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Johnson said he would govern Chicago as he said the General Assembly and Gov. JB Pritzker have governed Illinois: “at the vanguard of progressive politics.” Johnson did not miss the opportunity to ask state lawmakers to help Chicago, urging them to "fully fund” the Chicago Public Schools and to increase the share of the state’s income tax sent to cities, a perennial demand by local officials that frequently falls on deaf ears.
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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Lori tried to suck up to the General Assembly, too, when first elected. Even downstate Dems aren’t in any hurry to bail out Chicago with state money. Pritzker didn’t do her any favors either and he has already said Johnson isn’t going to get some of the tax increases he wants that depend on state approval. Johnson thinks he has a mandate of popular support, but the CTU doesn’t have the clout outside the city like it does inside.
The new Ed Norton in charge of Chicago is gonna open up the sewer and down the drain the city goes.
The suburbs and downstate need help from Springfield also.
Like I never heard this before? Talk is cheap. The other day the cops were summoned to help a beating victim and they just drove by. Tells the whole story right there.
“I literally stepped in front of a squad car and motioned them over to see this was an assault on the street in progress; and the police just drove around me,” Lenora Dennis said.
This guy is a fast learner, He’s Just going to blame all of Chicago’s ills on Pritzker. JB goesWHAAT.
Progressives don’t work well together as they inevitably end up with internal disputes over who can out progress the other.