2016-09-17wolfstreet.com

On Wednesday, the City Council approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel's scheme to bail out its largest and worst-off pension fund, the Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit fund, which would otherwise be insolvent within ten years -- and a lot quicker if markets have a hissy fit.

...

To save this one pension fund out of its four pension funds from insolvency, the city is jacking up water and sewer levies by 33%, phased in over a few years. Property owners in Chicago will pay, one way or the other, $3 billion into the fund by 2022, up from $1 billion under the prior scheme. Despite these billions of dollars involved, the fund covers only 77,000 workers and retirees... Beyond 2022, additional revenues must be extracted from the hapless people to keep bailing out the fund for decades to come.

... Property owners have already been whacked by a record property tax increase passed last October. It came on top of a reassessment of property values. So the property tax bills this year have jumped on average by 13%.

...

Phone users get to prop up the Laborers' Retirement fund, expected to become insolvent "by 2029." It covers about 5,000 current and retired laborers. So proceeds from the 911-surcharge increase from $2.50 a line to $3.90, imposed in 2014, or about $40 million a year, will be redirected to the fund. The city will also shuffle an extra $30 million a year from city funds covering the operation of O'Hare and Midway airports, water and sewer construction, and the like into the fund.

... In turn, the Laborers' Union has agreed that workers hired after January 1, 2017, will have to contribute more (11.5%) and work longer (until 65). The fund is 50% underfunded. The goal is to have it 90% funded by 2057!



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