February 02, 2014
We’ve been reading stories in the NYT and elsewhere about how Chicago has pension obligations to its workers that it can’t possibly meet. Most of these accounts are exaggerated and seem intended to provoke excessive fears in order to facilitate default on the city’s pension obligations. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the city has seriously underfunded pensions.
This is why it is striking that when the NYT ran a piece on former Mayor Richard M. Daley going to the hospital, it failed to mention Daley’s record on the city’s pensions, telling readers:
“Mr. Daley, Chicago’s longest-serving mayor with 22 years in office, is credited with giving the city a face lift with new green spaces, a revived theater district and the transformation of Navy Pier into a colorful playground.”
Daley is the person most responsible for the underfunding of Chicago’s pensions, making him one of the most irresponsible elected leaders in recent history. It would be understandable that the NYT may not want to highlight negative aspects of Mr. Daley’s tenure at a moment when he is apparently dealing with serious health issues, but there is no excuse for this sort of whitewashing of his record. Tens of thousands of people who worked for the city for decades may not see the pensions they earned as a result of Daley’s recklessness.
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