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.
Remember, it’s a zero-sum game. When over-assessments of properties are lowered, other assessments have to be raised. Otherwise known as: if you think your PT bill of 2-3 percent of your property value is high now …