General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsthat vile little toad Rahm is cutting cutting retiree health benefits to build a basketball arena
Union leaders and retirees blasted Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday for saving $108.7 million by phasing out a city subsidy for retiree health care and using roughly the same amount of public money to build a new basketball arena near McCormick Place.
Why are retirees with the least ability to absorb this financial blow the first ones made to suffer?... Cant the mayor find the savings elsewhere? Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times.
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I also find it ironic that this reduction to promised healthcare coverage for retirees, which the City says will save it 109 million dollars per year, is proclaimed at the very same time that the Mayor is poised to announce a plan to use millions of dollars in public funds to help build a basketball facility for a private institution. I must ask, where are our priorities? Ryan wrote in an email to the Sun-Times.
Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31, said Emanuel has offered no details except to say non-Medicare retirees will have to seek private insurance through an exchange mandated by Obamacare that has not yet been launched.
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http://www.wlsam.com/common/page.php?pt=Unions%2C+retirees+slam+Emanuel+plan+to+cut+health-care+subsidy&id=38943&is_corp=0
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)for something that is not a sure thing and is likely to cost the retirees more. And he's taking public funds to build a basketball arena at a private institution.
Are you saying this is a good thing?
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)donnasgirl
(656 posts)but I would like to know why we haven't heard any thing from our president, why is a blatant wrong not being questioned by our president. Because none of them give a rats ass about the minimal people, the little guy, the people who gave their all for a small bit of peace of mind.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)Obamacare is all about private health insurance. It isn't good enough.
We need a national health CARE plan.
Which I've been saying since before Obama was elected to the Senate, and will continue saying until the day of my death, which will happen years sooner than it would have if health care were truly "affordable."
But this thread isn't about Obamacare. It's about that vile little toad, Rahm, cutting funds for retirees while using public funds to build a basketball arena for private interests.
Autumn
(44,755 posts)Divernan
(15,480 posts)Autumn
(44,755 posts)graham4anything
(11,464 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)that's a stinking pile of shit.
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Divernan
(15,480 posts)And that lesson was reinforced when I worked in a state legislature for 10 years and watched the swapping and horse-trading that went on with the annual budget negotiations. Maybe you forgot a sarcasm emoticon?
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)I suspect the arena was funded from the capital budget and the subsidy came from the operating budget.
tularetom
(23,664 posts)Any mayor or city administrator worth his coffee cup figured out ways to divert funds intended to build capital projects into accounts used to hire more cops.
Of course the shit hit the fan when the program was discontinued and the operating budget hadn't grown enough to absorb the additional personnel. But by then the mayors were out of office and the administrators had moved on to greener pastures.
Municipal accounting is a mysterious and arcane art and its no place for the faint of heart.
ananda
(28,782 posts)Money and corporations first.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)Skidmore
(37,364 posts)that came with Hillary. There was a whole group of them. Hangers on all.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Czechago needs a general strike to run Rahm out of town on a rail.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)but vile little toad works well too.
I'm sorry Chicago, that I said you needed to take one for the team so that we could get him out of the White House and away from the President. It still stands but I am offering condolences and a reminder. You fine folks in Chicago seem to like to send your leaders to the Big House for infractions. Surely someone can start watching Rahm for all the usual shenanigans. I, for one, would have no trouble seeing him behind bars.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)This plan, which includes an arena, new hotels (plural), restaurants and retail space is initially estimated at $195 MILLION; with $125 Mil. from taxpayers; $70 Million from hotel taxes; & $55 Million from tax-incremented financing. There is no mention of how much DePaul is contributing to this massive undertaking. Apparently ZIP!/b]
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/taxes/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-build-revenue-generating-basketball-arena
Alderman Pat Dowell on the citys board said that building the new arena is about fostering economic growth, though the arena would have to compete with the existing United Center just a few miles down the road.
Marc Ganis, a local arena expert, called the plan complete lunacy. It makes no economic sense whatsoever. Ganis said, As someone who has worked on projects like these for decades, I can tell you there is absolutely no way for this to make any sense in any way. It is not in the realm of possibility.
Though Emanuel is eager to increase city revenue, he has wanted to abandon the Allstate Center, a facility closer to DePauls campus, for some time. His impatience may throw residents into debt, critics say.
According to a Harvard study in 2010, the cost of land, infrastructure, operations and lost property taxes involved in taxpayer funded sports stadiums and arenas increased taxpayer bills by 25 percent, from $89 million to $259 million.
