By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner:
You have to wonder whether Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot really thought she could get away with it.
Just three weeks ago, she was demanding a state taxpayer bailout of her city’s nearly bankrupt pension funds. The problem was so big, she said, she’d risk her “re-election” over it. Eventually, Gov. J.B. Pritzker denied her bailout request for obvious reasons – the state is just one notch from a junk rating.
Now news reports confirm that Lightfoot has offered the Chicago Teachers’ Union a five-year contract that will cost taxpayers another $325 million. That includes guaranteed raises of more than 14 percent over the life of the contract. And that, of course, turns into more pension benefits and an even bigger pension hole for CPS.
That’s an expensive gift for a city that Lightfoot claims is in need of a multi-billion dollar bailout.
That about-face should infuriate every downstate Illinoisan. If the bailout had gone through, here’s what all Illinoisans would have been paying for…
Read more: Wirepoints
