"The Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 is making a renewed push to increase retirement benefits for 2,200 of its members at a heavy cost to taxpayers: $18 million the first year and $30 million every year after that.... [The proposal] would remove the 'birth date restriction' that has prohibited roughly 2,200 active and retired firefighters born after Jan. 1, 1966 from receiving a simple, 3% annual cost of living increase. Instead, they get half that amount -- an annual increase of 1.5% that is not compounded."  MORE >>