I would have been perfectly content to get through life without ever reading a credit-rating report.
Before I get to the details, you should know something about credit-rating reports. They’re supposed to be independent analyses of a government body’s financial strengths and weaknesses.
Anyway, I read Moody’s recent reports on the city and the Chicago Public Schools to see if it discovered that Chicago has started sliding into the lake—that whole neighborhoods are going under, hundreds of businesses are collapsing, or thousands of residents are skedaddling for the suburbs.
That is, Chicago is a relatively prosperous town with a penchant for electing mayoral autocrats who can impose virtually any tax hike they want—including the one Mayor Emanuel will most likely impose to help us cope with our mounting pension obligations.
How can you overlook 22 schools in a system you run and still win plaudits for effectively running the system? I eagerly wait for the next credit-rating report to find out.
Moody’s does note that CPS also faces the challenge of “high fixed costs associated with debt service.”
