-- 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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There will be no pension holiday whatsoever for the taxpayer. We still will pay our property and other taxes without any reductions (definitely increases) that are earmarked to pensions but that money will be “Diverted” somewhere else. Will lifetime healthcare costs also have a holiday? I think not! So down the road we the taxpayer will owe more money and for a longer period of time.