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.
“From 2007 to 2016, only 1 out of 3 tickets were paid, Valencia said. The city is owed more than $200 million in city sticker debt alone, she said. “We need to think critically about how we came to this point,” Valencia said. “Is it because people don’t want to pay or is it because they can’t?”” If you meet the types of people who rack up thousands of dollars in tickets, and they are of all races, colors, creeds and backgrounds, you’ll understand why. The reason they got the tickets in the first place is because they knowingly didn’t… Read more »