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Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is preparing to ask Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other state leaders for roughly $1 billion in public money to build his team a new home in the South Loop. While Pritzker has been dismissive of using tax dollars to subsidize a new stadium for a team worth billions even before the bonds that paid for the team’s current South Side home are paid off, he has yet to rule anything out until learning of the team’s detailed financial plan.
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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Chicagoans and Illinoisians,
I’ve seen this movie before in Michigan with the Pontiac Silverdome. Don’t go there.
The current facility Reinsdorf’s team utilizes is in great shape. It hasn’t had too many full house crowds since the team pretty much stinks. Sorry Jerry, we rate your request as mostly BS. No new stadium for you!
Of course he’s confident. Money is handed out like confetti at a parade. Taxpayers have unlimited money until they don’t.