-- 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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Wirepoints is THE conservative Judas for cultivating a fortified wall of negative and demoralizing comments – nearly all attacking their own base! What are the odds good faith and common sense positions on taxation and budgeting would get crowded out at any public forum on this topic?
Hogwash. We’ve cranked out hundreds and hundreds articles and reports with concrete,”good faith and common sense positions on taxation and budgeting” and we’ve participated in countless public forums discussing them for many years. And we have no “fortified wall,” as the presence of your comment attests. We welcome all viewpoints here.
So, you engage in an ad hominem attack but provide no counter argument. Why don’t you have the courage of your convictions and enlighten us with what you think is wrong with what is being said here and give us your solutions?
I thought Dave Hardy had a plan to publish all this information that would turn the state around. Come on Dave. Don’t blame Mark.
The State is taxing away your home equity to pay for pensions.
Get in line Cook County sheeple and pay your ransom to da Dems and their masters da Illinois public sector unions.
My smart financial decision to vote with my feet over 20 years ago and leave Taxistan has enabled me to put $200,000+ in my bank account.
OwO!!
I saw this coming years ago. The predominantly African-American parts of Chicago always had ridiculously cheap taxes, they just caught up. All of Illinois, especially Chicago and the collar counties, are just going to see the property tax bills increase. As a retired appraiser with 30 years experience, I can assure you values will drop. The government is just stealing your equity.
A property tax bill of $19,000 means the house in Garfield Ridge that great grandpa built in 1916 is worth a lot of money. And it probably requires a lot of expensive maintenance. Best to cash it out and move downstate, where you can get a much newer big house and yard for less than $300,000 and pay less than $9,000 a year in property taxes, in some locations far less. Or you can stay there and be house rich and cash poor.
Make sure Pritzker pays his
The roads of Illinois will be soon filled with people on a one-way ticket out of state. Expect higher taxes next year and every year after that. The public sector pension time bomb is exploding and will last for many years to come. Illinois and Chicago will find everything possible to tax. They are working on taxing AIR right now.
I agree with that genius Kaegi. By all means, do not reduce the real estate tax burden of all those Loop commercial property owners. Please raise their taxes or double them. After all, it’s not like they may decide to sell their buildings at a steep discount just to get out from under. In addition, I’m sure it won’t affect potential investors looking to invest in economically distressed properties. Can anyone say “Harvey?” This article was written with all the intelligence I expect from mainstream media. Newsflash: People are very upset about their real estate taxes climbing 133% or 99%.… Read more »
The classic, make the other guy pay. The homeowners are the ones that are voting for the current spending and it’s only fair that they start paying their share of all the feel good government that they continue to vote into office. I offer them the same sympathy as someone out to dinner and ordering tons of food on the menu and then get mad when the bill comes.
It’s a restaurant where the staff, along with some of the diners, chooses what food to serve to all the diners in the restaurant.
Then they present a bill to each diner. In many cases, the diners consuming the most food pay little to nothing for their gourmet dinner. The staff gets increases in pay and tips for dumping the food on the tables.
Yeah, it’s just like a restaurant.
And you and others keep going to the same restaurant instead of dining at one of the 49 others that may offer you the food and service you desire. Why would they change what they are doing when the minority is unhappy but keep paying the bill? As far as they’re concerned, the majority is happy and that’s all that matters. Now, we have the people ordering all the expensive appetizers and you can’t have the rich business man from the loop pick up the tab anymore. So now, those moochers that were hoping the Loop man would pay are… Read more »
All of these analogies are incorrect. The restaurant is a government run monopoly; just as the Democrat Party has a monopoly on Cook County politics. Our restaurant menu is just like Taco Bell: the same 5 ingredients, just rearranged differently. A taco is a burrito is a nachos is a gordita is a mexican pizza. It’s the same product. Cook County is much the same way. You can ‘vote’ for a different politician but there’s really no difference between any of them. They are all the same Democrat Party – one guy might be irish, the other black, the third… Read more »
There are 49 other states where you can move. The food and prices on the menu is decided by the majority of the patrons. They want the Taco Bell menu apparently. You have a choice you just don’t want the inconvenience of the other restaurant choices. Just keep playing the victim and more importantly, keep paying the bill. Your behavior is much appreciated by the majority that like the Taco Bell menu.
It’s a restaurant where the staff, along with the “preferred diners” (the ones who give the biggest tips, of course), decide on the menu for everyone and dump it all on the tables at 3AM.
It’s just like a restaurant.
