The Illinois Senate on Thursday approved police and firefighter pension legislation that Mayor Daley warned would blow a $550 million hole in the city budget, but the top Senate Democrat pledged to try softening that financial hit next month.
...the legislation requires a steep ramp-up in contributions to the funds starting in 2015 -- and it mandates those contributions be paid for by property taxes. Daley estimates that would require a $550 million property tax increase.
Minutes before the Senate's vote, Daley -- for the third straight day -- spoke out against the bill... To place the entire burden on Chicago property owners -- and mandate the largest property tax increase in the city's history -- would paralyze home sales, the mayor said.
"From today on, you won't be able to sell your house. . . . These taxes are gonna go up by 100 percent or more,' " Daley said.
The lame-duck mayor noted that pension fund contributions by city employees have been frozen for 34 years and that an increase in employee contributions is inevitable, no matter how hard union leaders try to stop it...
Aren't the public sector unions -- which completely control the modern Democrat Party -- fun?
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