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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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Call Banjo the Clown on the 5th floor. He’s a man of the people if you’re a teacher
” “Our Democratic state government is to blame,” Chicago Teacher’s Union representative Jesse Bostic said at the rally. ” Was this CTU stooge paid to be there? No, stooge Bostic, the Democrat State Government is not to blame, save for them putting their political pals in charge of Chicago Transit. It is those pals who continued to spend like it was 2015 while carrying half the ridership. The Autopen-in-Chief’s inflationary and very much temporary funding picked up the outrageous tab for carrying empty seats around Chicagoland all while JB the Hutt’s Coof decrees and Lori Lightweight’s utter mismanagement killed The Loop… Read more »
Illinois Democrats need to take a long, hard, look in the mirror. Their covid lockdowns prevented many people from traveling to their offices to work. This caused a lot of small businesses to close and many to go to a work at home routine (which is only just starting to change). This has drastically impacted the Chicago metro areas’ public transportation ridership with a resulting decrease in revenue. Because less people are traveling to Chicago’s Loop you have also seen a drastic decrease in real estate prices their with a commensurate decrease in real estate tax revenues. This will take… Read more »
Bingo!
No more money until they clean up manage, fire dei and political hires. Stop any new projects now.
The last Millennium’s outmoded model of public transit is obsolete.
Transit ridership has declined steadily over the last 5 decades, despite billions in federal, state and local taxpayer subsidies.
Time to right-size public transit and/or adopt another model for urban transportation.
Not quite. After having ridership numbers climb nearly every year for 30 years, Chicago Transit ridership peaked in 2012 and began its decline there, so it’s only been 13 years of decline at the time of this post. The complete overreaction to the Coof rapidly drove ridership down. The only avenue of growth and stability in Chicago Transit are the ‘Paratransit’ users. This isn’t the glamorous, shiny Metra trains or electric buses that get all the attention. Paratransit is used mainly by those who simply cannot drive: handicapped and elderly riders. This is the one part of Chicago transit that… Read more »
‘I Don’t Know How I’m Going To Get Around’
Hitch a ride with some CTU fat-cat. Brandon gave them all your money.