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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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As some astute commenter here used to say, something to the effect that insolvent communities in Illinois are paying for pensions rather than playgrounds, COLAs instead of City Hall, and so much of the money is being spent in FL instead of fixing local potholes.
The current numbers are higher now than in 2018.
A 2018 report indicated that the average pensioner in the Harvey Firefighters Pension Fund earned about $70,169 per year.
In the City’s annual financial report, it states that for Tier-1 employees (hired before Jan 1 2011) the formula is “1-2/3% of the final rate of earnings for the first 15 years + 2% for each year after 15 years, up to a maximum of 75% of the final rate of earnings.”
About 10 or so years ago, I appraised a 2 flat in Harvey for $25,000, the property taxes were $5,000. My ex has a house in Portage Park, that according to Zillow and Redfin, is worth apprx. $400,000, the 2024 taxes are about $5,500. I read Cook County still hasn’t released the 2nd installment yet. WTF?
Pensions underfunded. Court mandated property tax increases. Drastic cuts in services. Decreasing home values with ever increasing real estate taxes. Many residents can’t afford to pay their bills. NONSENSE!! There is always more money to squeeze out of the lemmings. And when it all collapses, squeeze it from Illinois stupes that don’t live there. And when that fails, squeeze it from democratic filth at the federal level. It’s all a great system to create mass misery, but don’t worry those pensions will be paid. Does anyone really think that these democrat politicians will bite the Union hand that owns them.… Read more »
This is another “woe is they” article that concludes that the status quo is the status quo, imagining that bankruptcy will eventually provide some relief (if they change Illinois law). Meanwhile, some Harvey residents evidently don’t pay property taxes with impunity.
Democrat politics = identity politics.
See for example, Brandon Johnson
There’s no way Federal, State and local Illinois Dems allow the supermajority black, black governed, 124th largest municipality in Illinois to go down the tubes.
The Financially Distressed City designation merely transforms Harvey from a COVERT ward of government into an OVERT ward of government.
Bailout coming in 3,2,1 …
https://www.illinois-demographics.com/cities_by_population
When was Harvey a “once prosperous community”? And will they ever stop voting Dem to give themselves a chance and stop being taken advantage of?
Learn some history! http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/568.html
At least someone documented it. Having to go back to an encyclopedia of chicago history to find a prosperous time speaks volumes of how IL has let so many areas of this state dry up and wither despite all of their progressive claims.
Harvey was a nice city until the early 1970s. Dixie Square was one of the first indoor malls.
With lots of good manufacturing jobs that, in those days, you could raise a family on.
Sad that its ending culminated during the filming of the Blues Brothers when they had the chase scene driving through the mall. That’s Dixie’s legacy as opposed to being one of the first indoor malls…
Exactly the mall closed before filming started for the Blues Brothers was open for 12 years