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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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There are so many uninformed readers in the comments here. The counties aren’t seizing the properties! Judgment is entered against the property after ajudication and a deed is granted to the tax creditor that put up the money to satisfy unpaid property taxes. If people don’t pay property taxes and there is no incentive to pay, why have county government at all?
The tax creditors basically purchase the county’s position. It is, effectively, the county and the other taxing districts at work.
Yes! Basically, they are trying to replace a system that is efficient and requires little oversight with something closer to a credit lien system. The original had profit incentives for creditors to fund county coffers. The only difference I see is home equity will now go to county administrators and connected court appointed “asset managers” instead of creditors. You can be sure the two pennies left over will be divided up equally though.
Here is the ruling from the Supreme Court.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-166_q861.pdf
I don’t think the county government’s function is to facilitate the theft of one’s equity.
But they do by legal excessive taxation on the property. Case in point here in Rockford right after the 2008 housing crisis there were at least 5-7,000 homes under foreclosure. Most people just walked away after a time. The reason was the taxes (not including late fees of 18% per year on unpaid taxes) was more than the mortgage in most cases. With Ptell the taxing bodies still collected what was levied (not billed) from the year before and up to 5% or 1/2 of inflation. Many home values dropped by 50% or more but the taxes were still more… Read more »
“…they have been selling the homes to connected investors. “
Needs repeating. I’ve seen this personally. And those government officials selling the homes are probably getting kick-backs. I can’t prove that, but I’d bet on it.
This practice has obviously been an illegal taking by the counties for decades. Then they have been selling the homes to connected investors. Good for the judge. The county could just file a lien on the home, which is collected upon sale. And the interest rate should be nothing more than the fed funds rate. Good to end this scam by these corrupt overbearing governments.
Exactly!
It would be no surprise if the buyers of these tax delinquent properties were somehow related to the powers that be that put these tax delinquent properties up for sale.