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A proposed permanent fix from Cook County's Pension Fund board would cost $267 million more than expected and would achieve full funding only a few years earlier, Toni Preckwinkle's CFO says. In draft legislation, the pension fund proposed the county make a $588 million payment in 2022, $650 million in 2023 and $717 million in 2024—about $267 million more than the county was planning on.
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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