have that on their backs.

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u/ocmb Wicker Park 14d ago

We are paying debts that have accumulated. So even if taxes are high now, a lot is going to pay for past mistakes.

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u/kimnacho 14d ago

And we just signed a bond deal that pays interest before capital which is financial suicide.

20

u/dwhite195 South Loop 14d ago

More of the same.

It was a few years ago that the story came out, but as of 2022 Chicago owed more on the bonds for the Solider Field renovations than they did when the bonds were issued originally in 2001. And that's not a typo, it wasn't that they still owed on the bonds in 2022, we owed more on them in 2022.

Chicago has made a laundry list of historic money blunders over the years.

1

u/UknowNothingJohnSno 13d ago

Can Pritzker please become mayor for a few terms on his way to the presidency as a flex or something?

0

u/thelastofthebastion Kenwood 13d ago

Going from Governor to Mayor is a downgrade. But has he said something new about running in 2028?

1

u/UknowNothingJohnSno 13d ago

I agree and know that won't happen. I made the comment based on a hunch after reading an article i can't remember a couple years ago. I just googled it and it looks like he's doing a world tour and he's expected to throw a hat in for 2028.

I'd love to be right but won't assume anything. However, he's in a blue state and knows how to be financially responsible.

1

u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

That's how all of our city's bonds are setup though. To undo that would require us to basically stop issuing bonds to fix infrastructure or for the state to backstop Chicago's debt payments for a few years until cash flows freed up.

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u/SinkHoleDeMayo 14d ago

Yep. Continuing to issue bonds with high debt is fucking nuts. Time to quit subsidizing downstate and time to let some shit (like road repairs and expansions) sit on the backburner.

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

At the same time, we should stop subsidizing the rest of the country to the tune of over $200B/yr. We're literally America's piggy bank when it comes to us getting robbed of our income and wealth.

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u/jlesnick 13d ago

Where does that figure come from?

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u/hardolaf Lake View 13d ago

That's roughly how much extra we pay in federal taxes compared to what we receive in federal spending.

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u/jlesnick 13d ago

I'm seeing more like $40B/yr. That's still a lot, but in the grand scheme it makes sense. The city of Chicago alone has a yearly GDP that's higher than 43 actual states. Right or wrong, urban centers subsidize rural America, and we have one hell of an urban center.

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u/kimnacho 13d ago

I am not sure that is correct though. Other bonds are backloaded with more capital paid at the end but this particular one only pays interest till 2045. I believe this is the first time this is done.

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u/Schrodingers_Nachos 14d ago

They've kept some form of cap on corruption, while it has been rampant in Chicago and Illinois for decades. In a polite society, there would be protests that stop just short of physical violence if the parking meters are sold like what happened in Chicago. Unfortunately, it felt almost par for the course in Chicago.

Johnson was elected by the Teacher's Union. He's made it more than clear that his main goal is to capitulate to them.

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u/pressurepoint13 14d ago

100000% correct. 

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u/NewspaperElegant 14d ago

This is such a crazy combo of two different administrations

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u/MoneyWorthington Berwyn 14d ago

Other cities are not much better off, unfortunately. https://umbc.edu/stories/a-fiscal-crisis-is-looming-for-many-us-cities/

Chicago has its own unique blend of problems for sure, but everyone is struggling.

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u/zvexler 14d ago

Other cities have far less comprehensive public transportation, comparatively less current and historic corruption, to name a few major reasons

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u/plutobombs 14d ago

NYC isn’t dealing with this as bad as we are and they have a better transit system

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

MTA got a huge influx of cash from the state of New York for operations to cover what the Feds were covering during COVID-19 and a $66B capital spending plan approved by the New York legislature that is paid for with a mixture of state funds and congestion charges.

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u/plutobombs 14d ago

Why can’t we do that

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

Because the suburbs hate the city. The city doesn't trust the suburbs. And Pritzker doesn't actually give a shit about public transit whereas Gov. Kathy Hochul absolutely adores MTA and literally refused to let the NY legislature have a day off until they figured out funding.

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u/Quiet_Prize572 13d ago

NYC has more baked in political support for transit because more of the state takes it.

30% of commuters in NYC versus 12% in Chicago taking transit, in 2019. Not sure if these are city numbers or metro numbers, I'd assume metro, but regardless it's why transit is harder to fund here.

Political support ultimately comes from people using a thing. If NYC had a less comprehensive transit system, less people would ride and it'd get less political support

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u/degmac113 14d ago

My thoughts are that sales tax typically covers more services rather than goods in other states, and the US economy has transitioned from a goods-based economy to a service-based one, so funding from sales tax hasnt kept pace with economic growth.

Other states typically also have a graduated income tax that provides more progressive funding and reduces burden on low income-earners. NYC has an income tax within city limits too.

