-- 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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If you really want Pension reform. Just move out of the state, end of your problems and the beginning of a great new life for you and your family.
Kiss Illinois Good Bye- the best day of your life.
Tax payers will pick up the tab for luxury homes in Florida for years to come.
Expect nothing but much higher taxes and much lower service.
Cops retire at age 45, firemen retire at age 45, teachers retire at age 50.
None of them worked nearly as hard as workers in the private sector.
Honest hard working poor taxpayers never retire.
Leave Illinois as fast as you can. There is no changing the greed of the government worker.
Illinois “Land of Slavery”
Mark,
I think adding some math to the discussion about a progressive income tax will easily illustrate the scope of the problem. “The rich” don’t have enough income to bail out IL; the state could confiscate all income above $1M (or $250K) and it wouldn’t be enough to pay for the previous 50 years of mismanagement.
He’s done that already in great detail but a few months ago. The bottom line is as you’ve stated, meaning here’s a high probability that the brackets of higher-levels of state income taxation will have to drop from where they are currently stated within a relatively short period of time, something that will exacerbate the out-migration of families and businesses that’s already taking place. Ye ol’ “circling the drain” phenomenon accelerates when that happens.
Yup, we have written on that before in detail but will be doing it again before the election.
In the upper left corner of the website select Policy > Progressive Tax.
Many but not all of the progressive tax articles are included under that menu.
Thanks to Wirepoints, maybe the Chicago media are finally paying attention to the fiscal mess and thinking about it rationally. For years– or decades– the media did not understand or ignored the obvious. Maybe the Trib, SunTimes (although that is a tough one given that it is owned by labor unions) and some radio folks are getting religion. The TV news crowd is not quite there yet.
It’s smart of the Tribune to be publishing Wirepoints. So many people I know are coming to Wirepoints more and more to get stories they don’t see anywhere else and Wirepoints doesn’t just spout off opinion but gives real facts and research.
At this point, anyone who is not brain dead is not being ‘tricked’ into going along with Chicago Democrats fraud schemes. It’s willful denial.
You’ve reminded me of a larger issue in this state and country. What’s considered “true” in the world of politics is largely only perception. For example, Pres. Trump is the master of altering perception enough to make his perceptions seem to be the “truth.” IL politics has its own version of truth. Facts—such as what’s presented in a spreadsheet or graph—matter little in politics in comparison to a forceful politician’s delivery of his perception of the larger view of what’s really important (to him). Overall, the citizens of the U. S. are not all that cerebral, preferring touchy-feely political promises.… Read more »
Mark:
I can go along with you on this one but; I want each and every Illinois politician (Republican and Democrat) that intentionally helped or went along with underfunding these pensions, to get the same 14 year sentence that good ole Jeff Skilling got.
This includes the Daley’s, Emanuel’s, Madigan’s in particular but also all the of the Republican state and local officials that underfunded these pensions as well.
Why should they be held to a lesser standard than Enron and Jeff Skilling?
P.S. Let’s not forget the fact that these pensions were intentionally underfunded…
Jim Edgar is first to mind – a real huckster.