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.
The only people who benefit from the passing in this are the unions, who can collect more in union dues, and the politicians they pay off. It’s a burden to every tax payer in the state. If unions are as great as they claim, then let the employees decide whether or not they will benefit by joining.