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Ald. Andre Vasquez is not one of 17 council members who have declined the latest pay raise. But he is proposing a cap of 5% or the inflation rate, whichever is less - starting when the new Council is sworn in next spring. Ald. Ray Lopez also plans to introduce a pay ordinance, reducing the annual salary for alderpersons from $142,772 to $120,000.
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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