-- 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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Don’t forget that in bankruptcy or even the implied threat of bankruptcy the bondholders could get 90% of sales tax revenue for up to 40 years. They would even have priority over pensioners to be paid. This is according to Jeanne Ives speech at the City Club. This applies to only home rule communities luckily Rockford voted down this measure. Think of what this could do to cities. Of course the Dem’s (MM) put this in as a safeguard at the last minute to protect most bondholders. So even though bankruptcy may be a logical choice there are many implications… Read more »
Bankruptcy in the private sector generally assumes that the morons/thieves who drove the firm into the ground are replaced. I’d bet any sum named that the “bankruptcy” proposed by political entities simply seeks to wipe out creditors, allowing the parasites whose robbery brought about the bankruptcy to “rinse and repeat.”
If the State of IL ever enters any form of bankruptcy, I propose that the state’s boundary be redrawn to exclude C(r)ook County. That would excise probably 85% of the poisonous political gangrene in the state, and that which is left over would be manageable for citizens with rope.
But not until they raise every tax rate as much as possible to establish a higher tax-baseline for post-bankruptcy…