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"A reduction in the annual cost of living increase for public employee pensions — now an automatic 3% hike, compounded annually — should, finally, be seriously entertained...Could pain be avoided by adjusting the way our state is financing its debts, including pension debt? We don’t know for certain, but it’s time for government’s brightest financial minds to look under every rock, consider every option."
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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Meanwhile, California has proposed a 10% pay cut for ALL state employees.
But back in IL, Jabba is giving 10% raises to state employees. As Capitol Fake says, there’s nothing he can do about it, because the raises were negotiated pre-coronavirus.
And as Oswego Willy at Capitol Fake says, every single government employee is essential. No lay offs.
Financial devastation that Pritzker put the state of Illinois. He along with his buddies in Springfield.