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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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It is interesting that courts would rule that municipal governments cannot do what corporations routinely do – that is, move safe assets into special purpose vehicles (SPV’s) that are legally separate from the parent firm, so that if the parent firm goes bankrupt the SPV’s creditors are still paid from the revenues that the SPV’s assets generate. I have difficulty understanding the reasoning in this case behind treating the public and private sectors differently, just as I had difficulties with the highly partisan U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Janus case, wherein they said it was OK to force private… Read more »
That’s indeed the question. I will be reading the opinion with that in mind. (In Janus, however, I think the answer is that the same ruling should apply to private sector.)