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Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi is under fire from a court-appointed monitor for delays in implementing new hiring policies meant to keep politics out of his office and failing to understand what needs to be done to escape the federal microscope.
Susan G. Feibus, the Shakman monitor for the office, said in her report, which was filed in federal court last week, that Kaegi’s office has “not grasped the level of scrutiny” that comes with being under federal oversight.
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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Kaegi is too busy doubling everyone’s property taxes north of a line parallel of Madison St. “Federal oversight? Bah Hum Bug! I have real work to do, like increasing the property assessments of the ‘rich’!” (ie this is a fake quote, I made it up to get a point across)
It’s obvious he’s in way over his head. And not taking a federal probe seriously makes perfect sense. He’s simply looked around him and seen what his fellow pols have gotten away with and likely has a false sense of security built up.