Todd Stroger's Budget
ST quoting Claypool on Todd Stroger's budget,
"I've never seen a government that put out a budget so chock full of errors, inaccuracy and misinformation. I don't even think they know their own financial picture," Commissioner Forrest Claypool said. "It shows remarkable ineptness and is symbolic of general mismanagement of county government that taxpayers pay a heavy price for."I don't think Cook County is going to be able to pull out of this tail-spin.
Only hope is going to be a bailout from the Feds. That's gotta be what Stroger's counting on. Hope he has the good sense not to take a private plan when he goes to plead for it.
1 comments:
Part of the blame for the foreclosure crisis in Chicago and the high levels of evictions here is given directly to Mayor Richard M Daley.
1. Bill Daley was with Fannie Mae
2. Bill Daley put now alderman Danny Solis on Fannie Mae
3. Bill Daley lobbyied for Fannie Mae
4. Bill Daley was with and had offers with the banks and investment banks that have caused some of this problem like Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan, Amalgamated Bank and with utilities that have raised our rates making it more difficult to pay mortgages.
5. Bill Daleys son has been at the same investment banks that are now getting bailed out with the mortgage bailouts or the AIG bailout (where Goldman Sachs had a 20 billion dollar stake)
6. Patrick Daley worked at Bear Stearns
7. Part of the reason for the mortgage problem is higher property taxes
8. Higher cost of living which is incredible in Chicago causes inability to pay mortgages
9. the artificial real estate boom in Chicago with in the 2nd ward alone 10,000 evictions, 10,000 vacant new buildings in the downtown/Gold Coast residential vacancy is at 20% before the turn down in the economy and the real estate market--much of the real estate value increases were do to speculation and flipping
10. Daley pushed construction of new high end residential housing without a corresponding demand, Daley thought that if you built that they (rich white people) would come but this was not the field of dreams but the field of substandard construction by greedy politically connected developers and bankrupt LLCs with building inspectors backed off and lies to buyers who now are paying for problems through repairs or higher assessments depending if home, town home or condo. THere are so many vacant town homes that look beautiful from the outside with big price tags, and evictions and foreclosures even in expensive homes and zip codes of lawyers, dot com computer people, accountants, real estate brokers, mortgage brokers and a slew of other people who lost their job or saw their income decrease or could not afford the repairs, legal fees and/or condo assessment special assessments to fix the political connected developers mess up that they cannot sue now because it is a bankrupt LLC. The core around the Loop of the 2nd, 3rd, 25th, 24th, even 12th, 27th, and other wards have lots of vacant new constructions, lots of vacant new townhomes, lots of substandard construction and lots of evictions and foreclosures.
Everyone above the poverty line was happy when Daley priced out poor people who were dysfunctional and moved out people in Federal housing projects--but now Daley has priced out blue collar, working class and even middle class people. Property taxes are too high. Sales taxes are the highest in the nation. You get parking tickets and not enough parking. Speeding tickets with revenue cameras (but not a corresponding drop in crime) Building inspectors. Fees to have garage sales. A Kangaroo court on superior street. This is a city that is very expensive to live in, to own property in, to do business in, to shop in. This is a city that has many wonderful thing but still has abject poverty in some parts and the highest murder rate in the western industrial world. The high cost of living and bad economy and higher than average unemployment rate (which spikes in Chicago makes the mortgage foreclosure and housing eviction crisis even worse here and is a partial cause.
Daley has to take some of the blame for this. The push to increase high end residential housing must stop. The corruption of politically connected developers and the symbiotic relationship with the corrupt building department must stop. The high taxes and high cost of living must be decreased so people can breathe.
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