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Retiring as president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association is Greg Baise, a longtime pillar of the corporate and political establishment who has been involved in almost every major election and issue in state politics since he worked for then-Gov. Jim Thompson in the 1980s.
Baise will continue to run Xpress Professional Services, a for-profit subsidiary of IMA that performs direct mail, TV ad production and other chores for political candidates, and which operates the well-known We Ask America polling operation.
Baise, 66, will be succeeded by IMA Vice President and COO Mark Denzler,
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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