The district’s borrowing does take pressure off of the district’s immediate cash-flow problem. However, it does nothing to solve the CPS’ long-term financial crisis and its structural imbalances – in fact it only makes things worse.
Mere months after passing the largest tax hike in modern Chicago history, Mayor Rahm Emanuel vows to hit residents with even higher property-tax bills, this time to bail out pension mismanagement by Chicago Public Schools officials – behavior tacitly endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union.
Amid CPS’ postponed $875 million bond sale, Chicagoans should question whether the district can fill its budget hole and whether Emanuel will stand up for Chicago taxpayers or give in to more teachers union demands.
Instead of spending reform and policies to promote economic growth, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan proposes the same high-taxing, big-spending plans that got Illinois into its current fiscal mess.
Chicago Public Schools’ postponement of its $875 million bond sale indicates investors’ concerns over the financial state of the district.
Transcript, provided by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office, of his 2016 State of the State address, as prepared for delivery, to the General Assembly on January 27, 2016.
Without fundamental reforms, the tax hike state Democrats want to impose will only drive Illinois further into decline.
The state must get its financial affairs in order by allowing municipal bankruptcy and enacting real pension reforms.
The Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology will tackle one of the state’s most important management problems – an outdated IT system that wastes taxpayer money.
Illinois paid $53 million more to borrow money through its Jan. 14 bond sale than it would have paid had politicians not let the state’s debt and government-worker pension obligations spiral out of control, while driving out taxpaying residents and businesses through tax hikes and costly regulations.
Gov. Bruce Rauner and Republican state lawmakers have proposed bankruptcy for Chicago Public Schools; Mayor Rahm Emanuel has rejected the idea of bankruptcy, repeating his demand that Illinois taxpayers bail out the struggling school district.
Illinoisans handed over a larger portion of their earnings to state and local governments than did taxpayers in 45 lower-tax states in fiscal year 2012, according to a new Tax Foundation study.
A pending lawsuit by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, among other unions, is keeping dozens of workers on state payrolls – even though their workplaces have been shuttered for months.
Illinois has the lowest credit rating among the 50 states, forcing taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in borrowing costs than residents of states in better fiscal condition.