Bloomberg Video: Runs 2 minutes
Solid, short clip, and a group of pension spiking links with commentary.
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All commentary and links below were provided by Frank...
Pension spiker in low income Bellwood, Illinois:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-29/news/ct-met-bellwood-0626-20100629_1_village-officials-human-resources-director-finance-director
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Pension spikers in high income Highland Park, Illinois:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-31/news/ct-met-highland-park-money-20100731_1_park-district-highland-park-parks-officials
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The Chicago Tribune has been looking into pension spiking. Here's an article mentioning some less ambitious spikers:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-16/news/ct-met-pension-deals-20100716_1_police-pension-illinois-pension-final-salaries
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From NPR:
"Basically, the state of Illinois is upside down on its home mortgage and it's maxed out its credit cards, and it's applying for more credit cards."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125076655
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Here's an oldie from the Sun-Times:
"In winning business from pension funds for city workers, cops, teachers and CTA employees, Robert G. Vanecko said he never told anyone he's Daley's nephew."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/570056,CST-NWS-vanecko23.article
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A connected Chicago firefighter, convicted of moonlighting as an arsonist, had his pension reinstated by a judge who is the son of a former Chief of Police:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-11-11/news/0911100517_1_arsonist-firefighter-s-pension-daley-center
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Of course, the pension problem effects the entire state. Here's a downstate article quoting a simplistic solution.
"They just need to sit down and actually talk":
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_bbe10fea-b329-11df-892d-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story
Informed voters are the real solution. Every taxing body should be required to post every expenditure on the web. These expenditures are public information anyway, and they should be freely available 24/7.
The mass media sometimes does a good job covering these issues, but they tend to focus on the hot issues of the day. Their revenue doesn't depend on the anger generated by a tax spike which only effects 2000 people. But, even if only 100 of those 2000 people look into the budget lines and ask questions and ultimately share the results on the web, the local politicians will have some direction beside the usual crooks and cronies.
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h/t to Frank
Further Reading: