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After climbing for six straight years, new construction projects in the Chicago area are on track to fall in 2017—and are projected to dip again next year.
Construction starts will finish the year down by about 7 percent compared with 2016, with firms on pace to have begun $12.5 billion in projects, according to New York-based research firm and publisher Dodge Data & Analytics.
While that is still twice the amount of work that was underway on the heels of the recession in 2011, it's a signal that the local construction industry may have peaked for the current cycle. Dodge forecasts construction starts in the area will decrease another 3 percent next year.
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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