-- 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 couple of years ago I was at the Cabelas in Hoffman Estates. The customer in front of me had a shopping cart with a bulk pack of lead bullets, just bullets that he was going to use for reloading. At checkout the clerk told him about the additional tax per bullet. He looked stunned and said “no thanks” and walked out the door leaving the cart, the bullet packs and more things in the cart. I told the clerk that he must not be from around here or he was ignorant of the bullet tax. She said that walk… Read more »