-- 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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The lawyers would gain lots of business.
If bankruptcies wipe the debt slate clean, what’s to prevent the corrupt mismanagers in charge from continuing in their awful ways?
Wow! Who woke up the Crain’s editorial board. This topic has been widely talked about by Wirepoints and others for at least six years. A major reason why Illinois and Chicago are in such dire financial shape is that news outlets like Crain’s have been derelict in their duty to cover government finances honestly and thoroughly, which they have not done. The Democrat politicians have gotten away with fiscal chicanery for years and the media has given them a free pass. So now Crain’s wakes up? What a disgrace.
Not one of these municipal rags has any journalistic integrity. They shill for the dems. And that is why we aren’t finding enough in trash cans to line our bird cages
Just being a devils advocate, maybe bankruptcy would not be a good thing. Bankruptcy would make the people that voted for the mess actually not have to pay for what they voted for. Bankruptcy would let them off the hook and encourage others to keep voting for the goodies knowing their choices would be taken care of either by bailouts or bankruptcy. Voters need to realize that their votes are important and have consequences. Perhaps in Harvey they will finally wake up
It’s not just the voters who need to learn a lesson. The people who believe they can gulp at a bottomless public trough also need to learn a lesson.
After testifying at the general assembly did you need to be deloused? When testifying, how could you look into the vacant stares of the lowlifes you were talking to and not feel that it was hopeless? That was 7 years ago. Has anything changed at all?
That’s no joke. I truly feel dirty when I am there. I hate it.
Long overdue. Ted Dabrowski and I testified in the General Assembly back in 2018 why this should be done: https://wirepoints.org/why-a-bankruptcy-option-for-municipalities-is-essential-wirepoints-testimony/