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Ted was on Fired Up with Mike Flannery last week debating Pritzker’s progressive tax rates with two progressive tax supporters. Ted’s message was simple, “Right now, Illinois has the highest property taxes in the nation, one of the largest out migration problems in the nation and its got the most pension debt. Anyone who thinks tax hikes are the solution to those things are just flat out wrong.”
Debate starts at 12:00
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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Good job Ted. I hate these types of ‘debates’ where you have 15 seconds to talk as fast as possible before being interrupted. At least you got a good last-word against those two smirking bozos.
Thanks…you are right. Many dishonesties to rebut in 15 seconds.
Ted – the two tax hounds you were debating with proceed under a fallacy that productive people will stay and gladly pay into a system with gigantic and ever growing pension debt. People who pay lots of taxes won’t stay because there is no realistic financial future. Sure, people making over 250k know that their current 5 percent rate of taxation buys very little in services in return, but make it 8 percent with even less value in return, and these types will stay in-state or not diminish productivity? No way. These two shills talk about social science. Are there… Read more »