-- 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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For some reasons these articles always omit the McPier Tax, which is another 1% of every restaurant meal in between Diversey to the north, Ashland to the west, Cermak to the south, and the lakefront to the east. I know they were recently seeking expansion of that because…well…they can never get enough. I think that measure got squashed, but it’s still there.
So when you eat a meal or order out in those areas (basically almost all of Chicago) you are paying 11.25%, not 10.25%.
11.50%. Chicago also imposes a 0.25% Restaurant Tax on the selling price of all food and beverages.
What a depressing article to start off my day.