-- 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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“A 50-plus-year-old business in Chicago was starting from scratch and manufacturing. This is kind of what Chicago was built on in the old days,” she said.
The old days are dead and buried Ms. Marinos. As a former Illinois resident of the collar counties who was drained dry by taxes while you in Cook County coasted, my advice is: Pay Up, Sucka!
Folks, there’s a few slow learners on WP. You really don’t own property in Cook County. You rent it from the government.
In the near future I expect real estate in Illinois to become a financial hot potato — nobody will want to get stuck holding it.
I drove to an event in a near north suburb the other day. I passed through a light commercial district on the way there. Half the buildings were vacant with For Lease signs. The other half looked dilapidated like the current tenants were preparing to leave. This might be a slight exaggeration but it was shocking to see first hand the hollowing out of Cook County’s light industrial and manufacturing because of high property taxes. As I point out to PFF, the communist destroys existing revenue sources, it does not create new ones. The ‘good’ middle class areas of Cook… Read more »
How to remove your property from the tax roll. – Steve Emerson
Thing is, if Cook County doesn’t get those tax dollars from property taxes, what does Cook County tax to replace them? It’s not like all the Dem-progressive-n-woke folks running Chicago and Cook County have lots of extra money laying around, and can just blink on those hundreds of millions of property tax dollars. On second thought, however, actually they could just give everyone who appeals a pass, without raising other taxes, or reducing spending, to make up the difference. Likely, they will. What the heck, go ahead and buy those votes with another budgetary wish-sandwich. Just add a billion or… Read more »
I had my assessed valuation double after buying a property in Southern Illinois. The assessor, and Republicans on the Board of Review, claim that I bought the property below market value and refused to budge on the issue. I finally overcame their position because to the a “CIAO” is more relevant to property value values than me, an independent buyer on a house offered under the MLS property sales listings. It was expensive but I overcame the greed generated by the assessor and Board of Review when my taxes were doubled. It can be done…ask Pritzker for example.
This is just the beginning; the PENSION TIME BOMB is going off. It will have to be paid at an increasing rate for the next 50 plus years. Illinois economy is DOOMED. Huge overly generous pensions are unsustainable. As taxes go higher the more people flee leaving less taxpayers to shoulder the huge burden of debt. This is called a death debt spiral. It is like a cancer, everyday it gets worse.
And just wait until the full impact of a recession manifests itself on Illinois revenue streams. It will get exponentially worse.