From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Daley said the 32-member pension commission he created more than two years ago will soon recommend solutions to the crisis that won't be pretty or politically popular.
"I hope it's controversial. It has to be. If it's not controversial, then it's not worth anything," Daley said, acknowledging that "a lot of people will not be happy."
"You can close your eyes. You can wait for another election. It's not gonna go away. These are serious economic problems for taxpayers. … I've asked the unions [to make sacrifices]. I'm not blaming them. It's everyone’s problem. [But] there are solutions out there, and they'd better realize we have to come to some solutions."
Daley is also casting a cold eye at "double-dipping." It's a traditional problem in Chicago, usually it entails someone drawing a paycheck from more than one government job. But contemporary public sector pensions kick in as early as a worker's 50th birthday, giving 50 year-olds the opportunity to seek other government jobs, assuming they are healthy, which of course most of them are. Pensions were conceived at a time when a much larger percentage of the workforce was performing back-breaking work and lifespans were much shorter.
Related post:
Unfunded pension liability at almost $6K per Chicagoan
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