-- 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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$3 billion! Folks, another reason to stack. The flip side is Chicago real estate prices will soon equal Detroits.
Who woke up the Civic Federation? They just figured out that pension problems could result in huge property tax increases? They must not have had a newspaper subscription or TV for the last ten years. Sound asleep just like all the other Chicago business and civic groups.
Pension fund is already broke, so what is another $3 billion. Just a deeper hole for taxpayers to fill. Most of the retirees from the fire department leave the state.