Thursday, February 20, 2014

Where were the union officials when the contributions were shorted?

GOVERNMENT UNION MEMBERS MARCH, DEMAND ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE "STOP PENSION THEFT". This effort is probably too little too late.

SPRINGFIELD - Public sector unions are converging as "We are One" at the State Capitol Wednesday, demanding the Illinois legislature keep the pension promises they made over the decades. The "We are One" coalition is pushing for employers to pay more taxes and for Illinois to shift to a graduated (progressive) income tax rate.
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7 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/20/2014

    They were having coffee with Daley telling them how much he loved them.

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  2. Anonymous2/20/2014

    Usually, when you sign a contract, certain things are promised and certain deadlines must be met. As anyone who has ever dealt with Chicago can attest, deadlines are mere suggestions that payment will take place at some unspecified point in the future. It looks like the PBPA that represents the Sergeants finally got fed up with Rahm's "promises" of retro payment:
    The union representing 1,088 Chicago Police sergeants asked a judge Wednesday to order Mayor Rahm Emanuel to pay $5 million in retroactive pay raises with 5 percent interest dating back to November — mandated by an arbitrator’s ruling ratified by the City Council.

    City Hall insisted that the mayor’s 2014 budget includes $6.5 million for retro pay and that the delay stems from the painstaking process of calculating amounts owed to individual sergeants — not from a cash-flow crunch.

    “Mayor Emanuel has asked that the process be expedited, and we anticipate issuing checks within the next two weeks, ” said Kelley Quinn, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Budget and Management in an emailed response.

    The sergeants association scoffed at that explanation and said the delay raises red flags.

    “They’ve known about this since November. What have they got — one guy with an eyeshade and a pencil calculating this?” said a source close to Sergeants Association President Jim Ade.
    It's obvious to even the most casual observers that Rahm is messing with the Sergeants because they filed and won a grievance over the DSS debacle. But the entire incident also calls into question the City's ability to pay a completely foreseeable and predictable bill that has come due, and amazingly, Fran Spielman actually delves into that aspect of things:
    The delay follows a financial squeeze that had forced Emanuel to plow through $25 million in snow removal spending — $4.5 million over a budget that was supposed to cover this winter and the start of next — even before Monday’s storm dropped another eight inches of snow on parts of Chicago with another one on the way.

    Earlier this month, Emanuel convinced the City Council to double — from $500 million to $1 billion — a so-called “commercial paper” program used to tide the city over between major bond issues.

    Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott said the short-term borrowing program would “ensure the city has liquidity for unseen needs such as retroactive salary payments and judgments.”

    Back pay for sergeants is hardly “unseen.”
    2d City Cop

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  3. Anonymous2/20/2014

    typical Union Weasel tactics. All out for themselves in the upper eschelon of union leadership. Right-To-Work State reform, for ALL Illinois citizens,NOW

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  4. I think this is the best question I've ever seen on this site. This has been going on for years. Where did the money go? This is the question no one asks. What's the assumption? That politicos just spent it on other things? Themselves? Did the money go to friends of the Mayor? Madigan? Edgar? Blagojevich? For "projects"? Where did it go instead of where it should've gone?

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  5. Anonymous2/21/2014

    the game is over

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  6. Anonymous2/21/2014

    Unions, were a great idea but like everything else. Too much of anything is bad.

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  7. Anonymous2/21/2014

    A progressive income tax? It will drive everybusinessman right out of iIllinois.

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