Cops Get A New Contract But They Still Won T Vote For Rahm

With news that Mayor Emanuel has given police a new contract, I had to ask some cops I know: Are you going to vote for Rahm?

Pensions matter a lot to police because, like teachers and other public-sector workers, they’re not eligible for social security. Plus, they have to retire by law at age 63, so they can’t work on and on until they drop.

Which isn’t far from Bruce Rauner’s attitude toward public pensions.

At the moment, the Chicago police pension is about 30 percent funded. That means that if every single policeman were to retire today and all payments into the plan were halted, we would only have enough money on hand to pay about 30 percent of the obligations.

Emanuel didn’t want to pay this money any more than Daley did, so he tried a strategy known as divide and conquer.

But in March 2013 the sergeants overwhelmingly voted down the deal. So Mayor Emanuel tried a squeeze play.