-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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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All taxes in Illinois are in the top 3 highest, almost always. Most of the time it is a photo finish for first place. Illinois is trying to figure out how to tax AIR. There is just no end for the lust of money to cover the huge pension deficit that is destroying the quality of living for everyone.
Spot on. Highest tax rates on the country and we’re still broke!
That’s the kicker. Taxes we pay today fund services rendered decades ago as well as today’s services.
Neighboring states are actually paying for today’s services with today’s taxes. Some of them actually run a surplus (which means they should lower their tax rates, but probably won’t).
It’s like the college student who charges every meal on his credit card and only pays the monthly minimum. Eventually that freshman’s hamburger is going to cost him multiples of the original cost.
Illinois is overdrawn on its ‘credit card’ and bound to dig a deeper fiscal hole to garner political support.
You’ve just laid out my ‘equity’ argument to slash pensions. Latinks Jose in Cicero, or black Diandre in Harvey, is scraping by with underfunded schools and services, because too much tax revenue is going to pay white Frankie’s and Joseph’s pensions in Punta Gorda, FL. How is that fair or equitable? How are Jose and Diandre supposed to build generational wealth in their homes when their communities are decrepit, while the retirees are living on their boats and eating steak, living out of state? Pensions are going to see an ‘equitiable’ reduction as the contracts clause gets tossed out the… Read more »
Amazing how the clowns who negotiated these contracts are out of office and their hands are ‘clean.’
The next clown crowds declared pension holidays and underfunded pensions while distributing money to assure their re-election
With Amendment One we can expect the decline of IL to accelerate.
What a sad destiny for the Land of Lincoln.