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.
“Mr. Pritzker, an heir of the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is trying to walk a tightrope by raising revenue without increasing taxes so much that businesses and residents flee the state.”
Too late on that account, as the data and dwindling tax base shows. Interesting part about the article is the fact the state officials only talk about new taxes, no mention of cutting spending.