Is Chicago the Next Detroit?

 

So it turns out the president's home city of Chicago (D-IL) is suffering through a bit of fiscal trouble:

 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed the books on 2012 with $33.4 million in unallocated cash on hand — down from $167 million the year before — while adding to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers, year-end audits show. Last week, Moody’s Investors ordered an unprecedented triple-drop in the city’s bond rating, citing Chicago’s “very large and growing” pension liabilities, “significant” debt service payments, “unrelenting public safety demands” and historic reluctance to raise local taxes that has continued under Emanuel.

Those unprecedented downgrades were delivered despite what the Sun-Times describes as Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "aggressive cost-cutting measures."  Long-term unfunded promises and the costs of servicing the city's debt are swamping shorter-term attempts at fiscal restraint.  Absent significant reforms, this is America's future, too.  More on that eye-opening triple downgrade, directly from the credit ratings agency:

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the City of Chicago's (IL) general obligation (GO) and sales tax ratings to A3 from Aa3; water and sewer senior lien revenue ratings to A1 from Aa2; and water and sewer second lien revenue ratings to A2 from Aa3. Chicago has $7.7 billion of GO debt, $566 million of sales tax debt, $2.0 billion of water revenue debt, and $1.3 billion of sewer revenue debt outstanding. The outlook on all ratings is negative ...The downgrade of the GO rating reflects Chicago's very large and growing pension liabilities and accelerating budget pressures associated with those liabilities. The city's budgetary flexibility is already burdened by high fixed costs, including unrelenting public safety demands and significant debt service payments.

Moody's reference to "unrelenting public safety demands" is in part a euphemism for Chicago's appalling murder and violent crime crisis, which manages to remain alarmingly acute despite the city's strict anti-gun laws.  Strange, that.  Oh, did I say triple downgrade?  I meant quadruple, and this one genuinely hurts The Children:

Chicago's public schools on Wednesday forecast a record $1 billion fiscal 2014 budget deficit despite layoffs of 1,000 teachers and the expected closing of 50 schools, prompting one credit agency to downgrade its debt rating. The nation's third-largest public school district blamed the mounting red ink on an expected sharp rise in annual pension payments for teachers, because the state of Illinois has failed to curb ballooning pension costs.

For years, Illinois teachers unions negotiated unsustainable contracts with their Democratic buddies, who run the city and state -- a vicious cycle that is has begun its inevitable meltdown.  The obligations owed to these government employees are consuming the city's budget, prompting desperate bouts of austerity cuts -- which are now unavoidable.  To paraphrase one of the city's prominent citizens, Chicago's fiscal recklessness is comin' home to roost.

Read More: Town Hall 

Deadbeat Democrats Refuse to Pay Their Debts

Watchdog groups say the loan shows that Obama put political expediency above his pledge to run “the most transparent government in history,”

“It’s clear the administration is hypocritical.”

Despite Obama’s crackdown on emissions from coal-fired plants, Duke is one of at least a dozen firms exempted by the administration so it can pursue energy projects paid for by stimulus dollars, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity.

 

 

The Democratic National Committee has no intention of repaying the country’s largest electrical power company for the unprecedented $10 million line of credit it guaranteed to help a local host committee fund last September’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

According to an article on the Washington Times web site, an official for Duke Energy said the company would claim the money as a business expense for tax purposes, meaning shareholders will foot $6 million of the cost.

The amount of the loan and the secrecy surrounding it has raised red flags for government watchdog groups.

They claim the arrangement smacks of serious conflict-of-interest issues for President Obama and disputes his claim to be committed to disclosure and transparency.

Since Duke Energy guaranteed the loan, the company had previously refused to issue any information regarding payment terms or when it would come due.

At the end of January, a Duke Energy spokesman referred all questions about the loan to Dan Murrey, a surgeon in Charlotte who acted as chairman of the convention host committee, which is an independent group affiliated with the DNC.

Murrey told The Washington Times only that the line of credit was with two banks — Bank of America and the Charlotte-based Mechanics & Farmers Bank.

“We are still finishing up some collections and disbursements related to the convention, and the account is still open,” Murrey said.

In 2011, The White House originally banned corporate donations to the convention, but with Democratic supporters intent on donating to what would become the most expensive presidential campaign in history, the host committee organizing the convention found itself strapped for cash and reversed the decision.

 

Read More: NewsMax

 

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