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.
It’s astonishing that IL pols want to amend the constitution to increase taxes instead of reduce pensions. If the progressive state income tax takes effect, I’d expect IL’s population to decrease at an even higher rate as people relocate. Remember, the progressive state income tax will hit the middle class.