Chicago taxpayers are about to cough up a $543 million tax increase to fund police and fire pensions (with much, much more to come), but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do very, very well “serving” the public. Consider Langdon Neal. Tim Novak of the Chicago Sun-Times’ “The Watchdogs” explains how a lawyer can hoover up just shy of a hundred million bucks from Chicagoans: When City Hall and other government agencies need property in Chicago, they turn to Langdon Neal, one of the city’s most politically connected lawyers. Running the small law firm his grandfather founded more than 75 years ago, Neal has made a fortune helping City Hall and other governments condemn land for schools, police stations, McCormick Place, O’Hare Airport expansion. Since 1999, Neal’s firm has been paid a total of more than $99 million by 10 government agencies, according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. The precise tab...(Read Full Post)