Residency.

Over at Second City Cop, there's talk about the Chicago Teachers Union pushing a House bill to lift their residency requirement, which has been around for 20 years. The bill is circulating through state government to make Chicago's residency requirement illegal. It already passed the state House by a vote of 105 to 4, next step is the Senate.

The Scum-Times artticle SCC references states that CPS is the only district in Illinois with a residency rule. Of course it is, we all know how the city is, it's "exempt" from state law.

Mayor Daley has been a big proponent. He has argued that teachers will invest more in the schools if they live in the city.

Yeah - "invest more" as in "pump more money in" by way of rising taxes.

Of course, the article also states that "critics fear eliminating the rule will prompt thousands of tax-paying teachers to move out of Chicago. That old bottom line is always the biggest factor in the city's decisions, damn us city employees to hell.

We've wondered for a long time why the city requires its employees to live within the city limits, when most other cities in the state have nothing closer to that than a "x-mile radius" requirement, meaning you have to live within x miles of that city's boundaries. We always figured the city didn't want lose the tax base that is its employees. Not to mention, it's easier to make us comply with the rules, i.e., $75 city stickers. If we don't pay in a timely fashion, we get suspended. Which is understandable, we're not trying to shirk our responsibilities.

Okay, most of us aren't.

But housing is cheaper in suburbs, schools are better in the suburbs, the taxes are lower in the suburbs, and most importantly - it's easier to find a decent area to live in for a not-exorbitant house price. A lot of people talk around the job about how ridiculous it is that we're forced to live in the city on blue-collar salaries when costs of housing are sky high. A condominium around the OEMC grounds can fetch $400,000 easy.

We wonder if, as SCC suggests, the Teachers Union's House bill will set a precedent for other city workers. If it does (and our union bothers to join other unions to fight for us), then we can easily see people moving to suburbs in droves. And count us in.