So, how I found this little nugget today was wondering what the bear-of-little-brains in charge of Chicago was up to.
I mean, we haven’t heard much about Mayor Brandon Johnson lately, who, last I checked, was in the middle of trying to force the Chicago school system into signing a payday loan to cover a pension payment shortage the city was supposed to have paid, but they got no money.
I’m guessing that still is not going so well for him. He was pretty testy with a question about school board members bucking his plan to sign on the dotted line and hang the school system out to dry.
WATCH: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson gives a one-word answer to @JakeSheridan_’s question on whether school board members’ refusal to borrow money to make a one-time pension payment to the city signals trouble for his political muscle. pic.twitter.com/0lHEx8PZeY
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) April 6, 2025
The teachers’ union tool/city chief executive with a whopping 6.6% approval rating as of a month ago – who knows, it could be much lower now – has been holding true to form, claiming it was ‘about parents, the people who voted for me’ as he managed to swing a monster new contract for his union overlords.
This is vintage Brandon Johnson.
Asked about perception among the public the CTU wielded an outsized influence over contract negotiations, Johnson deflected entirely by summoning up “parents.”
It’s all about the parents now.
Yeah, right, and the CTU is “all about the kids.” pic.twitter.com/zepygPZrPq
— Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) April 13, 2025
Yeah, it sounds all about ‘the parents’ to me. You, too?
The average Chicago Public Schools teacher will see their salary increase to more than $114,000 by the 2027-2028 school year. Just the raises will cost Chicagoans up to $1.25 billion
The Chicago Teacher’s Union has reached a contract agreement with Chicago Public Schools that will increase teacher salaries from $1.1 billion to $1.25 billion by the 2027-2028 school year.
The average teacher currently earns $86,439. That salary will jump by nearly one-third to $114,429 by the end of the upcoming contract – a nearly $28,000 raise in four years.
CTU’s House of Delegates approved the union’s tentative contract with Chicago Public Schools on April 2. All union members now vote until April 11 before a final approval by the CPS board.
The contract is estimated to add an additional $1.5 billion to district expenses over four years. The previous contract cost that much over five years. The vast majority of the new cost is teacher pay raises, with expenses on current teacher salaries expected to grow at least $1.1 billion and up to $1.25 billion, depending on future inflation rates.
Meanwhile, Hizzoner is busy dodging reporters’ questions about ethics and the lack of reform during his administration.
WATCH: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responds to questions about his track record on ethics reform.
“The ethics or ethos of our government can’t just be simply mired in our conversation around the potential for corruption. I find that to be a very puerile sort of approach… pic.twitter.com/hzq7XBKMzH
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) April 13, 2025
…“The ethics or ethos of our government can’t just be simply mired in our conversation around the potential for corruption. I find that to be a very puerile sort of approach towards how we talk about ethics. Ethics is about how we equitably distribute government in a way that everybody can feel proud of.”
Johnson has not led the passage of a single piece of anti-corruption legislation during his time as mayor.
And he’s actively blocked other elected officials’ efforts to do so.
And Chicago is so broke.
They can’t afford to keep up the TDS charade for too much longer, even when he compares himself to Frederick Douglass.
Interesting contradiction from @ChicagosMayor today.
For a decade, Johnson’s patrons, the CORE caucus, and his progressive allies, have demonized President Trump as a fascist, a dictator, a Nazi, and an authoritarian.
Johnson today accused Trump of employing “terrorism” against… pic.twitter.com/53nSxvHjca
— Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) April 15, 2025
‘…There’s a long political history of black political leaders talking to people who may not see us as first class…’
Yeah. He’s a trip.
But no matter how he postures and bloviates, it still doesn’t change the fact that Brandon has no bucks for all the big talk.
You would think with all the revenue streams available in a major city and the way he’s jacked taxes up (the ones voters have allowed him to), Brandon could squeak something out to ease the burden on his constituents, right?
And this is where I stumbled across one of the worst examples of civic…hmm. Schmaybe ‘malfeasance’ is the word? It’s too awful for mere incompetence.
Whatever it was, this deal done by Mayor Richard Daley in 2008, during that financial crisis, has screwed the city of Chicago royally and I never heard about it until today.
To close a city budget deficit that year, Mayor Daley sold every last parking meter space to a private consortium for $1.15B.
Every last dime collected on 36,000 metered parking spaces in the city leaves the city. Every time a street is closed and those meters cannot collect parking fees, the city must compensate Chicago Parking Meters, LLC – the private investor-owned company – for every dime those meters would have made had the street not been blocked.
The deal is for a schweet seventy-five years.
… As of 2023, the investors in CPM LLC have recouped their investment plus $500 million, and still have 60 years left on the deal.
It’s one of the most amazing, disgraceful things I have ever heard.
Another painful reminder of the consequences of 100 uninterrupted years of Democrat rule over Chicago.
Voting Democrat gets you Democrat results: Poor governance and fiscal insanity.
Video: @DefiantLs. pic.twitter.com/JB86oTpOLq
— Chicago Contrarian (@ChicagoContrar1) April 12, 2025
The only thing that seems to be inaccurate, as far as the video goes, is the size of the UAE investment. According to the chart on Wiki, it’s mostly Morgan Stanley partners.
It also appears that there is no escape hatch to be found for the flailing and desperate city from the lucrative contract terms.
They are pretty solidly boned.
Regardless of whether the bucks stay in the States or head to Abu Dabi, it’s a complete travesty. Not to mention, you know damn well, Chicago’s politics being what they are, it wasn’t only the investors who got their skids greased, if you get my drift.
Chicago has to count meter money and then immediately write a check to send the hundreds of millions of dollars away for the next fifty-eight years.
So, while Mayor Big Bucks Johnson may be a spendthrift of epic proportions, the lessons of Democratic governance never seem to stick with the voters who then suffer under their results. They keep putting these people in positions of power.
Good gravy goodness.
