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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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If this option becomes a serious contender, I hope the feds don’t intend to treat the public sector unionists any better than what the private sector has and will continue to receive from the PBGA. I wonder if preferential treatment would trigger a violation of the US Constitution. I doubt the public sector retirees would quietly accept the same treatment as the private sector. And I doubt the private sector retirees would sit quietly by as the public sector retirees got less of a haircut.
That’s a very important point. Some private sector pensioners are getting really hammered, as you apparently know — Central States pension. No help from the Feds. Just another reason why I think it’s naive to expect anything from the Feds.
If the politicians who made this mess don’t address the issue themselves then nothing changes. There is little to look at with pension reform unless they conclude themselves, that the current situation is unsustainable and has to be fixed. And new revenue from the taxpayer is not the answer.