Chesterfield starts with 'Ch'

The Taxpayer knows that the meals tax is really to fix the unsustainable pensions in Chesterfield, not to build new schools.  

How close is Chesterfield to Chicago?  They both start the same... How will it end?

Illinois' $97 billion pension problem isn't doing any favors for Chicago. 

Moody's Investors Service late Wednesday downgraded the city's debt rating from Aa3 to A3 because of the city's "very large and growing" pension liability.

Moody's says the outlook is negative because of "formidable legal and political barriers to pension reform" in Illinois.

The downgrade affects $8.2 billion in debt and means it will cost more for the city to borrow money.

Illinois' credit rating, the lowest in the nation, was downgraded twice in one week last month after lawmakers failed to enact a solution to fix the state's nearly $100 billion pension shortfall.

Moody's downgraded the state's credit rating from A2 to A3 after Fitch Ratings dropped Illinois' rating from A to A-, citing pension problems. Standard & Poor's rating services lowered the rating in January.

Gov. Pat Quinn called a special session after the series of downgrades and last week suspended lawmakers pay after they missed his deadline to deliver pension reform.

Moody's says Chicago has a $19 Billion unfunded pension liability and will face "tremendous strain" in future operating budgets as city officials try to meet funding requirements and public safety demands.

Chesterfield is at least at $645 Million... Maybe those smart budget analyst that follow the Taxpayer can tell us how unsustainable it really. It will affect the young ones the most... No promises kept for them...

UPDATE

Citing a $1 billion budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees, more than a 1,000 of them teachers, the district said Thursday night.

About half of the 1,036 teachers being let go are tenured.

The latest layoffs, which also include 1,077 school staff, are in addition to 855 employees—420 of them teachers--who were laid off last month as a result of the district’s decision to close 49 elementary schools and a high school program.

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said the district was “scraping the bottom” of reserves to provide financial relief and had made cuts in other spending before making layoffs.

“We’re not going to be able to cut our way out of this crisis,” Carroll said. “Our revenues are simply not keeping in line with our spending increases.”

The district again blamed the lack of pension reform for many of its fiscal woes, noting that pension payments are growing this fiscal year by an additional $400 million. The layoffs were the result of “budgetary decisions made by principals or changes in enrollment,” the district said in a statement.

“Absent pension reform in Springfield, we had very few options available to us to close that gap,” Carroll said. “This year, given the magnitude and the size of this deficit, and the fact that there was no pension reform reached in Springfield, this has made it to the doorsteps of our schools.”