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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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If we’re trying to re-name the Fair Tax, we should set some requirements, like simple, plays off current name, does not require political inside knowledge, etc:
Fear Tax
Scare Tax
Flunk Tax (plays off “graduated”)
FairBI Tax
So I guess Laffer Curve Violation Tax doesn’t cut it.
any time any of these idiot politicians want to “raise taxes on the rich (aka HHI of 250k+) ”
I feel like barfing… 250k HHI isn’t rich at all, especially if you live in the city
you can thank Obama for starting that nonsense, so therefore I call anyone who makes over 250k HHI an “Obama Millionaire”
so I suppose you could call this the Obama Millionaire wealth redistribution tax
Want to hear a good story about Ameya Pawar? I once owned a business in his ward. There was a neighbor right behind the building that was constantly complaining about anything/everything. She was one of those older people that would see a bottle in the alley and would call the alderman. Never mind that the bottle came from a bum that decided to hang out there, or from dumpers who would just throw their stuff at our dumpster like it was a public trash can. Running a business in the City of Chicago is truly a pleasure (sarc), because they… Read more »
Ooh, that’s good. Classic Chicago story.
they are calling us “Anti-Taxers” like we are anti vaxers or whatever ever derogatory buzzword they can come up with… absolutely disgusting and pathetic that us people who can do basic math and are not “budget denialists” don’t want to have to shell out more money each year for the city/state crony pork projects and bloated inefficient government services
I noticed that too. It’s the cancel culture of public sector finance. Just because you don’t want to pay more taxes, you’re apparently against any and all taxes.
The Scare Tax is actually catchy.
In the end, it’s all about trust. The Fair Tax was drawn up by a Dem Legislature mired in corruption. Why should we trust them to implement this correctly?
Maybe the “Trust Us Tax.”
If the Fair Tax doesn’t pass, isn’t JB is threatening to raise the flat tax on everyone? Call it the Fear Tax.
It may be the 1% statewide property tax.
Yes, I thought that all along. Either way, the IL taxpayer loses big-time. Therefore, it really doesn’t matter whether the progressive state income tax is enacted. Also, as other commenters have said, even if neither scenario materializes, the pols will gouge you some other way.
I thought of a few. How about B.O.Tax or bot (Bend over tax) it would be presented as Illinois SB 0T or Illinois HB 0T /or the SIWTSDST (stick it where the sun don’t shine tax).
Keep those suggestions for a name for the new tax coming in! I know we can count on our regular readers — you, our beloved slugs — to come up with some good ones. Maybe we should have a contest.
Sorry Mark! Like Columbo says Just one more thing. What about a PT tax (Proctologist tax) That’s where the pols will stick it to us. But it will be promoted as “healthcare”. Pols will say “I know it hurts” but it for your own good.