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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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Most Chicagoans agree wit Willie Wilson’s tough stance on crime — if they would only vote to make that happen
“The non-debate showed that none of the nine candidates is likely to lead Chicago out of its current morass of heavy crime, high taxation and the consequent loss of business and population.” Gosh, ya think? Loved this observation, “For the most part the candidates spoke what I have come to think of as sociobabble, the political equivalent of psychobabble. To curtail crime we “need to invest in youth”; the police need to “reach out to the communities in which crime is flourishing”; education of “a kind that will uplift all is required”; and “safety is every citizen’s right.” This only… Read more »
Crime is going up, up and away. All the criminals know that cops do not enforce the laws. Chicago is in a free fall and has not hit bottom yet. It is going to get much worse and be very ugly. No one can stop it at this point, only answer for families is to leave for safer places. Downtown will be a ghost town in a few years. Businesses are leaving so the only job opportunities are illegal activities. No education does not leave many other choices.
No education, so they won’t be paying taxes. Instead they will be crowding around the public trough, fighting with the people who failed to provide them an education. Competitors in the race to bleed the taxpayers dry. The teacher’s union should have realized they were creating their own competition. Not much of a strategy.
Maybe they should talk about this…
The Eight-State Suicide Pact is advancing quickly… | The Daily Bell
Why should they talk about some proposal that would be unconstitutional in Illinois? Also, the mayoral position is not responsible for setting state tax law. As long as we don’t have a progressive tax, the proposal only serves as a virtue signal. If they did talk about it, they would only give some sound bite around how the “rich” should pay their share. This issue wouldn’t differentiate the candidates in any meaningful way.
The candidates should stick with crime and the budget not proposals outside their control and definitely not ones that can’t be implemented per our constitution.
The Alternative Minimum tax example is an excellent of what happens with tax schemes like this and my thoughts are the backers of the tax are fully aware of it too. It would be interesting, but not very likely, if the present dollar value of one of those Illinois pensions were considered as wealth too. That could happen and in that respect would be fun to watch