"It is no secret that Illinois and Chicago are in a financial crisis, mainly due to underfunded pensions (Better Gov has a great primer on the issue). Some argue that taxes should be raised to fund pensions, others that benefits should be reduced, although that would require an amendment to the state constitution. Other solutions include transferring city assets to pension funds or floating municipal bonds and investing them in the stock market, and it's only a matter of time before someone floats the idea of investing city funds in dogecoin. For the time being however, the city has relied mainly on property taxes and fees to meet its pension obligations. While this has historically resulted in increased tax bills for property owners, it doesn't necessarily have to in the future. In this article, I will explore the idea of growing the property tax base as an alternative to simply increasing current resident’s tax bills. But first I want to go over the current pension contributions.