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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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The out-migration is undoubtedly related to high taxes combined with politicians who promise unlimited additional tax-supported gibsmedats, with these communities simply being the most visible of what is a far larger problem.
Rockford and Peoria are places where property taxes as a percentage of (theoretical) home market value approach the threshold where the real estate market seizes up like an overspeeded engine throwing a rod.
What do we hear from JB-the-Hutt Pritzger and his elves? “Moar promises.”
During my last visit to Peoria in Sept, it was apparent on the South Side how many vacant lots there were. The people are gone so no spending and the properties having most likely taken over by the City produce no property tax revenue, just costs for mowing, snow plowing, street maintenance, and water line repairs. That can become significant as the State reverts to prairie.
Rockford is #3 on the list. Property tax’s probably #1 reason then crime. Homes values are up 6.1% almost across the board and many taxing bodies are holding the line with the school district saying they will lower the levy but not written in stone yet. Almost had a heart attack with that news. Park district running deficits citing that raising the minimum wage is a large factor. Cargo shipments at airport are growing. New building and additions to all hospitals. $250M in new school construction over a few years and so on. Sounds good but most everything I mentioned… Read more »
Freddy, recall the heated debates over placing a Low Income Housing Development east of Alpine & just south of State Street? How it was racist and classist for the people already living there to oppose the construction? Then (surprise, surprise) once the development was built and occupied, it became a gangrenous place of crime and murder, but somehow those who claimed its construction was a moral imperative are nowhere to be seen (or indifferent, in the case of the product-of-nepotism mayor?) Winnebago County (home of Rockford and its “suburbs”) has a lot going for it but it’s a microcosm of… Read more »
Correct.I remember they were more than heated people were livid and some screaming. They named that complex “The Grove” instead of Fairgrounds which made it sound better. I asked then Ron Clewer if the Grove would pay property tax’s and he said it is HUD housing which makes it tax exempt. When taking HUD money the town is bound by their rules and HUD should pay tax’s in my opinion. Each unit there is about $150K for 47 units plus a clubhouse/meeting room. My home is behind Meijers and I pay just under $7K for $155K now up for 2019… Read more »
There is a group on Facebook called “Escaping Illinois”.
Good stuff. Check it out.