By Austin Berg
02/24/2015
How village officials used public money to pad the pockets of one of the most successful artists of all time, and tried to keep it a secret.
By Benjamin VanMetre
11/26/2014
Here are the top 10 facts you need to know about Illinois’ pension crisis: 1) Illinois’ state pension funds have only 41 cents for every dollar they need to pay out future benefits. 2) Illinois has the nation’s worst pension crisis. Taxpayers are officially on the hook for more than $100 billion in unfunded Illinois pension debt,...
By Benjamin VanMetre
08/04/2014
Illinois has the lowest credit rating in the nation. The sad truth is Illinois hasn’t been a AAA-rated state since February 1979 – when a gallon of gas cost less than a dollar and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered in the low 800s. The state’s credit rating has been in a downward spiral ever...
By John Klingner
07/24/2014
Standard & Poor’s Rating Services revised Illinois’ credit outlook to “negative” from “developing” on July 23. Illinois’ current S&P rating is A-, the lowest of any state in the country. With this revision, S&P and the other major rating agency in the country, Moody’s Investors Service, are once again on the same page. Both companies...
TAGS: downgrade
By John Klingner
07/11/2014
Illinois has once again earned the dubious honor of having one of the worst pension crises in the nation. This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, or CEI, released a report, “Understanding Public Pension Debt,” which combined the state rankings of several different pension debt studies, including reports by Moody’s Investors Service and the U.S. Census...
TAGS: Chicago, debt, pensions
By John Klingner
06/27/2014
In the next bad surprise for taxpayers and Illinois’ downstate teachers, the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, announced that the shortfall in its pension fund has increased by $6 billion. The bigger shortfall means that without real pension reform, teachers may see their pensions cut and taxpayers may be called on to bail out the nearly insolvent...
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has reportedly struck a pension deal with city employees who are members of the Municipal and Laborers pension funds. The deal only affects half of the city’s workers. Firefighters and policemen, as well as its teachers, park and transit workers, are not included. The deal, which calls for a five-year, $750...
TAGS: pensions
When Mayor Rahm Emanuel went to SXSW to pitch Chicago as a destination city, he touted the city’s buzz. There’s no denying Chicago’s arts and tech scene is on the rise. But Emanuel failed to tell Austin crowds there’s a buzzkill on the way – the city’s fiscal collapse. Chicago continued its decline when two of...
TAGS: Chicago Park District, CPS: Chicago Public Schools, credit rating
By Benjamin VanMetre
03/14/2014
Moody’s Investors Service recently cut the city of Chicago’s credit rating to Baa1 from A3, citing pension debt as a key factor in the downgrade. Chicago’s now has the lowest credit rating of all the major cities in the U.S., with the exception of Detroit. Moody’s saw something that’s being ignored by Illinois lawmakers –...
TAGS: Chicago
