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.
More PIGS in trough.
The Cook County Forest Preserve referendum is certainly flying under the radar and this article does voters no favors.
No it’s a 50% increase from .051% to a total of .076%, or a .025 percentage point increase. Journalists need to ask why a tax – any tax – requires a 50% increase.