Courtesy of Mish.
Those who thought Mayor Rahm Emanuel would bring change to the city of Chicago thought wrong. As with president Obama, people in Chicago believed in change, but all they got was promises, lies, and the status quo.
Thus it should be no surprise that Rahm Emanuel’s Reelection Bid Is Not Looking So Hot Right Now.
Conducted on Wednesday by McKeon & Associates for the Chicago Sun-Times’ Early & Often page, the survey found that only 29 percent of Chicago voters would support Emanuel if the mayoral election were held today. The results also showed that only one in five Chicago voters believe Emanuel is doing a better job than his predecessor, former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“Right now, Rahm is not connecting,” McKeon said, according to the Sun-Times report. “If he doesn’t do that, he’s gonna lose.”
Back in February 2011, Emanuel easily ousted five rivals with 55 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff by earning the simple majority. By August 2013, a Crain/Ipsos poll showed Emanuel’s approval rating had dipped to a point where only two percent of Chicagoans strongly supported his job performance.
Backtracking on Tax Hikes and Reforms
Ted Dabrowski at the Illinois Policy Institute has some interesting facts on Emanuel’s flip-flop on taxes and pension reform. Via email, Dabrowski writes …
In 2012, Mayor Rahm Emanuel traveled to Springfield to call for Chicago pension reforms. Testifying at the Statehouse is a rare move for a Chicago mayor.
Emanuel’s proposal included raising the retirement age for city workers and freezing cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. He also wanted 401(k)-style retirement plans for new employees, which would have provided more retirement options for city workers.
Emanuel cautioned that without these reforms, “Chicago’s economy and the quality of life will falter.”
Two years later, that Rahm Emanuel and those reform proposals are gone.
Now, Emanuel’s recently released pension “fix” for the city’s municipal workers and laborers has almost no elements of reform. Instead, it relies heavily on property-tax hikes and increased worker contributions to keep the collapsing systems from going bankrupt.
The plan calls for a five-year, $750 million property tax increase on Chicagoans.
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