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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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But wait, certainly this can not be. Why just the other day I heard about the building of a new football stadium, a baseball stadium and newly expanded housing for the immigrants. Chicago must have plenty of money because look at the new spending plans on the horizon.
As in ancient Rome, give them bread and circuses.
The Roman practice of providing free wheat to the citizens (bread) and hosting elaborate public spectacles and entertainment (circuses) as a way to gain popularity and political support. This practice was aimed at keeping the Roman population content and distracted from political unrest or dissatisfaction.
This article squares with what I have been predicting. Pensions Paid First reminds us constantly of the primacy of pension obligations – and because the political class in Illinois will not engage in reform – a long crushing decline is in order. Downtown CRE is insolvent, and while low prices typically mean opportunities, I don’t see it coming back. The tax base is and will continue to erode. One thing I have not thought about enough is the plight of a highly dependent population living on the edge of poverty and despair. This could be 25 percent of the population.… Read more »
Nothing can change until CTU is destroyed. I see bowls of Gravy Train in CTU member’s future. I’ll happily step over their begging carcasses in the gutter on the rare occasions that I’m in Chicago.
Try voting conservative…..they have more of a moral attitude toward obligations
I thought that Brandon was going to be the savior of CHI? No, wait that was supposed to be Lori, or was it Rahm? Oh, nevermind.!
At some point in the future a tour group will
Be looking at the former site of the city of
Chicago. It was once important, let’s move
Along nothing to see here now.
But for “new machine” CTU/Brandon & crew being buried in a mountain of legacy debt has nothing to do with the systemic community dis-investment racism /equity hustle they’re peddling to their white libtard base…..how long can that schtick last?
Also, could it also be, since CTU is largest public sec union in city, the CTU pension debt is the biggest debt city owes?….could make for an interesting WP piece
California is in a mess with huge deficits but no mention about all the migrants. Their deficit is almost our entire budget.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/know-gov-newsoms-plan-offset-185859212.html