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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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Anything not specifically required by federal law for Medicaid should be eliminated. Illinois offers many, many services that go beyond their requirements.
Here is some info on how pensions are calculated in SERS. https://ilsrs.illinois.gov/sers/tier-1/tier-1-regular-retirement-formula.html Take a look at Final average (highest 48 months out of the last 120 months) How to increase service credit using unused sick leave. Same for paid sick and vacation time then click the unused sick leave chart. Where in the real world are retirements and pensions calculated this way? SS is the average of your entire working career not the 4 highest earning years. My question is what would the liabilities be in Illinois if pensions were based on the average salary over your working career? IMO… Read more »
You are correct. It should be based on the SS formula which does allow for the CPI to be adjusted for each of the past years.
Doing the same thing over and over & over expecting a different result = insanity…
The progressive tax will be like those local school referendums where future GA’s will try and try with the hopes it will eventually pass. As long as the state needs more revenue this topic will continue to come up.
Big picture, massive cuts & layoffs need to be made back to pre COVID levels with ARPA-COVID $bucks$ gone & potentially Medicaid/ SNAP $ gone, etc. Other states are making cuts. Illinois will get giant SALT cap increase or elimination.
Tomorrow’s JB’s big day to stand up for us chumbalone taxpayers to the machine and say NO to graduated tax, tax on services, mileage tax, etc, etc and all the other tax schemes being floated around thru welch & harmon……what’s ya going to do fat boy? Be a man or keep the knee pads on?
If JB wants this to pass he is going to need the General Assembly to provide an incentive. Before the voters decide on this amendment in the booth, the GA should pass a flat tax increase that will go into effect for ALL Illinois taxpayers if the progressive tax doesn’t pass including taxing retirees. They should have an alternative progressive tax hike that takes effect if it does pass that doesn’t include taxing retirees or raising taxes on 90% of Illinois taxpayers. That way voters have a choice between a guaranteed tax hike for all or just a tax hike… Read more »
No chance of a flat tax increase. Highest overall tax burden in the nation already and Jumbo JB won’t pass a tax increase with the flat rate while trying to run for president. Illinois is taxed out. Time for cuts. Oh, and everyone knows they will tax retirees if they get their progressive tax. That cat is out of the bag. Another reason it won’t happen.
No chance for a flat tax increase because we already have high taxes??? You must be new to Illinois. Thanks for the laugh.
You must be new to math. People can only pay so much. Thanks for the stupidity. HIGHEST COMBINED TAX RATE. Illinois is near the limit to any new taxation at all, even more so with high inflation. Cuts are soon to be forced on Illinois Dems because there will be no other option. Enjoy.
That’s what people said last year. What happened? Oh, that’s right, taxes went up by over a billion dollars for 2024 fiscal year. Make sure you come back here after the next budget is passed to tell me that taxes can’t increase because we are the “HIGHEST COMBINED TAX RATE”. That’s adorable.
One billion isn’t much. Raising it in any large amount is impossible now. They had to nickle and dime the one billion, and it was barely approved. People will keep leaving even if taxes aren’t raised at all. Your pension is doomed.
You’re right, it isn’t much. They will need more and eventually income taxes will also increase. You go ahead and believe Illinois has changed its ways and will start to cut spending and no longer increase taxes. I will believe Illinois is going to Illinois.
You must believe Illinois is immune to mathematical reality. Here’s a hint: it’s not. If you think that having the highest overall tax burden in a high inflation economy in a state losing people doesn’t severely limit Illinois ability to tax more then you are truly a fool. People can only pay so much. Cuts will be forced by people and businesses being tapped out, and soon. People have to have money to survive. You can’t deny that.
PPF is correct. Taxes will increase for everyone. Most Illinois residents are against tax increases but the problem is that Illinois politicians do not fear losing their elections. No one seems to understand this: our Illinois government is merely plug-and-play – they swap out one legislator for another based on party loyalty. They have no power at all because all of the power resides in the power brokers who run the Illinois legislature. Most legislators have only been in Springfield a couple of years because it is a dead-end job with near zero chance for advancement. You *must* do what… Read more »
Unfortunately, I agree taxes will likely increase. Pritzker and co. know that many residents are all bark and no bite in their threats to relocate. Those residents continue to simply increase their thresholds of pain. One exception to this would be if Illinois taxes retirement income. However, Illinois would do so gradually, so the first few years might not seem too bad. Some of the residents in question would say “oh, I can handle that, so I’ll stick around”; then, eventually, as retirement taxes increase, they become the frogs in the pot of boiling water.
Oh look, another idiot who thinks taxes can always increase. When you already have the highest combined tax rate your room to raise taxes is not much. That is reality.
I remember when you said the progressive tax would pass and then it failed miserably. I remember you being wrong a lot, actually.
That wasn’t me. I stated that it wouldn’t pass because they didn’t tie an incentive as the one I described above. It’s you that are wrong Ben. I have been wrong before but not on this issue.
