-- 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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Translation…..he is not getting his!!
The Bears ae as inept on stadium plans as they are on the football field. As I have said many times before, they will be playing in Soldier Field ten years from now– and probably longer. As long as the McCaskeys own the team, they will never put together a proposal that anyone– legislators, taxpayers or neighborhood groups– will support. Arlington Heights was never going to work. By my count, this is the sixth or seventh Bears proposal over the years in various locations that has stalled out. They are just incredibly incompetent.
Are the Bears using the Arlington Heights property as leverage with Arlington Heights and the City or as a fall back option? If they have $2 billion to put toward a lakefront stadium surely the property taxes in Arlington Heights are not a showstopper there. And if Wirtz & Reinsdorf can fund a $7 billion United Center area development surely they can build a ballpark on their own if they truly want one. Is that $7 billion project to be used as leverage/horse trading for a ballpark?