-- 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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First things first. Whatever laws were broken they need to be held accountable. No excuses. After that it’s worth wondering why no one else would compete for these properties. The inference is that they made a lot of money by doing this. ie they were generating income well beyond the taxes. Probably not. It’s likely these properties are and were absurdly taxed as is most of the real estate in the southern cook county suburbs. Illegal and unacceptable yes. Logical, also yes.