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> collapsing local financial pyramids I don't know what you mean here. Would you unpack this for me?

by jdc 11y ago

toomuchtodo 11y ago
I'm going to take a shot at what hiram112 meant. Lots of things that should've been paid for (pensions, infrastructure) haven't been, because taxes have been too low or the money has been spent elsewhere. The chickens are coming home to roost, as it were, and now the money has to be found. For example, Illinois is broke. Really broke. They don't pay lottery winners over a certain amount now because they're not permitted to without a ratified budget [1]. Yet, they still take lottery ticket revenue in. Pensions are so underfunded, Chicago is looking at raising hundreds of millions of dollars through property taxes [2]. Boomers (in general) enjoyed prosperity by kicking the can, and now younger generations are being expected to pay for it. Sidenote: A separate issue is that automobile owners pay nowhere near what it costs to maintain local and state road infrastructure [3]. Taxes must go up for those users, or people need to move to dense urban areas where public/mass transit can provide for their mobility needs. Iowa is going as far as to letting roads go fallow [4]. [1] http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/31/illinois-lottery-winners-receive-iou-amid-lack-of-budget.html http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/31/illinois-lottery-winners-rece... [2] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-emanuel-property-tax-hike-met-0903-20150902-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-em... [3] http://www.transportation.gov/highway-trust-fund-ticker http://www.transportation.gov/highway-trust-fund-ticker [4] http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/07/iowa-makes-a-bold-admission-we-need-fewer-roads/398021/ http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/07/iowa-makes-a-bold-adm...
- selectodude 11y ago
  Ironically, Chicago's road budget is almost entirely funded by yearly fees on automobile owners. It's just everything else that's a mess.

> collapsing local financial pyramids I don't know what you mean here. Would you unpack this for me?

by jdc 11y ago

> collapsing local financial pyramids I don't know what you mean here. Would you unpack this for me?

I'm going to take a shot at what hiram112 meant. Lots of things that should've been paid for (pensions, infrastructure) haven't been, because taxes have been too low or the money has been spent elsewhere. The chickens are coming home to roost, as it were, and now the money has to be found. For example, Illinois is broke. Really broke. They don't pay lottery winners over a certain amount now because they're not permitted to without a ratified budget [1]. Yet, they still take lottery ticket revenue in. Pensions are so underfunded, Chicago is looking at raising hundreds of millions of dollars through property taxes [2]. Boomers (in general) enjoyed prosperity by kicking the can, and now younger generations are being expected to pay for it. Sidenote: A separate issue is that automobile owners pay nowhere near what it costs to maintain local and state road infrastructure [3]. Taxes must go up for those users, or people need to move to dense urban areas where public/mass transit can provide for their mobility needs. Iowa is going as far as to letting roads go fallow [4]. [1] http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/31/illinois-lottery-winners-receive-iou-amid-lack-of-budget.html http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/31/illinois-lottery-winners-rece... [2] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-emanuel-property-tax-hike-met-0903-20150902-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-em... [3] http://www.transportation.gov/highway-trust-fund-ticker http://www.transportation.gov/highway-trust-fund-ticker [4] http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/07/iowa-makes-a-bold-admission-we-need-fewer-roads/398021/ http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/07/iowa-makes-a-bold-adm...

selectodude 11y ago
Ironically, Chicago's road budget is almost entirely funded by yearly fees on automobile owners. It's just everything else that's a mess.