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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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Screw off, CTA. You refuse to adjust routes that carry passengers about half the time, are always touting free rides for just about anyone that asks and have a bloated, duplicated staff that is paid far too much. Go ask Dorval Carter for some of the 375K a year he got paid to throughly mismanage the whole ball of wax.
I’m guessing “many” doesn’t mean “many.”
Why not simply raise user fees? That way down staters can pay full fare for rides when they visit Chicago and use the transit system.
That violates the cardinal rule of having the “other guy” pay.
No, Raymond, they don’t need another bonus confiscated from Illinois taxpayers. The Executive Directors need to scale back their spending and, yes, service, to right size their diminished operations to suit their reduced customer base.
As Nelson Bunker Hunt once said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking real money.” RTA $750 million hole; City of Chicago/CPS a $1.7 billion hole. Nothing to see here. Move along citizens. Move along.
Chicago needs to pay for CTA, not the rest of the state or suburban Cook county. Chicago mismanaged it, not everyone else. Until they cut the waste, patronage anDEI hires, they shouldn’t get another dime. They’re still spending money that they don’t have. Clean up the crime and homeless on public transportation. Remember when RTA was created to bail out CTA? Nothings improved since then.
I don’t understand why any law-abiding person would want to visit Chicago with its high crime and dangerous traffic conditions. There’s another article found here on wirepoints from the Sun-Times, Aug. 25, on traffic deaths and injuries in Chicago. 23,000 people were injured in crashes in 2023 because so many drivers are speeding. A lot of elderly pedestrians are killed as well. My husband’s grandfather died after being hit by a car in Chicago. Add to that the carjackings, road rage incidents, and the many hit-and-runs that will never be investigated. I don’t go back to visit Chicago because of… Read more »
But.. bu.. but didn’t you hear the governor yesterday extolling the virtues of walking around CHI, enjoying the sights and ice cream cones ( that was in his wheelhouse!)? To chumps like he and mayor Panic Attacks, life is a bowl of cherries when you have a personal security detail.
Public transportation without being armed, are you kidding me?
I don’t go there anymore and certainly wouldn’t use public transit if I were to visit.
Even as their ridership decreases they seek to spend $8 billion expanding a money pit to the south side.
I’m sure those from outside of Chicago try hard to stay off of public transit. Public transit needs to cut the schedules and increase fares.
I have not been to Chicago in 23 years and I live in lake county il. The city isn’t very important to me.