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.
If Pritzker was really interested in “fairer” taxes, he would have the Illinois state income tax apply to money earned by Caribbean Trust Funds. He is trying to pass a tax that won’t apply to himself and other billionaires who have figured out how to hide money from tax collectors.