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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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Johnson is going to get a large CPS pension himself.
It appears that “Chicago Public Schools” is the entity that Johnson is asking to make the contributions. Presumably, it’s also the entity that collects property taxes. If Johnson and his legislators really want this to happen, just don’t use city money to fund the pension contributions that CPS owes. Teachers’ and administrators’ pensions will become less secure, and the funds will face faster exhaustion. Retired educators won’t care as long as they’re getting their checks. However actively employed educators will eventually figure this out and begin to challenge CTU leadership. More chaos will ensue, and bankruptcy of CPS may follow,… Read more »
Fix CTU”s pension system first
Even it state pensions they pay their own portion EXCEPT for the CTU, surprised?
Johnson knows he’s a one-term mayor, so set to execute all CTU demands regardless of cost, even without political support of City Council and CPS Superintendent. He’s going back to CTU, wants to joyful reunion and executive office spot when he returns – perhaps as CTU co-president. His cherry-picked new CPS board, composed mostly of CTU supporters and useful idiots, probably will approve all actions needed to fulfill CTU’s lengthy list of outsized demands.
All I hear is more Blah, blah, blah. It still boils down to increased costs on the citizens no matter how you slice it.
Any reader who wishes to venture into the weeds on public sector pay should be aware of the linked article at The public-sector pay gap is widening. Unions help shrink it. | Economic Policy Institute (August 2024). Some of the article’s footnoted citations seem to be expert-witness-types on the union side. The article doesn’t focus on Illinois. However, it portrays public employees as under-paid in comparison to private-sector workers. I don’t flag this as a proponent of the authors, however it’s probably typical of the stuff that CTU bosses read. We already know that CTU bargaining does not provide for… Read more »
“Why should we be the only ones putting Chicagoans on the hook for billions of dollars of debt so we can pay our pals off now? Looting doesn’t only have to happen in the hood.” – Mayor Cliff Notes
When Stacy says, “Jump”, Brandon asks, “How high, boss?”