-- 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 still don’t understand how the value of the property and subsequent tax rate determines the taxes but not that the ability for someone to pay them is factored into the equation. Many home values in parts of Chicago have gone up in value because for a long time the taxes were just above 1% of total value now approaching 2%. Having the 1% or so helped with appreciation while at the same time here in Rockford taxes of 4% to over 5% of value for well over a decade have only depreciated values except for least year and the… Read more »
I believe Kaegi is ethically trying to reassess property in a fair way (he doesn’t set property tax rates) and he would be first to admit prop tax rates are astronomically to high. Board of Review & Rogers are old left-overs from the Berios machine (Madigan prop tax law bus, etc) fighting to overturn Kaegi’s re-assessments and go back to the old pay-to-play days. Kaegis reassessments mean gigantic tax increases for commercial and apartments, particularly downtown apartments.. What’s interesting is to watch fake progressive Preckwinkle try and play it both ways, she really never gets behind Kaegi 100%
Kaegi doesn’t understand incremental change. He’s trying to fix everything at once while forgetting his #1 duty: collecting taxes. This is exactly how progressives operate in the real world, focusing more on the dream goals while ignoring basic job functions.
Not really in my view, I believe he’s getting big push back by the political class. Property taxes has been for decades a cess-pool money pot for the politically connected, especially tax attorneys who moonlight a few weeks a year as state legislators, and of course many former Cook County assessors. Also, no/little state/local governance/oversight over property taxes, of course intentionally. Used to at least have the Tribune look into property taxes once in a while before Alden dismantled the Trib. Behind public sector pensions-medical, property taxes is the biggest money pot in Illinois. The machine and these corrupt parties… Read more »
I know in my district the schools: elementary, high school and community college combined are something like 2/3’rd of my tax bill. My village sends out a newsletter with a picture of a dollar bill, and there’s a little piece separate from the rest, and it says “See, it’s not us! We only take this tiny sliver of your total tax bill! it’s only 6%!!” The money mostly goes to the schools, and in upper middle class communities, it’s money well spent for parents, and for homeowners, because the great schools keep the property values high. Cheaper than private schools… Read more »
Yup agree, behind the scenes there’s a lot of folks who want kaegi gone and prop tax assessments to go back to how much you can spend on a (madigan) prop tax lawyer. But then those same pols still want to claim they’re progressives??
Good.
Why is everything the worst in Illinois ? (Ie #1-2 in overall tax burden: #1-2 in political corruption; #51, behind Puerto Rico in fiscal condition). Almost 4x payments toward public pensions-medical and Illinois still has an UNFUNDED public pension-medical obligation in the $0.5TRILLION range, which must be paid by Joe Six Pack (non public union tax payer), REGARDLESS. (And instead of fixing I’ll ….politicians have the brazenness to give public unions more power per this Nov constitution proposed amendment.) Why? Oh, I forgot, Bruce Rauner is responsible for decades of political malfeasance, right? Times a changing…population of Ill is older,… Read more »
“As a result, a lot easier to relocate, except of course our house prices have gone down as property taxes are raised “
Actually, home prices have increased the last 2 years, which is masking the problem. The problem is that home price gap between Illinois and other states is growing. Anyone paying attention could have predicted it. Anyone paying taxes to the Illinois government is partially responsible. Will you now leave or continue to support the corrupt system? The longer you wait the more expensive it will be to move later. Also, there is some moral satisfaction in leaving.
We got here because the people of Illinois are the worst. That’s why. Walk around urban areas and you still see people wearing masks even outdoors. I see people in my community wearing masks going for walks around the block. I see groups of teens hanging out all of them still wearing masks. Mothers with little children freak out because their four year olds are too young to vaccinate. There’s a lot of crazy people here living in an alternative reality and they have a lot of power in the state. And it’s a massive, and likely sisyphean tasks to… Read more »
It felt good to cancel Disney last week. I can live just fine without Start Wars and Marvel.
Bleak. That’s the forecast for Illinois, especially Cook County. Progressives are now working to create a new generation of little progressives. We’re old enough to remember going to school to learn reading, writing, math, history and civics. We weren’t introduced to sex ed until high school. CRT? Nope. Gender dysphoria? Nope. No time for that stuff – we were taught accidents of birth (skin color, gender, ethnicity) aren’t all that important. School was preparing us to join the workforce and become independent adults. And it worked well. Thanks to the likes of Disney, kids aren’t allow to be kids anymore.… Read more »