-- 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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Having lived in Detroit and Chicago I can attest that Chicago’s ranking is well deserved.
Hard to believe that Detroit has cheaper gas, no red light cameras, no wheel tax stickers, no toll roads and better traffic flow!
Hmm, I’m getting the feeling that higher auto operating costs and inconvience are part of the Chicago way……
CDOT intentionally makes driving worse with traffic clogging bike lanes, bus lanes, road diets, traffic barricades
True but my biggest pet peeve is that very few traffic lights are timed. Consider yourself lucky is you get 2 green lights in a row on many roads. Randall road has many backups in both directions from I-90. Pack an overnight bag if you want to go from I-90 north to Cary. Timing the lights would help reduce fuel consumption. Rockford has many frontage roads real close to the main arterial ones which turn red when others are green causing a long backup. In many cases people gun their cars when light turns yellow to avoid constant stop and… Read more »
Heard on the radio yesterday it was a 80 minute commute from the airport to downtown on I-90. What rational person, thinking of moving to the Chicagoland area, thinks, yeah, I want to buy a house in a super congested area and sit in traffic an hour and a half each way every day.
No one does, that’s why we are losing population.
And that’s with people working from home.
When I lived in Silly-nois I lived in DuPage and Will County, very close to I-55. We were roughly 30 – 35 miles out from Da Loop and LSD. When I was a kid in the 1970s – 80s we could get downtown on I-55 in about 30 – 45 minutes . In the 1990s I could get downtown on I-55 in about 45 minutes to an hour. By the 2000s it was taking over an hour to 90 minutes to get downtown on I-55 When we left in the 2010s it was taking 90 minutes to 2 hours to… Read more »