-- 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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You gotta’ hand it to Pritzker. He has successfully dodged any serious discussion of the issue, and the press has let him get away with it. He makes one silly comment after another about pensions, and nobody challenges him. At this late stage the voters are totally to blame for his successful mischaracterization of the problem
Any politician will take advantage of press disinterest and incompetence. Pritzker has nobody in the media challenging him.