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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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Unlike his predecessors, Fritz is attempting to follow the rules as established by the County and State. The result isn’t what most of us consider “fair.” Fritz’s remedy is to get magical money from elsewhere. The better option would be to (1) remove governmental corruption that we’re all generally familiar with; (2) eliminate improvements from the real estate tax base, so people aren’t penalized for constructing and maintaining; (3) allocate revenues at an appropriate geographic level. I have written about this at Menace of Privilege.
An equitable PT tax system doesn’t mean the taxpayer won’t continue to be gouged. It just means that instead of some people having obscenely high PT rates and some having ridiculously high rates, all will have ridiculously high rates.
This assessor is the reformer, given the task of rectifying years of incestuous corruption wrought by predecessor Berrios (Dem Party Chair, Madigan associate).
Increased assessments now are correcting past years’ improper low assessments.
Only when Chicagoans ‘feel the pain’ due to political corruption will policies (so lucrative to corrupt insiders) have any hope of legitimate change.
You don’t think Chicagoans already feel the pain?
I really don’t think so. Not like the pain we have felt. At least in Chicago in many areas property values went up for decades. Now taxes are approaching 2% of value. Here in Rockford during that same time property values were going down while taxes were going up. A few years ago taxes were over 5% of value. Equity if any disappeared but taxes kept going up. Many people’s homes were underwater with their mortgages within a few years of buying. Taxes in 22 years is what you paid for the home. That is pain.
Hmmmmm…how can I pick your pocket as the current revenue stream has been dammed by Lori? All she does is create headaches for everyone!
Kaegi is a complete failure! Throw the dem out of office!
Replace him with whom? Or what?
The Park Forest (residential?) property tax rate is 34.5% compared to 6.8% in Chicago, per the article.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s primary suggestion to reduce the high property tax rates is to hike the Federal income tax and distribute the proceeds “equitably.”
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