-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Read the document.
Contains all vague generalities, unrelated to actual numbers. Illinois has passed out taxpayer money subsidies like candy, but no published numbers herein show anything but net (taxpayer) losses as a result.
BIG subsidies to attract new startup businesses, but without specifying any clawback provisions for incubators which develop new tech with no personal risk (Thanks, Illinois taxpayers!) then if successful, move the company headquarters (taxable base) to a different State in America. Pritzker Trust Investment arm may have benefitted personally from the winners, but nobody seems to care.
Exactly. An economic plan with exactly zero commitment to any sort of measurable improvement. No commitment to stop the bleeding of people from the state, reduce the state unemployment rate to at least on par with neighboring states, or GDP growth target. Anyone submitting this sort of fantasy plan to company executives would be shown the door immediately. Unfortunately we are three years away from our next opportunity to fire JB.
Also note all the check marks associated with accomplishments for the 2019. Everything was achieved. Things must be great.