-- 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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Where’s smoke, there’s fire.
The focus of these efforts is to reduce crime and make neighborhoods safer. Thus, one looks for persons committing crimes. Criminal law does not provide different standards based on the perpetrator’s or the victim’s race. Low crime areas have higher real estate values and more businesses are willing to provide services to low crime areas. Thus, reduction in crime creates safety, increased quality of life and economic value for high-crime areas. DC is enjoying an 87% reduction in car jackings and has had no murders in several days. Similar reductions would be a beautiful thing for all Chicago neighborhoods.
Jackson Potter is not one of the great thinkers of the ages. He describes the dynamic that got Illinois annd the City of Chicago into an enormous financial mess and continues to exacerbate, rather than address it.
I can think of lots of words to describe Pritzker, but “benevolent billionare” aren’t on the list.
Unless you’re one of the 238,000 migrants that he housed, fed, gave free medical, and is providing drivers licenses and voter cards to. But of course that was from your pocket, not his, so it was easy to give away.