Wow, wonder if the Annexation guy is a fan of City Data??? (Chicago: 2013)

[chet everett]

Look at this -- Chicago should annex adjoining suburbs - Chicago Tribune

Let me say right off the bat that this COMMENTARY has some huge holes / errors, but it is INTERESTING that the focus in on the FISCALLY DOOMED suburbs of the southern suburbs. These areas once were loaded with blue collar workers and good paying jobs. Significant numbers of minorities once had good lives in these areas but the "hollowing out" of manufacturing and related logistics has been decimating on these areas. Sadly, even when they were good places for labor there schools were not as well regarded as towns to the north and west. Now that lack of pathway into colleges is creating a whirlpool of doom; pretty much of these are going to face fiscal failure.

While Mr. McClelland does not seem to be diligent about keeping his website up to date, About The Author | Edward McClelland , his background does include some things that show a very good understanding of how Chicago has "drained" the brains of the rest of the Midwest as well as the unique challenges of Chicago's Rust Belt legacy Why the Smartest People in the Midwest All Move To Chicago | Chicago magazine | June 2013

The things he gets TERRIBLY WRONG in the Tribune COMMENTARY are about TAXES AND SCHOOLS!!! He really seems CLUELESS. The fact is that Chicago has significantly LOWER TAXES precisely because it artificially chooses NOT TO FUND THE FULL COST of its schools and the GAPING MAW that exists in the Chicago Teachers Pension System is rather obvious to ALL SANE POLITICIANS in the state. Agreeing to do SOMETHING is what some folks thought was the first step in getting the governor and mayor on the same page. The double cross is still a big part of why there is NO budget for the state -- the DEMOCRATS in the Senate tried to override the governor's objections but even the HOUSE realized the insanity of such an effort -- Dems fail to override Rauner veto of Chicago schools money | SaukValley.com

The reason that the failed South Suburbs have CRUSHINGLY HIGH PROPERTY taxes is largely because all the schools outside of Chicago are REQUIRED to pay into the TRS system, they can't suspend payments like Chicago does to CTRS. While there was lots of mismanagement in some of those districts, the fact is now that there are no jobs, no significant commercial properties to tax, and the increasingly worthless homes face RATES of taxation that are off the charts. If those suburbs did retain local control of their schools they'd also STILL have the majority of their taxes going to fund schools...

I do think that there is the POTENTIAL to sort of "repackage" these towns as sites for "reinvestment" that MIGHT see some things like logistics warehouses and potentially somewhat decent employment BUT that would require real long term rethinking of how tax incentives AND changes in other regulations might be applied in ways to make these areas more competitive but frankly that sort of COOPERATION is increasingly unlikely in Illinois as the insiders seem engaged in the worst sort of "trench warfare" and unable to do anything that helps...

[DavePa]

Wasn't it the US standard established that ALL pay for a public school system? It was ADDED PENSIONS that caused the ASTRONOMICAL COST TODAY. But some can blame despite taking of a pension they paid nothing into?

If this is meant to be a political blame thread? Maybe it should be in the political forum? It is very much a National problem too. Not unique to Chicago. Even sunbelt cities have very poor Public school system reviews and Pension skyrocketing debts being incured

[chet everett]

NOT political at all and definitely NOT about blame, rather just an illustration of how even someone who clearly has spent LOTS of time working on a prior book that MOSTLY nails certain aspects of Chicago's success / challenges COMPLETELY MISSES the mark when it comes to "annexation".

There is a LONG history of why many towns fought Chicago's efforts to subsume them, mostly it was about "power" but there were also dimensions of economics and race. Sometimes the efforts were quite ugly...

Even a very sketchy outline shows that Chicago has long had fiscal issues surrounding its public schools and the benefits promised to teachers -- History of Chicago Public Schools | Chicago Reporter

For an otherwise smart sound guy like McCelland to so badly miss such a crucial part of the issue reflects VERY poorly on such a "commentary". One would hope that even others who post here frequently would quickly realize that the primary driver of higher taxes in suburbs is the costs associated with schools -- given that Chicago actually has many very modern schools (largely paid for by the extremely opaque Public Buildings Commission - Public Building Commission of Chicago | About the PBC ) and staffed with teachers whose salaries are largely on par with most other suburbs, the DIFFERENCE in cost / taxes comes down to different rules for skipping pension funding...

[deeman7]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The reason that the failed South Suburbs have CRUSHINGLY HIGH PROPERTY taxes is largely because all the schools outside of Chicago are REQUIRED to pay into the TRS system, they can't suspend payments like Chicago does to CTRS. While there was lots of mismanagement in some of those districts, the fact is now that there are no jobs, no significant commercial properties to tax, and the increasingly worthless homes face RATES of taxation that are off the charts. If those suburbs did retain local control of their schools they'd also STILL have the majority of their taxes going to fund schools...

I thought the same thing when I read the part about keeping the school districts. I was like....well that's where most of your property tax goes so....annexation won't help property taxes going to schools.