-- 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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Note that these Obama Center design consultants aren’t Chicago-based. Neither the out-of-state architect or landscape architect have any ties to Chicago, nor feet-on-ground office-presence in Chicago beyond skeleton staffing. For shame, Obamas; here was an opportunity to reinforce POC firms already within Chicago, who would greatly benefit from such a high-profile client and prestige project. Nope, instead Obama Foundation hires some pointy-headed Harvard GSDesign East Coast socialite-connected firms to execute this monument to hubris. Chicago is donating to Obama Foundation, at no cost, without any cash compensation, significant amount of prime Chicago Park District acreage, when it already has a… Read more »
Hypocrisy is how they roll. It’s like breathing to them.
They even invented a word to defend themselves when they are called out – “whataboutism”.
What part of “forever open, clear and free” does Obama not understand? There is vast amounts of land around and adjacent to Jackson Park where this building could be built. Instead Brack Obama STEALS parkland from Chicago citizens, their children and their grandchildren. It is disgusting and illegal and all so typical of Chicago politics.