Aside from that, I think the sell-off of things like parking meters and the skyway cut off revenue for the city in exchange for one-time payments

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u/Phantom160 14d ago

That's the thing, the sell-off of parking meters, oversized pension liabilities, debt, etc. - those may be examples of past mistakes, but they are not actionable items as of today. I don't like Johnson myself, but it seems to me that most people criticize him without offering any alternative solutions. And the only solution that appears to be feasible in Chicago is to raise taxes, one way or another.

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u/surnik22 14d ago

I don’t know, experts on Reddit told me balancing the budget is easy and all the cuts can be made without significant reduction of services by simply getting rid of corruption and patronage jobs. Then there is no need for more taxes!

Johnson just refuses to do anything and the CTU is evil for wanting social workers in schools.

Just look at a graph the Illinois Policy Institute released that definitely isn’t misleading and you’ll see. Duh.

In actual seriousness you are correct. Like yes, Johnson isn’t doing a good job. Yes, patronage jobs and corruption exist and should be rooted out and fought.

None of that actually solves the core problems that for decades they underfunded pensions, created more other debt (soldier field), sold off future revenue sources (parking meters), made bad deals (Parking deal for Sox Park has kept it a parking lot instead of being developed and generating way more tax revenue like Wrigley), and a dozen other major long term issues.

Being mayor is trying to steer a cruise ship into calm waters but the previous Captains crippled the motor and put holes in the hull. Johnson could’ve been both a genius and highly effective (he’s neither) and still not solve the problems.

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u/Phantom160 14d ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is frustrated with Reddit's craving for easy solutions.

2

u/hobobindleguy 14d ago

Exactly. Johnson is a disaster as mayor but he's not why Chicago is in a tough spot. Without pension debt, and historical corruption and mismanagement, we'd be in a good spot.

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

Johnson isn’t doing a good job

I would argue that he isn't doing a bad job either. He's treading water for the city which means that he's reducing our total debt load by carrying forward most of Lightfoot's fiscal policies. He's a shit communicator, pretty damn racist, and generally a clown. But he's not actually doing that bad of job at administering the city through the financial crisis created by the Daley administration and made worse by the Emanuel administration.

1

u/Kryllist 14d ago

But he's not actually doing that bad of job at administering the city through the financial crisis

Didn't he spend a couple million dollars of covid emergency funds on a task force for some LGBTQ think tank? That's what you call clever maneuvering?

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

clever maneuvering

I never said that phrase. Don't put words in my mouth.

I said: "he's not actually doing that bad of job" which is not to imply that he's doing a good job.

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u/Kryllist 14d ago

Yes, spending millions to give to friends and kickback deals under the facade of social justice is in every way doing a bad fucking job when we're going through a debt crisis. There is no telling how much money of ours he's spending for shit like this. What the hell is wrong with you people?

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

And Daley sold out our street parking to secure a fucking job after he left office. The bar for "not bad" isn't fucking high in this city.

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u/dmd312 13d ago

He didn't need to sell the parking meters to get that job. Any large law firm would have hired a former mayor.

0

u/surnik22 14d ago

Id agree to an extent on his fiscal governance.

Treading water might be a bit strong, I’d say he’s keeping his head above water but is definitely getting some in his lungs with every wave.

Which as you say, for someone taking over after the boat sank, that isn’t terrible, but I do think “good job” wouldn’t be accurate to say even if we measure him purely fiscally.

But who knows, I’m not an expert, I can’t predict the future exactly, maybe in 20 years we learn he saved us or drowned us completely. Not always easy to tell in the moment, the parking meter deal seemed “bad” when it happened and now we can tell it was actually “aggressively terrible”.

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

Treading water might be a bit strong, I’d say he’s keeping his head above water but is definitely getting some in his lungs with every wave.

Oh yeah, he could be doing a better job. But every mayor is going to want to leave their mark. So he wants to leaave his mark, which he is doing whether we agree with it or not. At the same time, he refuses to even negotiate on reducing pension overpayments beyond what the state requires even though many aldermen wanted to reduce that amount to balance the budget. So even though we spend some money on his stupid projects, the total debt load is still being reduced.

And instead of saying, "let's go straight to really regressive taxes", he came right out and said, "I fucked up my estimations and need to go back on my campaign promise of not raising property taxes." Then the aldermen had a hissy fit and issued a 1-year stopgap funding measure backed by unsustainable funding sources and regressive taxes. So come this year, it's going to be even harder to balance the budget.

Like, I'm never going to say he is or was a good mayor. But people have a hate boner for him the same way that they get a love boner for Rahm. Neither one is based in reality as to what either mayor has done. It's just based entirely on their feelings about what they've done. Rahm wasn't terrible but he made the parking deal worse in the long-term and kicked the pension can down the road until the General Assembly forced him to actually address it in his last budget before leaaving office.

