-- 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 simple article really paints the picture of the structural impossibility of IL’s pensions. These fireman didn’t do anything wrong. This was the deal that they signed up and worked full careers while trusting their Union reps. It’s all crumbling around them because of the Union, the State, and MM.
So the firefighters collectively bear no responsibility for union leadership they elected to negotiate these sweetheart deals? The union members have no responsibility for their union dollars being used to legally bribe local politicians to give them fantastic pensions? What other country on earth do ‘pensioners’ get millions of dollar in payouts over the course of their retirement, at age 52? Pensioner around the world means living on a meager fixed government income. Only in Illinois does pensioner mean the richest guy on the block.
Insanity
This is like guaranteed lottery winnings except in a normal lottery people play voluntarily whereas the taxpayer is forced to play and lose(never any chance of winning) unless they move out of state.