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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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Another fine distinction for Illinois. And where is the wider press coverage for this? Where is the Illinois Homebuilders Association? The Illinois Realtors? The Real Estate Section of the Chicago Bar Association? Crickets.
Illinois has plenty of reasonably priced land to build houses. The problem is that land is out in the country and the people that want to live in an area like that want nothing to do with this state’s liberal progressive politics. They’ll go to Iowa or Indiana.
Typical Crain’s blah. Let’s face it how could Illinois help when the reality is people, sans immigrants, are moving out of the State? Taxes are high, the costs of corruption are everywhere, there is a lack of jobs, the education system is failing the children. Even the University’s are facing declining enrollment. Keep preaching to your choir Crain’s but its not going to make any difference. Illinois is simply a dysfunctional State and, quite frankly, the majority of Illinois voters want it this way. Don’t expect interstate migration because people want no part in the mess that you helped create.
Why build a house in a dying area?
Soon they’ll be a stampede out of Illinois. Then they’re be a surplus of housing on the market. However, the other side of this coin will be a dearth of buyers.
I could write a dissertation on this topic but there is no shortage of homes. That’s a myth perpetuated by the REIC (real estate industrial complex) in their own self-interest. There are plenty of homes. It’s just that years of low interest rates and favorable tax treatment has distorted the market so incredibly that younger generations can’t afford to buy, middle aged folk are ‘stuck’ in their 2.5% mortgages, and investors, like vampire squids, outbid everybody else for the best properties. Investors purchased ONLY 25% of IL properties last year, and that was a down year, and IL is below… Read more »