-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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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US Congress needs to. start working on the state bankruptcy laws, it’s impossible to dig this state out.
Trump -caused fiscal crisis. So he’s the one who is raing taxes to pay for the overblown pension crisis and over spending in Illinois. Now I get it .
I can tell you what Ralph will say without reading the article. He’s going to say that “adjusting for inflation that spending is less now than it was how many years ago”. He will also mention that there is a structural deficit and that the only way out of it is to increase taxes via a progressive tax rate and to tax services. He will tell you that pensions and debt are the sacred cows. Ralph conveniently cherry picks the use of adjusting for inflation to “prove” his point. What he doesn’t do is compare spending using per capita data… Read more »
Martire has carved out a nice lucrative niche for himself via pension donations. His trail of negative influence at D90 in River Forest and D200 in Oak Park is well documented locally. Cushy university job and has become a self styled go to for tax “analysis”, none of which includes a rational business like approach to managing finite resources because to him they are infinite, the public being the ATM.
When Martire says “tax reform” read that as “tax increases.
If Illinois is unable or unwilling to cut spending, the only choice is increasing taxes. Martire claims that spending isn’t too high and demand for services makes it necessary to not cut spending. At least he is being honest that we need more taxes if we want all this spending. It would be nice if a Republican candidate for governor outlined where the spending cuts would come from in order for taxes to not increase. Then the voters would have an actual choice on fiscal responsibility. Better to be honest than just spending with no way to pay for it… Read more »
You keep insisting this is a binary choice. Cut spending or increase taxes.
Won’t it be funny when a third choice is introduced into the mix? Probably by the current union members who want to keep the money flowing into their own pockets and not diverted to pay for pensions.
Those are the only two choices. Trying to find a legal way to cut pensions or bondholders is still cutting spending. The problem is you and others want to focus on the legally protected spending and want to ignore all the other spending. There doesn’t appear to be any political will to do this to Chicago and you will then still need to overcome all the legal hurdles. Good luck with that. In the meantime, you can raise taxes or cut unprotected spending or do a combination of both. Pensions and debt are protected. You can dream and fantasize all… Read more »
It won’t be me telling you about other choices. It will be the current public employees who want to make sure they get theirs, just like their forebears did. And they won’t worry about changing laws to do it.
Do you think they will care at all about your earnest entreaties? When have any of them ever cared about anything beyond their own paychecks?
Yes, we will watch to see what happens.