-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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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Keep paying those $70K pensions and those $20-30K health benefits to those who retire in their 50’s. It’s their constitutional right as public servants. The legislators who bestowed this largesse are now the villains because they won’t appropriate the necessary funds — perhaps because the tax aquifer is running dry. The teachers and their unions are without fault because …. well, because they were innocent about the false actuarial assumptions that underestimated the true costs so they could get higher salaries and resulting higher pensions. Why pay for highways and hospitals when you can pay my pension?
I’m sure they are also assuming a 7% rate of return on their investments…good luck
7.5%, they assume.