According to a recent study by Moody’s Investors Service, Chicago’s pension fund has the most underfunded retirement plans in the country. How underfunded is that? Moody’s says the pensions cost the city 8 times annual revenues.
Based on a three year average calculated by Moody’s Chicago’s pension obligations add up to a total of $29.8 billion. That figure comes to 15.5 percent of its property tax base, making it also the highest in the nation using that parameter.
Chicago came in at the bottom of this list also two years ago, the first year of this Moody’s survey. The office of Mayor Emanuel did not comment on this report.
Amazon announced that it will soon be building a new 500,000-square-foot warehouse, known as a fulfillment center, in the city of Joliet, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. The giant on-line retailer promises that the new facility will be hiring about 1,000 full-time employees when it is completed.
Fulfillment centers are Amazon’s method to incredibly fast delivery of consumer products ordered from their web-site. The warehouses, filled with workers and products, process orders of a huge variety of items, including books, electronics, clothing, jewelry, and just about anything else that can be delivered by truck (or drone, in some places.)
At the end of April Crain’s reported Amazon’s intention to build a new center in Joliet, and that they had also leased space on Goose Island.
“We are thrilled that Amazon has chosen Joliet as the location for its new Illinois fulfillment center,” said the mayor of Joliet Bob O’Dekirk in a statement from Seattle-based Amazon.
Vice president of Amazon’s operations in North America, Mike Roth, said in a statement:
“We are grateful for the support of local and state leadership in helping to bring Amazon to Illinois and we look forward to being an active member of the community.”
