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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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How about we agree that the people who use it pay for it, not the 99% of the residents who have never even seen it.
“Whatever we do with regard to transit, there has to be a component of it that focuses on downstate transit,” No, JB the Hutt. Illinois can’t afford the transit it has. Adding more empty buses and trains to an area that cannot support it with ridership is exactly the wrong course to take. Of course you want to soften the blow to people in Edwardsville and Herscher, who are being asked to pony up for the political animal friends and pals jobs program that the RTA has become. This is your big fat sales pitch. The problem is horrifyingly simple,… Read more »
Absolutely true. Spend money on making what you have better and SAFE! If it is a SAFE place to be and a SAFE thing to use, more people will use it. You do not need a $2B study to know why it isn’t paying for itself – fewer people are commuting to work and the product you provide is CRAPPY. Currently, any public transport in Chicago is a high risk and people don’t like to take that high a risk just getting from point A to point B. We hear on the news (the TV shows they call news now)… Read more »
This schmuck says “he’s been pushing hard for this”. Never heard him ever mention it before. The only thing he pushes is his BS presidential run, spending on low impact projects that take care of his cronies and school districts. He is a waste of space as a Gov.
Building the High speed rail from Galesburg to Decatur still has me chuckling.
Waddles is a little late to the party, now that the disastrous project to built another red line through a blighted area that already has a criminal conveyance has been approved.
Be like California and build high speed transit from Galesburg to Decatur.
East St. Louis to Danville would be another winner.
Woooo! That’s funny right there!
Ouch. Well played.