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.
Perhaps the state should work on cutting taxes so it’s affordable.
Lowering property taxes would result in an increase in price of the underlying asset. The affordability would remain the same to the new purchaser and the existing home owner would reap the gain while the local community would have less revenue. Homeowner wins, prospective buyer stays the same, and the local community loses money.