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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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This is one of many similar, regionalized articles published around the nation by Lee Enterprises. That’s nice to see — just the facts, and this is a good selection of key data. One chart I might quibble with the labor participation rate, which is how many of those able to work are actually working. A longer term view gives a broader picture on an important trend — declining participation rate for both IL and the nation since about 2000. See it here:https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LBSSA17#0 . That’s from the St. Louis Fed with has a terrific, easy to use database here:https://fred.stlouisfed.org, for you… Read more »