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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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No money for anything but overly generous Ponzi Pension schemes.
Despite claims of Chicago’s improving financial condition, the $48 billion in pension debt for the city’s core retirement systems continues to loom over its fiscal future.
About 80% of property-tax dollars in Chicago go to pensions. Yet Chicago’s four pension systems have only enough assets to cover about 25% of whatthey owe workers and retirees, which is less than Detroit’s pension funds had when the Motor City declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy a decade ago.
It’s astonishing that anyone can claim to be genuinely serious about crime and/or schools and not dare utter the word “family.” Neither Johnson nor Vallas are serious people, in fact, they’re equally delusional, blaming at-best tangential factors like police presence (admittedly the largest of the sideshows), guidance counselors, poverty, racism, blah blah blah. I still don’t quite comprehend what it is about the liberal wiring that simply refuses to acknowledge the role that values taught at home (and to a lesser extent in the community, though that’s just a sum of the homes) play, even while people like Johnson and… Read more »
Cops (or any other Government Lackie) are not in it for Policing. They are in it for overly generous pensions to buy a luxury home in Punta Gorda.
Use to say on the side of the cars “Serve and Protect”, it now says “At Your Own Risk”.
And should I also say with equal conviction that sewer workers who don’t love to shovel s..t should be derided because they are in it for the money? Get over it! People often do a job that’s less than thrilling because they have to earn a living. Its a bonus when you can honestly say you love what you do for that living, but its not a requirement to feel that way while doing it. Society would never fill its various job slots if every employee had to make that declaration while attached to a lie detector every so often.… Read more »
Illinois state and local governments spend most in nation on pensions (illinoispolicy.org)
The solution probably lies somewhere between both. How can Brandon talk about improving education when he refused to give tests? And without a workforce that can read or do math, good luck luring employers. But just hiring more cops without treating the underlying cause is not the way to change things either. But at the same time, if someone is kicking in my back door I don’t want to wait 3 days when a social worker in a Prius shows up.
No chance in hell of solving this problem. Crime will continue to increase at a high rate.
CPS taught zero job skills; business flee so there are no jobs. Only job is being a criminal.
Crime is the only growth industry left in the Chitty. Honest hardworking families are fleeing in huge numbers along with businesses. The Chitty is on the path of destruction at full speed.
Can Paul Vallas or Brandon Johnson Do Anything About Crime?
short answer ” No “