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Chester Wilson’s delinquent property tax tab on a South Side building topped $200K. County land bank erased that — and gave the property to a Wilson business partner for $40,000.
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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This is crony capitalism among incompetent morons at its worst.
As an side, the article got a few points wrong – the article says that the city isn’t going after the former owner for taxes. That’s because they can’t. Real estate taxes are ‘in rem’ which in Latin means ‘against or about a thing’ – meaning that real estate taxes only go against the real estate, not against the individual. The article was confusing the city fines against the previous owner – which do have personal liability – and didn’t differentiate between the two very well.