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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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As a former Chicago resident who once had three kids in CPS, I greatly enjoy occasionally coming to this website for a laugh and reassurance of how smart I am for moving. That any of you think CPS and other ills of Chicago will ever get fixed, or merely just improve, makes me chuckle.
Just move.
It has only been getting worse over the last decade. Looks like more bad news in the future. Pay more and get less is what is happening.
To be sure the touted answers will include that the situation is Trumps fault because heaven forbid the real cause of the problem, the voters on election day, could never be expected to face up to the problems that they have created.
Wait, wait, wait. Which one of these ‘fiscal cliffs’ do we ante up for first. There are so many who caused all this mess. The Autopen-in-chief, JB the Hutt, Mayor Cliff Notes, the hapless executive directors and their political animal patrons, Stacy Gates,…all had a role in digging this financial hole. They all pretended to be Santa Claus, handing out gifts to their ‘good little girls and boys’ and now the credit card bills are arriving in the mailbox and the political animals are panicking over how to pay for all the stuff they handed out. If we had actual… Read more »
With Martinez just about the door, and with a new job secured, he should just put his big boy pants on and give the orders that need to be made and that readers of Wirepoints are all familiar with: closing near empty schools, reducing administrative staff, cutting spending levels to what you have, not what you would like.
Right. He should just ignore state law that doesn’t allow these schools to be closed and do it anyway. It’s so frustrating that these people don’t violate the law to get what we want.
Its funny how there is always some kind of ridiculous law that keeps the government and its unions from allowing fiscally responsible management of the tax payers dollars. Whether federal, state or local.
Martinez is returning the favor to May Brandon Johnson for unseating him. This is going to be one MASSIVE mess, especially in Mayor Johnson’s last year as mayor.
And taxpayers can thank CTU and their puppet, Johnson.
Just sell more bonds that will never get paid off.
Maybe Six Percent’s appointed buddy won’t get the luxury SUV and driver he DEMANDED before doing a minute’s work.
Here’s a thought Pedro – close schools. Layoff excess staff. Reduce Pay. Right size the organization to match the available funds. Your solutions to address your $600M short fall are unsustainable. You Don’t need a “coalition” of community organizers or faith leaders or a blue ribbon committee to study it for 3 years…the problem is obvious to anyone with a pulse. School Districts are just a bottomless pit of cost.
You know it’s bad when the take from property taxes still isn’t enough to keep the CTU/CPS grift going.