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.
Kankakee is in terrible shape. Drove through the downtown a month ago and was shocked at how shabby it is. Pensions are in near collapse– especially the Fire and Police. Property taxes are driving out all the businesses. Heartbreaking to see what has happened in a town that was really pretty nice only twenty years ago.