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.
I’d bet that an “ Avoid Chicago “ bumper sticker with the iconic five stars and a chalk body outline would be a hit.
So if the Chamber of Commerce is just now waking up, what have they been watching for the last 30 years? These problems didn’t materialize with pinhead and fat boy.