Cook County is run more as a ‘palace economy’ in antiquity, where agricultural produce (grain, olive oil, wine, figs, etc.), crafted goods, livestock, and other resources from the surrounding territory were collected and brought to the palace as a form of taxation or tribute, and then redistributed to the people in power and their cronies, and then for export, before allowing the producers to keep a little bit of what they earned. Today we don’t bring our sheep’s wool and other products in kind to 118 N. Clark for Toni’s people separate out. Instead they just tax every conceivable output… Read more »
I’ll go one further. Because of the utter stupidity in shutting down the economy for Covid, commercial property valuations took a nosedive as companies went under, moved, went to work from home and the demand for commercial property tanked. Not just the office space but the ancillary businesses such as restaurants, bars etc. also closed up because the customer base wasn’t there anymore and the commercial valuations for these properties tanked. Now the burden shifts dramatically to the residential properties. Keep voting democrat dumb asses!
Many properties have already sold for steep discounts, hence the lowering of those large buildings taxes and the shift. Never once do these politicians suggest cutting jobs. Some day they will be forced to and that day can not come soon enough.
One party rule with no accountability – Illinois and Chicago’s reality.
Voting (or failing to vote) has consequences.
Chicagoans made their choice, now they have to deal with it – dig deeper or call U-Haul.
Tax bill issues start at the ballot box not at the Assessor’s office. Apparently Illinoisan’s haven’t learned that yet.
100 Percent on both points. Either they are happy with their representation or they don’t care enough to engage. Either way, they are getting what they deserve.
Another possibility: they are hopelessly and helplessly ignorant. Beyond rehabilitation. What does that say about democracy and its trajectory? Of, by and for the masses. And Dems want to expand the franchise. “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”
Cook County taxpayers, assume da position and pay your ransom to da Illinois public sector unions.
OwO!!
How many of these individuals hit with these large tax bills are demanding austerity from their elected leaders? I have yet to hear anyone embrace cutting services. No, they just want “their” tax bill to be reduced and have someone else pay all the taxes. Voters seem incapable of understanding that their voting is the root cause of their current financial pain. Oh well, more taxes for everyone.
BS, the public sector has gamed the voting system. The normal taxpayer does not want what has happened to them. The have been screwed over big time by the Public sector Greed and are now stuck with it or will move out of state. Get ready U-Haul as many more trucks are going to be needed.
I want and would embrace reduced services and lower property taxes. I want village , county , state and fed to cut services.
What services, I rarely if ever use anything they say they provide.
Of course you don’t. You told us that you moved to Florida so you wouldn’t be using any city services. Unless you were lying that you moved and you’re still here.
I agree with you Bill. Unfortunately, the majority of the people that live in Chicago voted for BJ who promised MORE services and more taxes on the ‘wealthy”. He ran on fixing “structural inequity”. He told us he would pay for it by creating new “revenue streams” by taxing the wealthy on high end real estate transfer taxes, new taxes on employers, financial transaction taxes, etc… He told us that there was plenty of money if we make the wealthy (other guy) pay their fair share. The voters heard this pitch and voted for BJ. While you and I may… Read more »
Things will stay bad until voters think things through. How long will that take? Maybe 4 years or less if the 2024 election provides guidance. Perhaps not in Chicago or CPS where greed compounds or overrides general cluelessness.
Any suggestions for how to educate morons? CPS certainly hasn’t even figured out teaching addition to our future electorate.
Not sure about that voting. You think we have had a legit election in Illinois in the last 40 years?
This is both the Mayor and Aldermens fault. They both have people on the payroll. Its always been the Chicago way. Everyone has to cut the fat
What the assessor’s office spokeswoman left out was the obvious conclusion-it’s imperative to cut spending. Chicago needs to cut spending, chop heads and reduce payroll. There is no other path forward. The city simply CANNOT afford union labor.
They also can’t afford to give people already on social assistance $500/month. And the aggrieved, that seem to think this is some sort of plot to snatch up their dilapidated properties, need to remember that for years the businesses that paid for the city services they use the most of have been run out of town by the people they elected. Now “ it’s their turn “ – to pay for police, fire protection, etc. Calculating the amount of money stolen by the likes of Henyard is also worth a look as to why streets are rutted, water mains are… Read more »
Somehow the tax problem is Trump’s fault. But I voted democrat my whole life how did this happen? At every level of government democrats run so I don’t understand.
Because Orange Man bad. Fat Governor good. Remember that.
Don’t leave out illustrious pinhead.
one of these dazzling urbanites
will like, “ Mighty Mouse”, come to save the day!