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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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How many retirees does Illinois attract due to no state income tax on retirement income? Does it even serve as a retention mechanism for retirees?
I was in Florida last week and was reminded how much I hate humidity. I still wonder why so many people are willing to live under perpetual humidity. Then I remember how painful my hands ache while shoveling snow and how being cold in general is unpleasant in a different way. And that Chicago can be as equally humid during the summer. The only thing Chicago gets me is maybe 6 random weeks in Spring/Fall of great weather.
I’d readily take humidity over dry, low humidity desert air.
Thousands of Retired cops, teachers, and firemen are living the good life in Florida off the Illinois Taxpayers pension money. Ken Griffen was hardly the first to leave Illinois.
“… you’ve got a place you want to live in and call home.” (except for, you know, those annoying little hurricanes)
Yeah, far fewer of those than tornadoes in Illinois each year.
The frequency isn’t the issue.
Except for
Chicago shootings: 27 shot, 6 fatally in weekend gun violence across city, police say
That is exactly the point that so many Illinoisans have not figured out yet– there are many, many better places to live. Griffin hit it right on the head– taxes aren’t the only thing. It is the entire package of lifestyle factors that just aren’t there in Illinois any longer. I’ll bet he feels the same way so many Illinois expats feel– why didn’t I make this move long ago!