-- 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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This debate should have been forced 5 years ago. Incredibly wasteful usage of Fed Covid dollars let these mismanaged entities keep their bloated payrolls. Typical Illinois behavior, and instead of having this properly addressed and in the rear view mirror, you will now get the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the so called leaders. Cut until you see blood, then cut some more. Merge it into one entity and hire an outsider to get it right sized.
No one will admit it, but the covid lockdowns altered the places where people work. You no longer see the mass number of commuters from the suburbs heading downtown that you saw back in 2019, regardless of the fantasy statistics government agencies produce. Until you get people coming back to the core of Chicago this problem will persist.
The decline has been going on for nearly two decades. The Coof just moved the needle that much more.
A transport agency that is carrying 63% of it’s prior ridership is fighting having to right-size its operations to match reduced demand. The loss of taxpayer dollars currently used to prop up this mess oddly enough would result in a 40% reduction in operations. To the thinking person, the ridership and scaled-down operations match quite well, 60/40. This match grows even closer when one considers that transit ridership has been dropping like a stone for nearly two decades. Service reductions are long overdue and the political animals cannot continue to hide from this. Meanwhile, the political animals fight over control… Read more »