-- 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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So Alaska lost the most population to other states in percentage terms, but the narrative is that the underlying cause of outmigration is high taxes? Sorry, I don’t get it, because Alaska is not a high tax state – it has no state income or sales tax, reasonable property taxes, and every Alaskan actually receives a check from the state each year because it gets so much in royalties from oil companies.
Google is your friend:
https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/01/22/alaskas-population-is-down-for-the-second-year-in-a-row-why/
At least for last year, it was a variety of reasons, including cost of living, work opportunities elsewhere, politics, fewer younger people are moving into the state, the population is getting older. Alaska has also been in a recession.
And let’s be honest, Alaska is a difficult place to live for anyone. I know I wouldn’t want to live there.
If the paragraph about New Jersey needing to lower the threshold for the top rate from $5 million down to $1 million since they aren’t getting the revenue they need to pay pensions doesn’t show IL residents what’s in store with the graduated tax, I don’t know what will. There’s a reason IL won’t put the brackets, rates, and exemptions into the amendment.