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.
How will a “Pension Holiday” benefit taxpayers? Will we see a break in our property tax bills? Most of the pension payments are within contracts like the school district here in Rockford which has total pension pickup for teachers. Kicking the can down the road will cost everyone more in the long run. We never hear about true pension reform whatsoever.