In another of the seemingly never ending saga of failing Democrat ruled cities, Chicago received a triple notch downgrade in their credit rating.
"First the Motor City, then the Windy City.
In the same week the City of Detroit made national headlines by filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in national history, the City of Chicago made smaller headlines when Moody’s Investors Service announced it had hit the city with a nearly unprecedented triple-downgrade of its credit rating on general obligation bonds.
Chicago now has a credit rating four notches below New York and Los Angeles and below other large cities in the Midwest, including Milwaukee and Cleveland."
http://news.heartland.org/news...dys-credit-downgrade
http://www.governing.com/news/...ago-bond-rating.html
Yes, the pension benefits are a major problem. However, that is not the cause. The cause being Democrat misrule for decades. Democrats agreed to the pension benefits package negotiated with the unions. Then, proceeded to NOT FUND the pension funds adequately. Their partners in crime were the union leadership. Funds that should have gone to the pension fund were spent on other projects. Union leadership acquiesced because they knew that the problems would not surface during their leadership and union leadership pensions are funded separately from that of the rank and file -- funded out of union dues.
City after city, with decades of Democrat misrule, are suffering the same fate. Yet, progressive apologists dream up separate explanations/excuses for each -- never the common thread for all those cities.