Dear Chicago Taxpayer, You Owe Us a Pension so Pay Up

The Civic Federation is reporting that every Chicago resident is on the hook for 444 percent more in unfunded retirement pension benefits to city workers than they were a decade ago.

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The watchdog Civic Federation said Monday that the funding deficit for the 10 largest Chicago-area public pension funds soared from $3.4 billion in 1998 to $18.5 billion in 2008, the last year for which figures are available.

This is the fault of both politicians for spending the money instead of investing it as well as unions for “negotiating” ever higher and undeserved benefits with each new contract. But no matter who is at fault, I’d guess that all the perpetrators imagine that the federal government should bail them out when the inevitable collapse arrives. That way neither the unions nor the profligate democrat politicians will ever have to pay any substantive price. Only one problem: the US government doesn’t have the cash or credit, either. I foresee the collapse of pensions all across the county and millions of people that thought they had retirement available for them will find out that it doesn’t exist. A major mess will soon come to town and no one can prevent its arrival. Both rank and file Democrats and their unions and politicians deserve all the pain coming their way, too.

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