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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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Wouldn’t this be just like the downstate police and fire plans that levy pension taxes with the approval of the municipalities’ governing bodies? In the case of P&F, property taxes don’t increase but the allocation of the property tax dollars may shift to pensions from other spending categories.
I believe he is referring to a different concept, under which the pension board itself could act to force the levy or it would be automatic, as with IMRF.