What I'm Watching—Nov. 17, 2010

Chicago’s precarious public pensions perilous to public? Today’s Trib has a must-read article with accompanying graphic on the city’s public pension funds teetering on the verge of insolvency, with pols largely to blame for the mess. While Illinois’ pension predicament has received some much-deserved attention, not much has been said about Chicago’s own burgeoning catastrophe. Let’s hope this is a start.

Preckwinkle gets a “shut up” call. Newly elected board president Toni Preckwinkle wants to unload most of Todd Stroger’s political appointees, but Stroger loyalist Bill Beavers had this to say: “Listen, shut up and get over here and try to do some work.”
Good-government gold star for McHenry County. It took almost a year to make it happen, but last night the McHenry County Board made itself more transparent. The board approved an ordinance that’ll require county officials and candidates to list all the properties owned in the county, along with interest in and indebtedness to entities doing business with any county unit of government in excess of $1,200.
TIF for tat. Lake County News-Sun reports that eight local taxers will get a bonus when they split $1.57 million in surplus funds from two TIF districts that the Waukegan City Council voted to dissolve. Taxers include the city, the College of Lake County, the Lake County Forest Preserve and the Waukegan Park District. A lesson for Chicago?
“Be like Mike?” The sphinx Speaker speaks again, advising Gov. Quinn to learn from him. His sage guidance: “Learn day by day. Try and make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today.” He adds, no tax hike without GOP votes and budget cuts. No bull?

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