Joliet’s future: Tax hikes, more job cuts

Res ipsa loquitur. In legal jargon, the term means "the thing speaks for itself." Sometimes in court proceedings, the source of fault is so obvious, so plain to a reasonable observer, no amount of argument or rationalization can explain it away. In other words, the thing speaks for itself.

In the city of Joliet's case, the "thing" is the payroll list. At the bottom of this column, you'll find an Internet link to Joliet's 2010 payroll ranked by annual compensation, not including insurance benefits. You must travel 315 names down the list — 39 percent of the city's full-time workforce — to reach the $100,000 line. Seventy-five percent of Joliet's full-timers top $80,000.

Will any Joliet city council candidate publicly acknowledge the truth? Joliet has insufficient revenue to fund its compensation structure and, as a consequence, layoffs and tax increases are imminent.

This might be news to political neophytes running for office, but it's no revelation to council incumbents. They've known this scenario was inevitable for several years, yet refused to act, fearing election retribution from union voting blocs.

We've heard the rationalizations — the numbers include overtime (it's only 13 percent of total payroll, actually); that Joliet workers purportedly make comparable wages to other cities' employees; that life safety personnel deserve every penny they get.

We've heard the attacks on people who frankly discuss Joliet's plight, usually from employees understandably trying to protect their own paychecks. They'll eagerly tell you that I have a government teaching job, good insurance and a future pension. That's true, and I've provided the link to my salary, too.

But you know what? No amount of explaining, debating or finger-pointing matters. Joliet is still broke.

I don't fault one employee — union member or not — for taking every dollar the council gave away. In the end, nine people are Joliet's sole decision-makers. Don't blame employees, unions, former or current city managers or anyone else. The situation comes home to roost on the council dais. Council members have nearly bankrupted our city by willingly engaging in a systematic game of one-upmanship between city unions, with other employees piggy-backing for the pay-and-benefits ride.

The ride is over. Joliet is out of options — jobs will be cut and taxes raised.

Does any candidate have the guts to tell the truth and stop lying by omission? I could vote for a person with that kind of backbone — perhaps even an incumbent.

How did our council turn the greatest revenue windfall in Joliet's history into a $27 million deficit? Look at the list. Res ipsa loquitur.

Find Joliet's 2010 payroll at slideshare.net/JolietCitizen/joliet-2010-payroll.

Find Illinois teacher salaries at familytaxpayers.org/salary.php.

E-mail Tim Placher at

timplacher@yahoo.com.