LET’S SOBER HIM UP WITH THIS TWO LITER PLASTIC BOTTLE OF OLD OPEN SWITCH

8/29/18

In today’s brave new world of moral relativity, there might be good arguments for legalizing marijuana, expanding gambling, or shaking down corporations for being successful, but the revenue raising potential is not one of them.   As I put another way in this letter to the Chicago Tribune, giving politicians more money to spend is rarely, if ever, the solution to a public body’s fiscal problems.   Giving a politician more money is like giving an alcoholic an outsized gift card to the local liquor emporium.

The letter wasn’t published; like the Chicago Sun-Times, the Tribune doesn’t publish more than a few letters per day so the chances of getting any letter published are slim nowadays.

Here’s the letter:

8/19/18

The Emanuel administration has reached a $10.4 million settlement with Uber and Lyft over the ride sharing companies’ failure to perform adequate background checks of their drivers.  (“Chicago reaches settlement with ride-share companies,” 8/19/18, page 13)   The money will be spent on a youth mentoring program.

Leaving aside the merits of said youth mentoring program, the city of Chicago faces shortfalls, ranging from only slightly terrifying to absolutely horrific, in the pension programs of its workers.   These shortfalls have forced enormous property tax, phone tax, and water bill increases for the city’s residents with more surely to come after the election.  The city’s operating budget is precariously balanced and keeping it in rough balance will require even more “revenue enhancements” after the election.   The city’s bond rating is currently on the cusp of junk status while the bonds themselves trade at junk yields.   Given the fiscal nightmare that is the city of Chicago, did anybody in the Emanuel administration or the city council think that maybe, just maybe, the $10.4 million from the ride sharing settlement should go toward the pension shortfalls, or merely paying some of the city’s bills, rather than to a new program, however meritorious?  Of course not; as soon as new money finds its ways into the city’s, or virtually any public entity’s, coffers, the first thought that comes to the politicians’ febrile minds is how to spend it.    That is why providing politicians with more money, through tax increases, fee increases, gambling revenues, legalizing marijuana or the like, is rarely, if ever, a solution to the fiscal woes of public institutions.   Giving politicians more money is like giving a crack addict more crack.

Surely the politicians will respond that we’re talking about “only” $10 million.   Such a cavalier attitude toward other people’s money should remove any remaining mystery regarding the fiscal abomination that is the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, and the federal government.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.