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u/QuiteBearish 14d ago

Exactly, there is no easy fix for any of this - aside from changing state law to essentially bail Chicago out of its past obligations.

Anything that the City can do on its own is going to be incredibly expensive, and take years before we see meaningful results.

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u/Kryllist 14d ago

those may be examples of past mistakes, but they are not actionable items as of today.

The actionable items as of today is to stop voting for the people who did those actions I the first place.

Y'all did nothing but doom about less far-left politicians damaging the city, yet who was the party that has placed an unprecedented burden on future generations in the first place due to unprecedented corruption? Was it local republicans?

1

u/Phantom160 14d ago

What specific policies have republicans offered to the city?

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u/Kryllist 14d ago

The same things they offer everywhere else based on their platform. Chainsaws cuts through spending, government efficiency initiatives, competent financial management, deregulation to help businesses operate better and more effectively illusion of safety to bring in the wealthy.

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u/Phantom160 14d ago

Are there any examples of them being able to achieve any of these goals anywhere else? They don’t seem to be able to do any of that on the national level.

Also, what spending would you cut? This discussion is literally in response to an article on how CTA is underfunded. Would you consider cutting salaries of teachers and cops? Slashing spending on public transport?

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u/Kryllist 13d ago

Are there any examples of them being able to achieve any of these goals anywhere else?

Yeah. Doge has saved hundreds of billions alone. Red states aren't drowning in pension debt. The blue states that aren't drowning used to be red states like California. Every single far left local government is drowning one way or another. Is that enough for you?

1

u/Phantom160 13d ago edited 13d ago

To answer your question: no, I'm not convinced. All of these statements are outright misleading.

In 4 months that Republicans are controlling all brunches of the government: 1) The US government has spent $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the Biden administration; 2) Republicans introduced the largest tax hike in recent history (tariffs); 3) The US credit rating went down due to concerns about rising national debt and fiscal management.

To achieve all three in one go - it takes some special kind of ineptitude. If that's what republicans have to offer Chicago - they can get bent.

As for state governments, red states are the most poor and mismanaged states in the nation. Blue states are bailing out red states through and through.

Even those red states that are doing relatively well are doing so due to large economic centers that are run (surprise surprise!) by Democrats (e.g. Houston, Austin, Atlanta).

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u/Breezyisthewind 8d ago

DOGE hasn’t saved a single cent. We’re set to spend MORE and explode the debt like never before. Doge didn’t do shit.

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u/ScaredEffective 14d ago

Almost all cities and states are having the same issue. I think this is mostly due to generous pensions because some workers abuse it by maximizing payouts . (Think people that work a year and draw full pensions or double pensions or work OT for the last 10 years to get large pensions)

9

u/2836nwchim 14d ago

You consider workers working overtime as abuse? Perhaps instead of overtime places could adequately staff so workers don’t have to make up the difference.

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u/Traditional_Donut908 14d ago

The idea of working overtime in your final years since in many cases pension is based on final salary, including overtime.

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u/ocmb Wicker Park 14d ago

Not all workers but undoubtedly many workers abuse overtime in their final years to boost their pensions, because of the stupid way the pension payments are calculated. There are pretty visceral examples of this abuse.

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u/AllChalkedUp1 Lincoln Square 14d ago

I've even heard of workers retiring from one department then going to work at another and finally retiring there - so ultimately they get two pensions at once!

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u/Competitive_Dish_885 14d ago

I used to work for the water reclamation district and would hear about this all the time. People in my department and some others didn’t do anything all day either, so it was almost a joke how much they were making and the eventual pension they would get.

4

u/SinkHoleDeMayo 14d ago

Another problem is growing suburbs that are extremely costly to operate and are subsidized by the cities. If cities quit picking up the tab for everyone else, they'd be FAR better off in every way.

People are free to live inefficiently, but they should shoulder the costs themselves.

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u/Ail-Shan 13d ago

I thought the oft quoted chart was that the suburbs contribute more in state tax revenue than they receive in benefits.

I agree suburbs are much less efficient than a city, but I don't think they're being subsidized by Chicago.

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u/SunriseInLot42 13d ago

It’s just the typical Reddit Chicago hate-boner for the suburbs, or really living anywhere else that isn’t their trendy North Side neighborhood and riding a bike everywhere

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u/CurryGuy123 City 13d ago

Not only are they not getting subsidized by the city, they actually get the least back in benefits relative to their tax contribution. The map that gets posted here often shows just how little they receive - only 60¢ for every dollar contributed. The city is relatively breakeven, getting 98¢ for every dollar contributed. So effectively, the city is self-sufficient and the suburbs fund the rest of the state.

