-- 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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Galena IL had a problem of vacant store fronts several decades ago. They turned it around by filling the stores with restaurants and quaint, kitschy knick-knack shops, and now it’s a shopping destination in an old, historic town. Can Englewood and Norwood Park do the same?
That’s funny!
While the storefronts remain vacant, owners get a substantial real estate tax break.
Higher taxes would incent owners to find some productive use, or sell to someone who will. Probably would be more effective than this curious grant program.
Hmm, if entrepenures could make a profit those store fronts wouldn’t be vacant. Gee, why can’t they make a profit? I’ve got a few thoughts on this phenomenon BJ.
A $3 mil equity hustle joke…pathetic