-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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 CPS Teacher Contract and the previous one in 2012 were agreed upon during a Presidential election cycle.
2012 included a strike.
2016 included a strike authorization.
Hardball negotiations.
It looks like the new contract includes two 3.5% salary increases for new employees that will not be eligible for the pension pickup. That means new hires will earn 7% more per year than their step equivalent before them, which I suppose also means each of their steps will be 7% higher than those who got the pick-up from then on. Does this mean there will be two salary schedules now? And will they get different raises going forward? The biggest problem I see with this contract is that CPS struck the “pension pick-up will not constitute a continuing element… Read more »
It appears the CTU actually accepted cannibalizing their own members. New teachers contributions to the pension are doing nothing more than paying on those retired long ago, a new teacher is really not contributing to “their” pension. So the big bargaining team will throw them under the bus instead of all of us just paying. And we have Rahm now in the forced plastic bag business starting a market for the very plastic bags his EPA told him his progressive city should ban, more cannibalization of principles these people shout about, but are willing to sell for a bag of… Read more »
Perfectly said. These people are walking frauds.