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Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointed Board of Education has refused to take on a pension payment that the mayor had insisted be paid by the school district. And the board and Chicago Public Schools leaders are strongly opposing a City Hall request that they take out a loan to cover the payment and a new Chicago Teachers Union contract, sources say. The district budget released this week does not list the pension payment as an expense.
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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Nothing changes until competence is recognized as the only solution for the Illinois problem.
No more blank checks left in the book to hand over to the CTU?
Oh, there are a few more, at least. I’m starting to get feedback from Chicagoans that they’re not happy their assessments have jumped up again. Many of these Chicagoans haven’t reached their thresholds of pain yet; so, to paraphrase PPF, there’s plenty more money to be collected in increased taxes and fees. That tells you something about the mindsets of many IL taxpayers, given how tax-happy IL already is. Lots of frogs are in that pot of water.
This guy should have been REJECTED at the polling booth!!
How about closing some of those near empty schools, 32 employee’s for 29 students, thats just insane to think that schools should stay open. Layoff’s LOT’s of them.
Stunning incompetence!!!…I’m sure for all involved the dopey taxpayer/homeowners is the last thing anymore cares about