-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
This situation is confusing to the uninitiated because lots of this restricted/ conserved land is actually a tax scam for the well-to-do. Wealthy people in the United States are putting their homes and land in expensive suburbs under conservation easements under the ownership of so called “conservation trusts”. The easement promises to not change or develop the land and buildings in perpetuity. In return for this promise, the landowner takes the difference between the prior value of the property as a charitable contribution, against the reduced value of the property under the restrictive easement. Additionally, the lowered value of the… Read more »
This is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard. I understand the root the word conservativism is conserve, but taking valuable crop land, used to grow food and feed people and livestock, to achieve some very high and completely arbitrary conservation figure on an absurd expedited timeline, is insane and will result in death and destruction. World leaders and economists are talking about famines and food shortages in the coming years from lack of fertilizer and the war in Ukraine, and these people want to take valuable and productive farm land out of use to satisfy their crazy ideology?… Read more »