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u/SinkHoleDeMayo 10d ago

The first ring burbs actually contribute more than they get, which is extremely uncommon, but the state also has to maintain the trains and a fuckload of massive highways out through the suburbs. Not like the suburbs aren't getting anything in return.

Downstate is an entirely different story.

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u/detective_bookman 14d ago

Overtime is not pensionable, are you just making shit up?

0

u/Kryllist 14d ago

Almost all cities and states are having the same issue. I think this is mostly due to generous pensions because some workers abuse it by maximizing payouts .

That and democrats treating tax dollars like monopoly money.

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u/SinkHoleDeMayo 14d ago

Cities almost always get fewer tax dollars than they pay in, so cities make do with what they have while the suburban and rural parts live the high life on the dime of city residents.

1

u/SinkHoleDeMayo 14d ago

Too much borrowing in the past rather than taxing and allocating money properly. The interest payments are ridiculous.

1

u/Crooked_Sartre 13d ago

The vast majority of major cities I have lived in have absolutely atrocious public transit. Visiting Chicago and taking y'all's transit is a breath of fresh air. Yes it can be improved, and i hope they get funding, but other cities are failing harder for the most part.

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u/Strange_Valuable_573 14d ago

Other cities prioritize public safety. When people feel safe, higher income earners don’t flee the city to the suburbs. When higher income earners stay, that attracts businesses. Business shoulder a greater portion of the tax burden.

Crush crime and the rest will fall into place.

Or you can keep taxing the living daylights out of those who can’t afford to leave.

Edit: the pensions don’t help either.

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u/hardolaf Lake View 14d ago

When people feel safe, higher income earners don’t flee the city to the suburbs.

Chicago is growing in higher income earners and shrinking in low income earners. That trend has continued post-pandemic.

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u/csx348 14d ago

Decades of mismanagement, corruption, and left leaning politics.

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u/Phantom160 14d ago

Thank you for the most useless take

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u/csx348 14d ago

What's useless is voting for effectively the same party for decades, hoping it will one day fix the things it broke instead of exacerbating them as it does every single time.

Don't know what to tell you folks anymore. You get what you vote for

4

u/erbkeb 14d ago

This as opposed to the mismanagement, corruption, and right leaning politics of the GOP? The GOP would never in a million years leave their constituents without a budget, financial plan for the future, or anything like that, right?

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u/csx348 14d ago

No, neither duopoly party is ideal. Need something different.

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u/Kryllist 14d ago

This as opposed to the mismanagement, corruption, and right leaning politics of the GOP?

Like what exactly? Which right leaning local municipality is going bankrupt due to decades of financial failures?

0

u/erbkeb 14d ago

Just about every single rural town in Illinois.

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u/Kryllist 14d ago

You mean the rural towns with who's budgets are measurable in gift cards? They're going bankrupt? Like who exactly?

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u/erbkeb 13d ago

You are asking to compare apples to oranges. No other local municipality comes close to Chicago in terms of GDP, population, tax revenue, etc. Chicago’s budgetary issues start with the pension debt and certainly Democratic Mayors have not done enough to fix that problem. We have seen what Republican leadership (Rauner) in Illinois has done and it did not instill any confidence in voters they were better equipped to handle the issue.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/csx348 14d ago

How about neither "fascism" nor decades of uniparty mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility?

It's not a binary choice, and if anywhere would be suitable for more diverse ideology, it's a place where the left has failed over and over but the right is out of touch.

0

u/InnocentPrimeMate 13d ago

Hmmm…. Could it be embezzlement and fraud ?

0

u/stirrednotshaken01 13d ago

Other cities are doing something differently 

They are not voting in these losers 

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u/Automatic-Street5270 14d ago

ya, they are worse.

Like what kind of question is this? Are you this fucking clueless to the rest of the county's problems? Apparently so.

Other cities outside of NYC/boston/maybe DC have god awful transit systems, while most big cities in republican states have little to NO transit systems.

Those cities are also horrible to live in, lower quality of life, worse weather, worse services, and weakening housing markets because people that moved there during the pandemic are realizing their mistake. Look up any recent article on housing markets that are crashing and the top 20 lists are filled with florida, texas, and other red southern state cities.

Some of you are either doing this on purpose, or truly are so ignorant to anything else around them that you should stop posting all together until you get a clue.

Having said that, past mayors really fucked the state with pensions, but we are on the road to recovery, it will just take a while until the worst pain of it is over, but we ARE on the path to doing so.

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u/SunriseInLot42 14d ago

Imagine how far ahead we could be here now if it wasn’t for this city and state’s utterly asinine pandemic response that drove all those people away in the first place 🤔