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Lightfoot said Friday she’s willing to tackle Chicago’s “mounting, looming, all-consuming” pension debt once and for all, even if it means risking her political future. In a rousing speech at the Civic Federation’s annual civic awards luncheon, Lightfoot made it clear that Chicago needs help during the Illinois Legislature’s fall veto session to solve the problems that her predecessor left behind.
But the mayor didn’t say whether the help she was seeking would include merging city employee pension funds, a longer road to 90% funding or asking the General Assembly to empower the city to broaden its sales tax umbrella to include professional services.
“We cannot get there if we continue to lug this mounting, looming, all-consuming pension debt with us. This is our moment to solve this problem. We have to do it now. We cannot keep looking past the obvious,” she said.
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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She’s no reformer. She has already publicly defined the problem as a revenue shortage not an overspending and over borrowing problem. Her “solutions” are those of a woke liberal, period. She will proceed to meet with the bond raters and evaluate the best can kick. The bond raters will save face by writing a fancy dire white paper to look credible. But Then they will proceed to rate the very thing they manipulated in a back room deal with lightfoot. Part of that deal will be to pick away at taxpayers or some asset of the public dealt away. This… Read more »
At least shes admiting its #1 all consuming issue, but will she let any conservative voices on her council/study group? Or just the same old ctab/martirie/union apologists?
She will fail without real pension reform. I would say, however, that during her campaign she was commendably open to voices like ours. We met with their staff and, while they don’t agree with our politics and solutions, we found them to be smart and sincere. She at least knows the scope of the problem.
Maybe instead of creating another committee (stacked w ctab types)lighfoot could release last years cafr (along w cc & state) and squaring with public about supposed gigantic disastrous debt rahm was hidding. Can only wonder if yet undisclosed gigantic city debt lightfoot says shes still analizing has something to do with cc & state cafr not being completed? Start w trasparency,, wasnt that lightfoots mantra
Prekwinkle in st/l washongton colum is hinting the gigant debt payment due this year is $1.4 billion!!!, not $700 mill. Thats what rahm was hidding. Unbalievaby shocking,,,why doesnt chimp tax payer have right to know?? Chicago Sun-Times: Toni Preckwinkle sees tough times ahead for Chicago’s new mayor.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/6/23/18701234/toni-preckwinkle-lori-lightfoot-chicago-budget-laura-washington
When Preckwinkle was running she was saying the pension debt wasn’t as bad as reported. That’s an interesting comment she made about the 1.4B. Quite a switch. Shows what liars candidates are.
If the citys debt payment is really $1.4 billion as opposed to $700 million (rahm stared out saying it was $500 mil)—- why isnt this #1 news story?? What are lightfoot, rahm, prekwinkle hidding?–shocking!!!. Why isnt press demanding answers. The tax payers are being duped as usual
Maybe the $700 mill added differance prekwinkle is hinting at (total $1.4 billion) is for newly added gasb 75–employee heath benifit required reporting on city cafr for 2018? Cant remember which article, but tia qouted heath benifit as city hiden debt at approx $640 mil for 2018?
There aren’t any solutions other than cutting pensions, cutting spending and increasing taxes all the while building a larger tax base. Enacting these solutions is literally a civilizational problem. The Roman Empire would still be around today if had figured out how to enact these very same solutions 1600 years ago. The Romans cut spending so much that they stopped subsidizing grains shipments and the economy collapsed, they increased taxes and printed so much money that inflation went out of control, the increased the tax base so much that barbarians were ‘paying’ taxes (I say that facetiously because we all… Read more »