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.
Unfortunately, taxpayers can no longer afford to have towns whose sole employment opportunities are bloated government programs. It’s a shame that you cant attract money making jobs and people that rely on benefits will be impacted, but the harsh reality is that the golden goose is on life support. How cities even devolved into third world areas one bad storm away from total disaster is the real problem.