-- 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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This is a statewide problem. When the TIFS are started the populace oooohhh and ahhhhh about the “wonderful benefits” that these TIFs provide including those awesome streetscapes guaranteed to reelect the standing politicians. Then, years later, as taxes that should have gone to the schools, police and infrastructure are sitting in the TIFS which are arguably slush funds for the status quo politicians. The Chicago schools are broke and begging for money yet plenty sits in the TIF account and in Johnsons so called “City Development Fund.” The money is there folks…make the politicians spend it appropriately for a change