-- 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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All of them are united in the effort to bankrupt the state and its taxpayers. The only disagreement among them is who’s to blame; they all point fingers at each other. Their childish incompetence is devastating to the state.
With IL’s business growth effectively flat, population flat (declining if illegal immigration is ignored), and spending and taxes increasing, it will be fascinating to watch how, or if, someone can pull it out of a death spiral. At some point, the only people paying taxes will be the unions. It will be a closed-loop financial system that can’t survive.
Dear taxpayer, feeling like you are being screwed? It is because you are.