A Chicago public employee pension bill was just signed into law that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and business groups opposed, “arguing that the cost to taxpayers would be too high.” 

Dan Petrella of the Chicago Tribune reports…

Lightfoot sent a letter to aldermen on April 1 urging them to oppose the bill. She said it would double pension costs by $18 million to $30 million each year.

“If the governor does not veto this bill, the city will have to find a means to address the increased cost since the legislation does not provide a way to pay for these increase costs,” Lightfoot wrote.

“During the 2022 budget season, it will then fall on the members of the City Council to make difficult decisions to pay for these additional costs.”

She said “the obvious revenue solution, another property tax increase…”

The bill passed in Springfield was signed by the Governor and Tax-Avoider-In-Chief himself, JB Pritzker. As a Chicago resident, Governor Pritzker should be sensitive to the ever-growing tax burden the city inflicts on its residents, but since he has a history of dodging taxes that others have to pay (stashing his fortune away in offshore accounts, ripping out toilets of his Gold Coast mansion to lower his property tax bill, begging Biden to lift SALT cap), Pritzker likely doesn’t mind because he’ll just find a way to avoid paying it.

“The Governor’s lifestyle is so far removed from the average working family in Chicago he may be under the assumption everyone has a second mansion they can rip toilets out of to lessen their tax burden. Well, he’s wrong,” said ILGOP Spokesman Joe Hackler. “At a time when the pandemic has hit small businesses and workers the hardest, the last thing Chicagoans need is the Governor stepping in to hike their property taxes. Take it from Mayor Lightfoot, Pritzker’s legislation will raise property taxes.”

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