That probably is the strategy they will use. Isn’t that what criminals do- threaten to hurt you worse unless you give the criminals what they want? Public unions have perfected the strategy- works every time.
It’s not criminal at all. We are deep in debt and getting out of debt is painful. They would simply be providing the voters with a choice in their pain. A tax increase for all or a tax increase for the “rich”. Perhaps different people can win office on the promise to cut spending instead. I just don’t believe the Illinois voters will support those types of candidates. At least they have shown no signs in the past.
PPF – you likely are correct in that Illinois voters will not support candidates who want to cut spending. But if true I can’t follow your logic. Suppose a progressive income tax regime is implemented that taxes the “rich”. Although there are not enough “rich” to raise as much revenue as progressives believe (remember it is an income and not a wealth tax), additional revenue will be raised. Really, though, these politicians will take that revenue and dedicate it towards pensions? Fat chance. As you indicate, they will spend it to fund various income transfers to connected interests. And even… Read more »
The problem is politically difficult not “unsolvable” and doesn’t require “extraordinary proceedings”. I agree with you that increasing taxes won’t necessarily be used to pay down pension debt faster. However if elected leaders continue to pay the statutory amount (no pension holidays), pensions will be funded at 90% in 2045. The problem is those statutory payments will continue to rise for the next two decades to about 20 billion before falling back to around 4 billion in 2045. That means over the next 20 years our statutory pension contributions will need 10 more billion per year or double than what… Read more »
“Our revenue increased 77% in the last fifteen years and that was with a massive income tax increase of 67%, so definitely possible.” You make the error of assuming the past increases will be similar to future increases, becuase we all know that “past performance is not indicative of future results”. Assuming another 77% in revenue in 15 years is asking a lot. That’s exponential growth, almost hockey stick growth, to go from $30 billion in revenue to $85B in revenue in 30 years. We’re not a booming state, there isn’t much growth, we have a relatively high unemployment rate,… Read more »
Illinois Taxpayers owe the Public Sector Union Pensions jack squat. These pensions were criminally obtained in a massive votes-and-campaign-bribes in exchange for obscene-pay-and-absurd-pensions fraud. The unions colluded with the politicians in a gigantic RICO scam. No taxpayer money for you.
Every time they put this forward, it has luckily been voted down. The corrupt Pols just keep trying to sneak it past the voters and the people of this state. It is a crime, that we have to watch the elected officials and bureaucrats from continuously trying the same approach to steal from us. What part of NO do they not understand. These people constantly try and sneak bills and new taxes through with misleading titles, poor documentation, limited time to examine the request…the robbery just never ends.
Pritzker needs this tax more than anything. The passage of it would be paraded as “He had the guts to take the politically unpopular move to hike taxes in order to do what was right for Illinois” and then the rest of the blah blah about keeping the State out of bankruptcy, saving necessary programs so on and so forth. Remember its all about his Presidential aspirations and nothing else; torpedoing the State to him is meaningless because to him its a stepping stone to national office. Remember he needs positive headlines for his national run despite the long term… Read more »
This tax has zero chance of happening, just like Slobster has no chance of being president.
The only thing the pols are taught after being elected is— It is NEVER a spending problem only a REVENUE problem. If anyone deviates from this they will be ousted and replaced asap. They are probably given nice framed plaques with that phrase to hang on their walls.
Illinois will never make any progress in eliminating insanity until there’s “fair maps” for representing the people appropriate.
Illinois will never make any progress in eliminating insanity until there’s “fair maps” for representing the people appropriate.
The best court ruling will eliminate all Public Sector Unions. They are the common poison of failed corrupt governments nationwide. Bust these unconstitutional criminal parasites now.
Absolutely spot on!
Need to spread the word that any change such as this to the Illinois State Constitution would allow the state to begin taxing retirement income. Seniors mobilize as well as any other group, and they vote! Illinois is desperate for money from taxpayers, and this ploy needs to be stopped once and for all.
A service charge of 10% for all pension payments paid to people that are not Illinois residents.
Courts would say no.
Let’s Tax Pensions first. The root cause of the money shortage is pensions, and they do nothing to help out the working families of Illinois.
Courts won’t let you do that unless we tax all retirement income.
True but can they be taxed at a different rate vs other private retirements? Federal tax brackets are different and if the state imposed taxes on all retirement those with state pensions would probably be taxed at a higher bracket rate than people on SS. The average SS check is $1,862 per month far less than many state pensions or private pensions like carpenters/plumbers/etc.
https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/social-security/articles/how-much-you-will-get-from-social-security
Trump does not seem to care what the courts say.
A better constitutional amendment would be ending government employee pensions.
The bill, Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 04, introduced Feb. 5 by political animal Robert Martwick will be of great assistance to Florida homesellers by making a move to that saner and far better managed state even more attractive.
The spending must stop. Illinois needs a DOGE, but all the chumbalones ever get are Democrats Uniting Many Bad Actors, StudnadeS, and Enfeebled Shite, such as political animal Martwick.