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Ed Bachrach and Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski writing in the Wall Street Journal: Increasing payouts to Chicago cops and firemen will trigger an avalanche of copycat union demands. Full column here.
Summary and audio linked here.
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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.
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Audio and summary
So where are the quotes from the Democrat leaders on mess they’ve created!? Answer : They don’t see a mess.
“The Chicago bill increases pension benefits for city police and firemen hired after 2010, so-called Tier 2 workers.” Question: Why are critical public safety personnel under an all encompassing ‘Tier 2’ umbrella? Why not have two disparate, not only from a police and fire perspective, but from a Tier 2 perspective? The idea of including poorly funded pensions into a generally well funded pension fund (I know I am taking liberties with my example for the sake of simplicity) lowers the funding level of the newly amalgamated pension fund. (I believe this ‘pension hodgepodge’ idea was raised around the time… Read more »
Another thought, Illinois & Chicago got a brief lift in their credit ratings with mountain of COVID $billions$. So, do the forces that be figure this is their last chance to lock in overturning TIER II before Illinois & Chicago credit ratings sink back into a notch above insolvency?
Other states, mostly blue states, are under pressure to overturn pension reforms and enhance benefits (https://reason.org/commentary/important-public-pension-reforms-are-under-threat-in-several-states/)
I’m no Mendoza fan, but on Fox32-Paris on Politics she’s making a statement against this cop & fire pension sweeter, I’m sure as part what we all know is a mayoral run (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_yUfFGv2OA): Paris Schutz: Speaking of financial decisions that could impact the city, the governor has on his desk a bill that would increase pensions for the so-called Tier 2 police and fire employees. And according to some analysis from the Civic Federation, that’s going to cost billions … up to $750 million a year by 2055. How can the city afford another unfunded liability like this?Mendoza: Let me… Read more »
Needs to send a letter to Trump asking him to support enabling states to declare bankruptcy too.
I’ll go a step farther Dave. Return Illinois to a territory and abrogate all municipal bargaining agreements until the Illinois Territory demonstrates a decade of fiscal solvency.
Congrats WP!!! thanks for being the ONLY ones fighting for us in the chumbolone class, as everyone from dem machine hacks, to lib press and most disappointing–spinless DOA Illinois republicans have caved to the Martwick & co goons……AS WE CHUMBOLONES ARE TRULY ON ARE OWN!!!
PPF, So much for your additional tax revenue arqument!!
All this malpractice piles up and drives both people and businesses away. Illinois has lost nearly 1.6 million net residents to out-migration since 2000, the nation’s third-worst loss on a per capita basis. Blue-chip companies like Boeing, Caterpillar and Citadel have all moved their headquarters out of Illinois. And don’t forget the opportunities lost as Mr. Buffett and other investors balk at the financial mess Illinois remains in.
Outstanding piece by Ted and Wirepoints. One of the best ever. The pension topic alone should nullify any JB hopes for a national role. JB and the entire Democrat apparatus are fomenting a collapse of the entire Illinois government financial system. It is robbery of ordinary taxpayers, and a cruel hoax on pension beneficiaries who at some point will face massive cuts in the benefits they are counting on– even if it is their own greedy fault.
The pension costs are unsustainable at this level and looks like it is still going higher and higher. This is the largest generational theft in the history of the world. The only way out is to get out and the taxpayers are doing just that. If you do not like today’s taxes, wait till tomorrow and the next day. More and more high-income & job creators will leave the state, no one likes to be gouged.