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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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Fantastic Bauer article. I’m not an accountant, actuary or lawyer–but tried to make point in another wp comment. If pension reform constitutional amendment was attempted and legal battle ensued pitting States fiscal obligation to provide “Higher Public Propose” (funding for basic services-schools, police, etc) as being crowed out by pension obligations (protected under Contract Clause) how do you weigh, from overall pot of taxable funds available, how much is required for “Higher Public Propose” vrs pensions? At what point or using what method is it determined that tax payers have paid enough? Is the pension debt $137 bill or $241… Read more »
Very good article, but who in Illinois will do anything about it. Nobody, sorry to say