Chicago suburb lays off 40 cops and firefighters to meet pension obligations

Every socialist state will eventually reach a day of reckoning.

For years the government of Harvey, Illinois (an impoverished, high-tax, high-regulation socialist suburb of Chicago) has overpaid cops and firefighters and lavished retired cops and firefighters with extravagant pensions. (Many such retirees take their padded pensions and move to lower-tax, less socialist places.)

But the long-suffering residents of Harvey are now unable to meet the ever-growing tax burden. In April the municipal government was forced to lay off 40 cops and firefighters. See here.

In 2015, the millionaire retired cops of Harvey won a ruling in federal court requiring that their pensions be fully paid. Consequently, the town comptroller has been forced to redirect 1.5 million tax dollars from town budgets to the pension fund.

Harvey remains more than $7 million delinquent in its payments to the millionaire retiree pension fund.