City Hall is reportedly close to a deal with the Municipal Employees and Laborers unions to shore up their pension funds.
The Chicago Sun-Times' Fran Spielman, citing unnamed sources, said talks ramped up after Moody's Investors Services earlier this month downgraded Chicago's credit rating from A3 to Baa1.
According to the report, the new agreements are modeled after the deal Mayor Rahm Emanuel worked out last fall with the Chicago Park District. That deal, detailed in a report by The Civic Federation, aims to stabilize the district’s underfunded pension fund and bring the funded ratio to 90 percent funded by 2049.
Talk of a deal has the police and fire unions in a "panic," according to the report. Those unions stand to get a nearly $600 million increase in their pension payments next year. Emanuel wants the Illinois General Assembly to delay that increase because the city would need to either slash city services, raise property taxes substantially or both to meet the obligation.
Emanuel faces re-election next year.
