-- 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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This is unacceptable. Mendoza and others know, or should know, why the audit is being delayed. They should tell us. More importantly, just get the damn audit done.
Why do you think it’s being delayed any insight
Two suspicions. The first is the reason the last audited financial statements (from FY 2022) had an exception to the audit opinion. That’s on the states unemployment trust fund accounting, which is a mess that they apparently could not sort out, and that may still be true. A second possibility is the accounting for the health insurance for retirees. The last financials showed a huge reduction in predicted liability based on lower rate of claims. That was during the pandemic when nobody was going to the doctor and elective procedures were halted. I suspect that has reversed.
Also – a search on the internet seems to think that the delay is primarily due to challenges in modernizing accounting systems and a lack of sufficient staffing to complete the audits in a timely manner. Whatever…count the beans and release the report. They really want to slow walk any audit report, likely they don’t know where all the money went and who was paid.
Tardy? What is this? Kindergarten? These reports are criminally late. Only incompetents in government are allowed to withhold fiscal reporting from stakeholders. We already know that these reports will tell a sordid tale of financial mismanagement and profligate spending by JB the Hutt and the political animals of the Springfield uniparty. That appears to be a given in Madiganistan. This information is likely being slow-walked so as not to jeopardize The Hutt’s presidential ambitions. It doesn’t matter how much the numbers have been polished, without hard data, voters can’t see what the political animals have wrought and JB the Hutt… Read more »
“ Can’t anybody play this game?” – Casey Stengle.
IL doesn’t want an audit publicized because it will show that they’re fiscally incompetent.