-- 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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The simplest solution is cutting property taxes so the $10,000 threshold is hard to reach. We moved to SC, property taxes on a larger house, more land, are $1700/year vs. the $10,000 we were paying in DuPage. 5 items on our property tax bill vs 23 in DuPage. No townships, no pensions (401ks), education paid for by state sales tax, fewer units of government, all of which ate up about 75% of our DuPage bill. That’s the difference between blue and red states. If the blue states want all these governmental units and all the benefits and perks that go… Read more »
Oh Illinois, when will you learn? Probably not before the “rich” taxpayers leave this state whose taxes are so high, they exceed the limit. They’ll pack up, taking their tax dollars with them. Who will pay for your corruption then? Living here isn’t worth the extra expense.
I thought TCJA included some long overdue adjustments to AMT that were over-taxing the upper middle class?
Regardless, shouldn’t the DEM argument be to maybe double the cap instead of eliminating it altogether?
The Dems talked about the Trump tax plan as benefitting only the rich, but that was completely inaccurate. Rates across all income levels were cut, deductions favoring the wealthy were cut while the standard deduction was increased significantly. Now it turns out the Dems actually want to favor the wealthy! Hypocrites!
And the share of overall tax burden falling on the rich increased. This Crain’s article got that wrong too.
By inaccurate you mean they are intentionally lying about it only benefiting the rich. They’re also, I think,lying about about how many households the SALT affects. The standard deduction was more than doubled for everyone to offset the cap. My own household went from itemizing to standard deduction as a result of the tax change and we ended off better for it. The tax foundation estimates that 90% of filers will take the standard deduction as a result of the new changes. The SALT cap most affect really wealthy people in coastal blue states. My guess is that the Democrats… Read more »
Another issue this year that Democrats unintentionally shot themselves in the foot over is the advance of the child tax credit. They advanced half of the tax credit …. yeah!!!! Kinda like UBI!! But oh wait, come tax time, that advanced payment reduces the size of the big refund so many low income households come to rely on. Most households don’t know or understand why either because taxes are complicated and they pay H&R block to do them. All they know is that they are angry their tax refunds are smaller and they’re all going to point their fingers at… Read more »
Yep. The advanced payment made more sense for Dems in an election year. Guessing most of the recipients, especially the neediest ones, didn’t understand how it worked.