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.
Illinois is BROKE.
Pensions have destroyed Illinois for generations to come.
And don’t forget– this terrible news comes from Fitch, which is one of the widely known issuer friendly raters in the business –paid 100% by the City of Chicago. They rate anything for a fee and even they can’t put a fresh coat of paint on this rotten credit.
They always try to throw baking soda on a turd. Maybe Jabba will eat it thinking it’s a donut!
Maybe the Chicago pols are banking on another negative rating. The way they think 2 negatives equals a positive. If they got a positive rating on top of a negative rating they get a negative. Either way taxpayers are on the hook. Just saying.