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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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Once again, Martire shows his union bias. He takes retirement income you’ve already paid taxes on while working – namely Social Security – and lumps it into pension and 401k income whose contributions were tax deferred while working. He does this, of course, because most of his public sector union buddies aren’t SS eligible, thus would think us poor Social Security folks would be getting tax benefit they weren’t. So Martire’s tax plan provides a larger tax break for public sector retirees. Surprise, surprise. Any retirement contributions you already paid income ties on, such as Social Security, should be tax… Read more »
It should all be taxable, unlike the CTBA proposal. I have 2 neighbors, both city retirees. One of them will be getting a pension of $68K this year, the other one will be taking home 108.5K. Since neither one pays any state income tax and both have their property taxes frozen this means not only am I paying my fair share of taxes, I’m paying theirs as well. If a guy makes 108K per year he can damned sure afford to pay state income tax on it.