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.
The Chitty of Chicago is not a safe place to be. Just ask all the retired Chicago cops in Punta Gorda. They cannot get out of town quickly enough.
Casinos, NASCAR races, and guaranteed income is not what is meant by attracting new businesses, restaurants, and manufacturing. Less sales tax and crime are reasons businesses outside Cook county are holding their own. And what good is converting retail spaces to residential when people are moving out? And if crime is driving businesses out, why would anyone want to live there?