-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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A NASCAR-commissioned economic impact study projects the inaugural Chicago Street Race will bring the city $113.8 million in spending and $3.2 million in tax revenue. Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago sports economist, said the economic impact is likely to be about 10% of the projected total, questioning both the study’s methodology and the revenue that will be lost by the disruption of the event. “If I wanted to come to Chicago for a weekend with my family to go to museums or ballgames or something, I wouldn’t pick this one."
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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Th track would have been washed away had it not been for the deep tunnel!
Spent the first 20 years of my management career in hotels, restaurants and nightclubs.
Had a lot of interaction with convention-n-visitor bureaus, hotel/motel associations and hospitality trade organizations, etc.
I can guarantee you that the pollyannaish numbers reported by businesses to their trade associations (and all of their fellow-member competitors) were not the same projections and numbers that made it to the budget and monthly P & L statements used by your owners, investors, accountants and bankers.
I can’t wait not to go!
Over/Under on how many NASCAR cars will have bullets holes in them?!
All of them!