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Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she is “very serious” about the city growing its own recreational marijuana to give minorities a chance to learn the business and share the wealth and said $15 million generated by tax-increment financing could be used as seed money.
Lightfoot said the concept of the city opening a “cooperative cultivation center” that minorities can “buy into” — either with a “modest cash investment” or with “sweat equity” — is aimed at overcoming the biggest impediment to minority ownership.
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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When a politician like lightfoot talks about how to run a business, it’s so cute, like a child. None of it ever passes the giggle test, but it’s adorable, bless her heart. Seriously, let’s have the poor grow pot then sell it back to them.
One again–all those empty/ half empty cps schools would make great hydrponic grow rooms!! Maybe also throw in a mini-gambeling cassino and mental health center. Let ctu/seiu run the whole thing…and there you gots your community developement co-ops..
The pot business is not without its liability, especially given the much high levels of THC in today’s marijuana. Although perhaps rare, pot users can experience psychotic events, and lawsuits will likely ensue. Query whether the City is thinking of these liabilities.