Casino Is Chicago Way’s Pension Bet

Now Chicago tries to bail out its near-bankrupt worker pension with predicted cash from new casino BUT recall how city’s decrepit schools had gotten “unlucky” after a new state lottery was sold on promise to fund em better.

If still alive, Illinois’ longest-serving governor “Big Jim Thompson” could of told you a relevant cautionary tale. My one-time boss may be one of the most underrated Land of Lincoln govs (most of whom seem to wind up in jail since) who “saved” the state’s floundering educational budget one year by cutting that kind of deal with the legislature & Chicago Machine-controlled public schools union. Actually, it was a potentially BRILLIANT ground-breaking move at the time since a new state lottery was designed to fund the future educational needs of its underperforming school system. Any Problemo? A set percentage of the lotto cash was earmarked for the state’s “general fund.” That loop hole allowed the legislature & future govs to keep raiding that new money for other debts by simply NOT increasing that funding bright line. You can imagine the rest. As the WSJ editors noted: “Blame [the state’s] Democratic politicians who over the decades have rewarded their labor allies with generous retirement benefits but haven’t socked away money to pay for them.”

Fast forward to today. What makes anyone in Chicago think the expected new casino horde is REALLY going to be there to pay future pension claims? The WSJ bemoans Atlanta’s infamous struggle with its own casino that last year needed the Georgia Gov to bail it out with taxpayer funds or else it was going to close. What are the Las Vegas odds Chicago’s new casino won’t leak the money stream like an old-fashioned Illinois loop hole?

Davd Soul