-- 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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In the suburbs, before the Chicago invasion, they would just shut your water supply off.
Well now that’s just racist………unless you’re White
Council members mentality:: Well if the mayor doesn’t pay his bills, why should we. I thought it was a perk that goes along with the job
Not too unironically, the city increased its water rates to paying suburban customers. My water bill has skyrocketed in the past several years.
Will somebody explain to me what is behind this trend of not paying utility bills? I read the article and a couple of the explanations from individuals seemed rational. But the backlog of unpaid bills–bills that will most likely never be paid–is astounding. Are other large cities like this or is Chicago unique in its dismal collection efforts?
People in Chicago don’t want to pay their utility bills, their rent, their student loans…and shoplifters and robbers go free…
My parents raised 10 children and we were taught to be financially responsible. We went without before we’d get in debt.
Let me add I know inflation is rough right now. And, of course, medical debt can be devastating. But you can at least work out a payment plan. Just think it is weird when highly paid, high profile people skip paying their bills.
Medical debt is not devastating. That’s the lie that known liars like Elizabeth Warren repeat over and over again. She authored a BS study that said medical debt was teh leading cause of bankruptcy, which is a lie, it’s credit card debt, not medical debt. The uninsured rate in this country is low after obamacare because poor people get free medical care with medicaid, and semi-poor people get free credits to buy health insurance through the marketplace. The only group of people (other than illegals who don’t pay anyways) who don’t have health insurance are able bodied people who intentionally… Read more »
Not to mention that medical debt that is less than $500 doesn’t hurt ones credit score anymore. Few will sue for the $500 so there isn’t any fiscal incentive to pay these types of bills.
You’d be surprised how few hospitals sue for $5,000 or even $10,000. Most hospitals are not-for-profit and they write off bad debt as charity care to help preserve the non-profit status. There were major articles about this several years back and now many hospitals have stopped suing patients at all.
Makes sense. Without the credit score threat for lower amounts, the incentive to pay just doesn’t exist. I know several doctors that told me after the housing crash in 2007, people stopped paying their copays. One told me that since people stopped refinancing their homes (many underwater so refinancing not an option) they didn’t even care about the credit score hit. Now that threat doesn’t exist so I would expect non-payments in medical debt to only increase.
There are optional contracts and pension contracts. Under what philosophical principle do public employees ignore their obligations but insist on their sinecures? I guess size matters — as it does in most decisions on whether to pursue “legal rights” or meet legal obligations.
“Honesty in small things is not a small thing.” To avoid hypocrisy, shouldn’t you be registering some disapproval rather than offering justification?
You seem to be confusing me stating the reality of paying medical debt with me offering justification. I made no statement endorsing such a tactic but merely pointed out the incentive to not pay. “Under what philosophical principle do public employees ignore their obligations but insist on their sinecures?” “Sinecures” doesn’t apply in this instance. The pay and benefits that they receive come from the labor they provide at their job. It’s not tied to personal debt that has nothing to do with their job. “To avoid hypocrisy, shouldn’t you be registering some disapproval rather than offering justification?” Sure, they… Read more »
As to sinecures, I’m just using the term applied by the Supreme Court, albeit before both our times. “The promised compensation for services actually performed and accepted during the continuance of the particular agency may undoubtedly be claimed, both upon principles of compact and of equity, but to insist beyond this on the perpetuation of a public policy either useless or detrimental, and upon a reward for acts neither desired nor performed, would appear to be reconcilable with neither common justice nor common sense. The establishment of such a principle would arrest necessarily everything like progress or improvement in government,… Read more »
Debtsor, you didn’t answer my earlier question–is chicago unique in its dismal debt collection or are most large U.S. cities like this? I appreciate your comments. –Sincerely, Reese.
I don’t know, to be honest. I do know that Chicago is unique in the sense that it sells great lakes water to other municipalities outside the watershed, which it would otherwise not be able to do. These non-paying municipalities could get their own ground water and treat it themselves, but let’s be honest, they are run so dysfunctionally, they could never do it on their own. I think other metro areas that don’t use ground water have regional setups that address water delivery.
Ok. thanks. I always watch for your postings as I find them interesting. sincerely, reese
I’m glad someone finds them interesting. These are conversations I can’t have in public with polite company, aka an office full of libs!
All of those receivables and the amount
That gets collected will be small. The monies continue to drain on what the city can sustain on a depleted revenue stream, soon
Something will break and not be able to be
Repaired. The downwards spiral continues.
Hmm, has BJ squared up his delinquency yet? Surely his mayoral salary ought to be enough to cover his arrearage.
Don’t know if Zippy paid up yet, do know if you bring unpaid bills up poor Zippy gets the vapors and starts running