-- 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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Mayor Cliff Notes is desperate to keep the gravy train rolling while he still can. These ‘bond fund proceeds’ will no doubt find their way into the pockets of the usual friends and pals.
Mayor Notes’ hollowing out of Chicago’s finances looks like a classic mob ‘bust-out’ to me.
No one in government can say no to a program that provides benefits to people who don’t pay for it. They have no problem telling us to go pound sand when we say taxes are too high…but not when it means taking money from hard working citizens and giving it to a protected class and their cronies. Illinois and Chicago may be the worst in the nation.
You can bet “green housing loans” will come with city residency, prevailing wage, % for minority & women contractors, green energy bs, etc, etc usual requirements for city contracts…to go along with giant new bureaucracy with folks maken +$100gs to manage all on the taxpayers dime. And the last thing anyone will care about is “AFFORDABLE”.