Obama's Chicago: Public Employee Pensions Going Belly Up

This is President Obama's Chicago: One of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's top aides privately briefed aldermen on the city's pension woes Wednesday as the mayor's closest City Council ally prepared for hearings that will put city retirement fund officials in the hot seat.
Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott reminded council members that absent significant changes to pension plans, the city will be forced to drastically cut services, raise taxes or do both to close a funding gap that could reach $700 million in just a few years, aldermen said.
It wasn't the first time the council had been told about the city's looming financial cliff, but the latest warning comes as the Workforce Development and Audit Committee led by Ald. Patrick O'Connor, 40th, is preparing for a Monday hearing on pensions.
O'Connor has set aside six hours for aldermen to question top officials from five city pension funds about the depth of the problem. The pension leaders also will be asked to offer potential solutions.
The goal of the briefings is to bring aldermen up to speed before the hearing and in advance of the Illinois General Assembly's fall session in late November, said Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton. Lawmakers are looking to fix the state's woefully underfunded pension system, but the city also needs changes from Springfield to repair its retirement funds. Monday's hearing serves to publicly highlight the issue.
"Unfortunately, we have seen very little progress in Springfield on adopting pension reform," said Laurence Msall, president of the nonpartisan Civic Federation budget watchdog group that has long advocated for pension changes.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-chicago-emanuel-pensions-0927-20120927,0,6433883.story
 Chicago is a union town and the public employees are paid very, very well and their pensions are extremely generous, both in amount and the lax rules governing public employee pensions where people who only work a few years and get hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from the pension fund.
These are a sign of things to come across the country- pensions that are totally underfunded, and so they either have to change, lay off current employees or tax the taxpayers to death.
Obama's Chicago: coming to a government agency near you.