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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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This article ignores the specifics of TIF and high tax rates created as a specific function of TIF. Small towns in Illinois (like Woodstock) have a shortage of housing because of existing high property tax rates and aberrant high public debt which is a tax obligation of taxable (not-TIF) properties. Because nobody will build in abnormally high property tax rate environments (Woodstock is 3.6% of fair market value) without financial incentives, TIF comes in. TIF district becomes the one and only place in town any sane developer would locate new construction. Residential units in TIF create enormous new tax burden… Read more »
Thanks for your meaningful insight. It seems like residents of such towns in IL may be kidding themselves.
This article ignores the specifics of TIF and high tax rates created as a specific function of TIF. Small towns in Illinois (like Woodstock) have a shortage of housing because of existing high property tax rates and aberrant high public debt which is a tax obligation of taxable (not-TIF) properties. Because nobody will build in abnormally high property tax rate environments (Woodstock is 3.6% of fair market value) without financial incentives, TIF comes in. TIF district becomes the one and only place in town any sane developer would locate new construction. Residential units in TIF create enormous new tax burden… Read more »