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.
While I feel sympathy for CPD officers, my sympathy is not very deep. These officers have voluntarily chosen to make their career with the Chicago Police Dept knowing full well that the crazy people have been in charge for quite some time. Yet they stayed when dozens if not scores of suburban police departments are also hiring. There have been red flags for years telling them to Get Out Now! Finally, the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak, and years of committing their life and career to an awful police department have come back to haunt them.… Read more »