-- 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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I certainly like the idea of “bailing out” COVID impacted individuals, based on some level of identifiable – as in quantifiable – hardship, a lot more than I support shoveling national debt willy-nilly into individual state government’s sweaty palms. Neither my wife or I have lost our jobs. We didn’t “need” the last stimulus check we received to fix a financial problem caused by COVID, and don’t need another one. Pre-COVID eligible beneficiaries of public aid programs haven’t seen their Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, SNAP or financial support income reduced. COVID hasn’t increased inflation, thereby reducing the buying-power of assistance… Read more »
States probably can but —DO they want to is another thing.
They want to raise taxes and wring their citizens dry.
Wll at least that is Lard Boy’s answer to everything.