-- 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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Effective tax rate of 6.088%. Would you like to translate “the lending market has determined that the value of property in Dolton is such that it is not worth preserving the collateral by paying the property taxes.” into understandable English? Are the properties being abandoned or simply left to rot until they no longer exist?
The source of the quote, according to the Cook County Record, is the Village of Dolton. “The Dolton tax base, according to the village’s court filing, has shrunk by 40 percent, from more than $317 million to just shy of $194 million. As equalized assessed valuation has cratered, the municipal tax rate has exploded, from 2.724 percent in 2008 to 6.088 percent in 2016, an increase of 223 percent. In recent years, property tax collections have dropped from around 95 percent to between 80 and 85 percent, which the village said is partly because “the lending market has determined that… Read more »