-- 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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Taylor traded her soul for a few jobs.
Finally. The alderman has received the needed and appropriate cash “contributions”.
Neither Norfolk Southern, nor its corporate predecessors (Southern Railway and Norfolk and Western Railway) existed during slavery. Another moment of ignorance for the City Council.
But the easement giving those metal rails the right of way though Chicago existed pre-civil war, and maybe one of those companies that used those metal rails in those right of ways easements might have employed slave labor, somewhere on the continent (wasn’t the confederacy a different country entirely at one point?). This extremely tenuous connection is good enough, I suppose.
“Ironclad agreement of jobs and contracts for Englewood residents.”
It would interesting to see Norfolk Southern’s records on how they comply with that provision. How many residents apply for jobs? How many keep working at the job longer than 30 days?
Compliance will most likely come through awarding contracts (wink, wink) rather than actual jobs.