-- 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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Until there’s a constitutional convention to rewrite the Illinois constitution and makes public unions illegal we will continue to sink into self-inflicted insolvency. (which is never)
Governor Pritzker “I’m a multi billionaire, so since I’m not a millionaire, I’m excluded from paying these taxes” 🤣. Remember, I’m the guy that ripped the toilets out of one of my spare mansions to avoid paying taxes. And when I was caught, I blamed my wife. And can you believe it, people still voted for me 🤣
The millionaire’s tax is a symptom of a larger societal problem. As the article several weeks ago suggested, Chicago has no middle class, with north side and downtown neighborhoods (and a handful of far NW/SW residency requirement communities) have median household incomes well into the six figures, some even north of $200,000, while the rest of the city is subsisting at or near the poverty line. The voters in favor of these punitive taxes have little understanding of money and think everyone in these neighborhoods are ‘rich’ and ‘millionaires’, not realizing that while a $300,000 a year household income certainly… Read more »
But it will chase out more high-income earners to other states. Anywhere but Illinois will be a good place to be. No one likes to feel like they are being gouged.