Not local but I believe it’s my duty to pass along this NYT article on the next crisis about to hit Chicago — the teachers’ pension fund is running dry:

Indeed, the State Legislature granted the Chicago school district a break from its pension contributions, starting in 1995. Since then, the city has never contributed the required amount; for many years it put in nothing. All the while, the teachers’ benefits kept building up.

Pension fund documents say the teachers continuously made their share of the contributions, 9 percent of each paycheck. But in fact, the teachers have been putting in just 2 percent of their pay, while the school district has been making up the rest of what is called the “employee contribution” every year. The practice began under an agreement reached in the early 1980s that was supposed to reduce future pay raises, keep money in the fund and take advantage of a federal tax break.

….Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois and Mr. Emanuel have both called for public workers to increase the amounts they pay toward their pensions. Forcing the Chicago teachers to make their full contributions, of course, would erode much of the salary increases they fought for during the strike.

Pretty beat up there in the land of community organization. As the Times points out, the pension issue went unmentioned during the teachers’ strike because state law forbids striking over pension issues. As the article also notes, states and local governments nationwide are undergoing pension crises.

I don’t agree with Times’ politics, but they’ve done a good job of covering the issue, which is why I can’t understand why they support the presidential candidate they do.