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.
Apparently, Chicago pols don’t understand this death by a thousand cuts mentality of constantly creating or increasing taxes and fees incentivizes businesses to leave the city and dissuades other businesses from setting up shop there. To most of us with a decent financial skill level, this phenomenon is rather obvious.
As Mayor Brando Johnson has proven time and again, “There is no patch for STUPID!”