-- 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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There is only one way to set Illinois finances right. Illinois Bankruptcy. Anything else is a waste of time.
Illinois doesn’t know how to do anything right and there is no confidence in it happening.
Illinois Policy has gone off to fantasy land. The Illinois public and the press that informs it have been supporting the Madigan Way for forty years. No indication that they are about to change in that regard. For decades the Trib told us how lucky we were to have a smart politician like Mike Madigan running our state for us. When asked why he never reported on corruption in Springfield, the Trib’s former bureau chief there always had the ready answer that he didn’t report on it because it wasn’t news.The news media covering politics here may treat us like… Read more »
Sun Times: “how we can set them right….”
NON-Fake-News: “Too Far Gone”
..trillions of dollars of real estate value in Chicago/Illinois….just double, triple or quad, etc property taxes, to appropriate that value and send to public unions….its the law per IL constitution, and municipalities cannot declare bankruptcy….public unions will be fine…
,,,remember, a promise is not a promise in the absence of honest dealing
All these opinion pieces on the fiscal crisis in Illinois are great but miss the real point – What is the motivation for Chicago Democrats to change? To the contrary, Pritzker and Madigan’s ‘fair tax’ is an admission that Chicago Democrats think Illinois biggest problem is that income taxes have been to low for to long. Sorry, there’s no reason to believe the ‘status quo’ of Chicago Democrats will change for Illinois – It will be ‘tax and spend’ and pander to the public employee unions for as long as the eye can see in Illinois. Like Kass said, look… Read more »
I don’t blame the corrupt politicians; I blame the voters. They voted in these politicians and continue to this day to vote the same ones in. Why would we expect anything different?
Amen. But will the corrupt politicians, unions and judges ever allow change to happen? Since it is against their personal interest (we are not all in this together, their benefits are clearly above the law,) I fear not. JB approves of putting one constitutional question on the ballet, but ignores the other that this author suggests. There is a reason the Pritzker family will not allow him to run the primary family business.