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.
Thank goodness the small downtown of my little town is booming! New restaurants opening all the time. It used to be a sleepy little downtown with insurance brokers and nail salons, and now it’s restaurants and cafes, none of which have to pay the Chicago taxes!