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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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According to Dun and Bradstreet, McC Place currently has approximately 600 employees. Since it and Navy Pier are totally shut down, how many of those employees have had pay reductions? Any on furlough? One single employee looking at zero income like everyone else in the convention, restaurant, bar and tourism industry in Chicago. I bet it is a nice round number. That would be a great place to start with re-purposing the place.
Q: How can McCormick Place serve the greater good?
A. Tear it down.
I’ve run convention booths at McCormack and many other convention centers. Working in a booth at McCormack is a nightmare. You can’t plug in your laptop, a union electrician has to do it, you get the bill. You can’t bring a couple of $4.00 24 bottle cases of water from Walmart for your booth, no you have to buy their water at over a dollar a bottle, and they have to deliver it, you get the bill. You can’t set up your booth without a minimum number of rigging union members there. You don’t get a wired Ethernet drop unless… Read more »
The expense of McCormick Place is primarily labor and those guys make a killing. I know for a fact, as in I’ve seen paycheck stubs, that high seniority unions members at McCormick place earn in well into the six figures. The lower seniority guys, not as much, but a good living.
Well, not this year! They’re all broke!
I’ve had similar experiences there. I once did everything according to Hoyle. Then before the show opened I clipped a banner to the back curtain. A union guy who was walking around checking everything said I had to have a decorator union guy do that. So I had to take it down and hand it to the union guy to put it back up. Then they handed me the invoice.