-- 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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Any bets on how much longer before Bear games move from FOX TV to a premium cable/streaming channel? Someone has to pay for the higher PT bills.
Be carefulAH, if the bears don’t get what they want, they’ll leave the partially demolished clubhouse and grandstand forever. They’re snakes. You’ve done a deal with the devil!
The Bears must not know how the property tax system in Illinois works. They are getting laughed at. Very funny argument from them– “We just paid $197 million for the property, but it is not worth $197 million.” Good luck with that one.
I don’t know if the Bears know that taxes in the suburbs are higher than in Chicago. The tax rate levied here in Rockford and Belvidere are the same whether it is residential or commercial. Woodmans pay the same rate as my property. In Chicago the rates are still lower then we are. For a long time Chicago homes paid approx 1% of value now approaching 2% while we were paying 4-5%. Chicago is under home rule but Cook County is under Ptell. AH residents should be concerned if the Bears get any type of abatement or property tax break… Read more »
Good point: P-tax Rate=levy divided by Equalized Assessed Values of (taxable) properties.
When schools and other taxing bodies demand inexorably rising amounts, the amounts they demand are an obligation of taxable (non-TIF or Enterpriser Zone) properties. When assessed values are lower, the rate goes higher.
The individual obligations are determined as a function of Rate multiplied by Assessment.
Higher rates make it impossible to attract development, because Property owners like the Bears demand economic concessions (like TIF whereby the money goes out one pocket to property taxes but back into a different pocket through TIF grants and subsidies).