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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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It was purposely kept out of public view. I motivated a friend who was not going to vote to vote against it after I gave him links covering the topic.
Nonetheless, this was not an election. This was a selection, run straight out of Langley.
What compelling message would you have told people to vote no? What would a “vote no” commercial look like? It couldn’t be perceived as attacking workers. You’d have to make the amendment sound as ridiculous as it was but not too ridiculous as to voters thinking it was a joke, then they would not be compelled to vote no. It could have been done possibly, but it would require a smart, coordinated campaign with some bank.
Just like the lockbox amendment that didn’t have a campaign mobilized against it. It passed easily.
Compelling messages don’t matter any more. Ballot harvesting straight party ticket ballots are the ONLY thing that matters. Dems could pass a constitutional amendment declaring Moloch the state’s official deity and it would pass overwhelmingly only because Dems collected 2,500,000 ballots in the months before ‘election day’.
If that’s the case then why didn’t the fair tax amendment pass? Voters continue to decide these issues not because of your made up fraud.
This is why i the fair tax didn’t pass. Ken Griffin spent $54M against it. There was no one of consequence backing Bailey and Pritzker did nothing to stop Griffin from leaving and taking with him $28B plus high paid execs. If he did Griffin would be a thorn in Pritzkers (fill in the blank) for whatever measure he wanted to get passed.
https://www.propublica.org/article/ken-griffin-illinois-graduated-income-tax
You’re missing the point Freddy. Debtsor is claiming election fraud. If election fraud was real then it wouldn’t have mattered how much money Ken put in.
You are correct.
So then why did the fair tax amendment fail? Not using logic again debtsor.
They aren’t hacking voting machines. Dem harvest ballots and vote for people who can’t/don’t vote. Everyone knows this. In 2020, there was high voter turnout, low ballot harvesting opportunities due to the pandemic, and overwhelming voter opposition to tax increases. 2022 gave Dems, with new voter laws, gave them an easier time to harvest and cast fraudulent ballots. Keep in mind Amendment 1 didn’t reach the 60% threshold, but instead passed with some other archaic rule where if enough people ‘skip’ the question on the ballot, they can win with only 50%. Who skipped the very first question on the… Read more »
Archaic rule? It’s in the constitution. The best way to be clear about the rules. Your ignorance doesn’t make it archaic.
Gotta agree with PPF. Low turnout (voters that stayed home were more likely to vote no or skip question) and over-simplification (amendment sounded logical) hurt. The no’s came close despite virtually zero media presence, so there was a path to victory.
Sounds like the greedy unions engaged in voter suppression
Well Mr. Chicago Tribune, how much effort did you put in explaining the situation in your publication?
Right, Riverbender. The Tribune did have an editorial against it, but their Guild union reporters mostly ignored the topic and never covered many problems with it.
No one understood what it truly meant while, on paper, it made sense to the layman (who wouldn’t want workers to have rights?). There wasn’t a direct connection to your pocketbook (the property tax connection was too hard to explain succinctly). Add an off-cycle election year with low voter turnout and you have the recipe to pass a special interest amendment. I predicted voters would perceive it like the Lockbox Amendment. “Guarantee money generated from fuel taxes only pays for roads used by the vehicles paying the fuel taxes and no one else can touch it? Damn right!” No one… Read more »
shows how screwed we are without Griffin. Now, how long is Uihlein going to hang around before he realize the situations hopeless as well?
Uihlein already moved his operation to WI years ago