Most of my political junkie friends tell me that Rahm's election victory in April was sealed when Chuy Garcia failed to come up with specifics on how he'd solve the city's financial crisis. But political theories are like butt cracks. Everybody has one. Yes, the media did a job on Chuy (above) for his reluctance to commit to a property tax increase without first being able to examine the books to see where the money is stashed and how the dark money really being spent.
Turns out that Chuy was just being honest and that's no way to win a mayor's race in Chicago.
If Rahm had been honest (did I really say that?) he would have admitted that he too had no solution to the city's debt/pension crisis and that he wasn't really about that anyway. What he was about was using the crisis to enrich his bankster friends without taxing their profits or big incomes.
Yesterday, Rahm did what he and Daley have always done. Despite the city's junk bond rating, he borrowed another $1.1 billion at an exorbitant interest rate from Morgan Stanley, the very bank which financed Daley's criminal parking meter deal. Billy Daley's bank to be exact.
As you might expect, the bogus borrowing plan sailed through the city council without even time for Rahm's toady alders to even read it. Shades of the parking meter deal.
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| Only 3 NO votes, Arena (L), Waguespack, and Rosa. |
As you might have expected, Patrick DALEY Thompson (11th) and "Slow Eddie" Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, voted "present", knowing that the plan would pass anyway.
Said Ramirez-Rosa:
“We can no longer allow the working families of Chicago to shoulder the cost of new borrowing with no plan to repay the debt. We were promised a responsible financial plan. Instead, we have been asked to blindly supply private banks and a limited number of connected individuals with the power to determine the future of Chicago’s financial health.”He's only a rookie. But he has the heart for the struggle
.@CDRosa cast 1 of 3 "no" votes on city borrowing 1.1 billion for city debt. Ran as a progressive and keeping it that way in office.— Lynda (@Lyndab08) June 18, 2015
HB 3695, passed overwhelmingly by the House as well as well as the Senate's executive committee, was never called for a Senate floor vote by Cullerton because Rahm didn't want it. HB 3695 would have established the tax levy for the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund so that the monies collected would go directly to the fund as was the case prior to 1995 when Springfield redirected the money into the general coffers of CPS. It would not have solved the funding problems at the CTPF but it would have started to create that stable revenue flow that pension funds need to survive. But Rahm did not want it so it was not done. Thanks to Rahm and John, our pension fund continues to struggle, selling off assets every month to pay benefits. Just part of the grand plan to destroy the pensions, especially of Chicago teachers that Rahm hates so much. And the games continue.
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