50 years ago, Illinois updated constitution; can it do more? – Telegraph Herald (Dubuque)

"Whether those voters thought it would still be a vibrant document a half-century hence, it’s likely none could foresee the extent of the problems facing the state today. Crushing debt that has elicited bond-house ratings just above junk status includes a $140 billion shortfall in the state’s employee pension programs. There’s a self-perpetuating consolidation of power in the General Assembly where many bemoan that lawmakers ensure political survival by drawing their own election districts. Finally, there’s the corruption in the highest political echelons."
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Eugene from a payphone
5 years ago

That convention was a career start for the likes of Richard M Daley and all those seeking to gain from the change, think Government lobbyists, union loyalists, corporate CEO’s and utilities. It would be interesting to see a roster of the “independent” delegates who attended that cash grab.

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Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades

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.

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