-- 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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“Our question is, at what point will taxpayers conclude the debts are insurmountable?” Anybody that reads this site or takes time to look at the city CAFR will immediately reach that conclusion. I did several years ago and finally got things in order so I was able to leave the city middle of last year. The tsunami that’s going to hit property values when the automatic property tax increases to fund pensions start in 2 years will wash everyones property values to the middle of Lake Michigan.