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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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I’m not fooled either, but maybe it’s time to consider a grand compromise. Tie a progressive plan to a spending cap and long-term lock on tax rates. Show that you are willing to make some concessions. Make the other side seem like the bad guy here.
No way. It would have to be tied to a massive package of reforms comprising a long term plan sufficient to convince taxpayers that the road to stability was set. Just a spending cap and rate lock wouldn’t come remotely close to solving anything, and most everybody would know that the new taxes would go down the rat hole.
You know that. I know that. I know countering with your own progressive tax structure looks like you’ve bought in to a progressive tax, which is why it’s a binary decision for the Republicans. But it seems like Rauner simply shaking his head “no” on the matter isn’t going to fly here. Not in this climate. Rauner needs to counter or play along in some manner. The rebuttal should be, “OK, you’ve heard all my reasons against this, but let’s say we did go down this path. Where’s the spending cap to make sure we don’t overspend, even with all… Read more »
Rauner’s approach from day 1 was scorched earth. In this process, he himself has ended up burned. A rookie politician thinking his methods and skills were so special and so unique his will alone would carry the day. Instead his abilities were less than ordinary and he was worked around. The opportunity he had, to bargain with the Democrats, and to provide fiscal conservatives with leverage at the bargaining table was squandered away. What we got from Rauner instead was 4 years of mudslinging. Rauner was a repetitive mud-slinger, but was ineffectual policy wise. So where did all Rauner’s mud… Read more »