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.
http://stoppredatorygambling.org/blog/category/research-center/lotteries-who-really-plays/
Lottery is one way to tax the poor to claw back some of the cost of all the social benefits. Upper middle class and the rich don’t line up at a gas station cashier to buy lottery tickets, but check out any section 8 or working class neighborhood on a Saturday morning and you will find it hard to buy a coffee because of the lottery line up. As Rahms cronies respond with “what a creative solution to our revenue problem”, sheesh. Try spending less, that’s creative too.