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The Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund has declined an overture from Sterling Bay to back the Lincoln Yards megaproject, sending the developer back on the hunt for a financial partner to bail out the stalled $6 billion development.
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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Even the CTU knows the city is going down in flames.
CHI-EXIT UPDATE: Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund Won’t Bail Out Failed Lincoln Yards Mega-Development
Silly of ’em to even ask, apparently. Developer must be in a world of hurt.