-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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 asbestos disaster in Philly schools is another reason to ask if we are seeing a failure of democracy, as Ben Franklin warned us (he said no democracy can last forever because people will keep voting themselves raises and eventually the republic will go bankrupt). Philly schools is out of options–the buildings are past their expiration date, there’s no money to fix them, and any new tax money will go to pensions. The 2020 Board meetings are going to be pretty crazy.
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2020/01/02/new-year-opens-with-protests-concerns-about-health-conditions-in-schools/