Corrected on edit -
So in addition to the "existing United Center just a few miles down the road", there's another sports arena, the Allstate Arena where De Paul University currently plays its basketball - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allstate_Arena
Construction cost $20 million
($55.7 million in 2013 dollars[3])
Capacity Concerts: 18,500
Basketball: 17,500
Ice hockey: 16,692
Arena Football: 16,143
Website www.allstatearena.com
Tenants
Chicago Rush (AFL) (20012008, 2010present)
Chicago Wolves (IHL / AHL) (1994present)
DePaul Blue Demons (1980present)
Chicago Sky (WNBA) (2010present)
Chicago Horizon (MISL) (19801981)
Chicago Sting (MISL) (19841988)
Chicago Bruisers (AFL) (19871989)
Chicago Express (WBL) (1988)
Chicago Skyliners (ABA) (20002002)
ArenaBowl II (1988) (WWE (1986-present))
Allstate Arena (originally Rosemont Horizon) is a multi-purpose arena in Rosemont, Illinois. It is home to the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League, DePaul University's men's basketball team, the Chicago Wolves of the AHL, and the Chicago Sky of the WNBA. It is located near the intersection of Mannheim Road and Interstate 90, adjacent to the city limits of Chicago and O'Hare International Airport.
Bonhomme Richard
(8,992 posts)leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)It's all about sports arenas and grabbing that almighty sports enthusiast dollar. Hotels always play an important part in these deals. In the end it just means more taxes for local citizens, and more infrastructure and traffic problems. As for Rahm, he is a lizard and it just goes to show you from what ideological wing of the ''Democratic Corporatist Party" they (Obama etc) come from. It's the Republican Lite Party .. The RLP!
Brigid
(17,621 posts)What, it doesn't have enough luxury suites for millionaires or something? If the Bulls owners don't like the place, let them pay for a new one themselves. The taxpayers never seem to come out ahead in these deals.
bullwinkle428
(20,626 posts)Horizon to the United Center. Why the hell do they need to move to a new arena already?
Divernan
(15,480 posts)After a political debate, public money was used to fund PNC Park. Originally, a sales tax increase was proposed to fund three projects: PNC Park (baseball), Heinz Field (football), and an expansion of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
However, after the proposal was soundly rejected in a referendum by area voters, the city developed Plan B. Similarly controversial, the alternative proposal was labeled Scam B by opponents. Some members of the Allegheny Regional Asset District felt that the Pirates' pledge of $40 million toward the new stadium was too little, while others criticized the amount of public money allocated for Plan B.
One member of the Allegheny Regional Asset District board called the use of tax dollars "corporate welfare." The plan, totaling $809 million, was approved by the Allegheny Regional Asset District board on July 9, 1998with $228 million allotted for PNC Park. Shortly after Plan B was approved, the Pirates made a deal with Pittsburgh city officials to remain in the city until at least 2031.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNC_Park
But at least the Pittsburgh baseball team put up $40 million. According to the breakdown on financing Rahm's new sports palace, no team is putting up dime one.
From the spin I've read promoting this development, promoters are claiming basketball arena will hugely attract tourist visits/dollars from people who otherwise would go to New York City or Las Vegas. Now I love Chicagoland - grew up near there - but people go to Vegas for adult entertainment and gambling - it has abandoned it's attempt to market itself as a family destination and is back to the Sin City image. And New York is a popular destination for people from all over North America and other international visitors, and offers so much more than basketball games in Madison Square Garden. Chicago is a regional attraction. And the people who already go there for the museums & good restaurants don't need an additional basketball arena.
Rahm continues on his lifelong ego trip.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)It's a real sacrifice for a family to go to either new stadium - between mileage, parking, exorbitant food and beverage fees and ticket prices, it would cost a family of 4 a minimum of $600-700 to go to one football game - and that's sitting in peanut heaven. If you wanted to live it up like the corporate dipshits, in the club level, the tickets are around $350 each, so you're looking at $1600 for one afternoon's outing.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)in 1971. And $2 (Canadian) to watch the Blue Jays play the Seattle Mariners (or maybe they were still the Pilots) back in 1978.
4 t 4
(2,407 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)That's about all you need to know to understand this deal.
-Laelth
Brigid
(17,621 posts)MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)roody
(10,849 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)his nasty right wing comment to the base of the the party he claims to be a member of.
And why and how did he ever manage to get himself elected to anything, especially as a Democrat? Don't we have any actual Democrats in Chicago that could have run against him?
THIS is what is wrong with our party, allowing people that to get into positions of power and once there they do the work the Republicans couldn't get done under the 'D' label. This is what must be fixed to restore the Dem Party to what it claims to be.