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.
“Though conservative aldermen have severely criticized Johnson’s methods to address the issue, this is one of the first times that Johnson has received pushback from council members of his own party.” Who are these supposed “conservative aldermen” from the opposing party in Chicago’s City Hall? Is the author implying that there are actually Republican aldermen in City Hall? Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks couldn’t even get elected to City Hall when he was running as a Republican in Wrigleyville. Another fine example of national conservative media using Chicago as a political football, despite knowing almost nothing about Chicago or… Read more »