Ask the chief to present details about police pay and benefit hikes over the years.

And about the funding status of the police pension fund.

And why are pay and benefit hikes granted when pensions are underfunded, since hiking pay, hikes the pension, which worsens the pension underfunding.

What happens in a lot of police and fire labor negotiations is the compare themselves to like communities and keep hiking the pay and benefits.

And in the case of collective bargaining negotiations for the rank and file, and in many communities there are also cba’s with Sergeants and /or other management ranks, the police and fire cannot strike, but either side can ask for binding interestarbitration where an often labor friendly arbitrator (or is it a panel of arbitrators) often sides with labor, and costs just keep going up with the monopoly government labor.

Taxpayers get no direct vote, rather elect politicians who too often are organized labor and special interest friendly, and the rigged cycle perpetuates.

Mountains of rules resulting in never ending tax hikes.

A few new rules a year over 45 years and it is death by a 150 cuts.

This state basically requires taxpayers to be human resorce experts at the local and state level, that being experts in pay, benefits, collective bargaining, work rulws, etc.

It is a massively dysfunctional out of control system.

So the best discourse is to already know the answer before you ask the question, because if you do not , all to often the politician or government official will omti key information or otherwise deceive the public.

Illinois taxpayers have good reason to be suspicious of many units of government in Illinois because the whole story is not being told.

There needs to be a PaulHarvey press release for every government press release and newsletter and presentation.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do; the Romans are not telling the full story and it is an ingrained culture in Illinois.

That is why so many public sector workers and union bosses and special interests and the press and all the rest are affronted is because everone (overgeneralization) does not tell the full story, it is just the way things are done around here.

And they just think nothing catastrophic can happen because nothing catastrophic has happened since the great depression, so there is no reason to over react.

we pay more for the pension of township employees than 30+ states.

you don’t seem to mind that Everett