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.
The bottom line is $1.25 bil bond proposal is asking alderman in relatively prosperous, high tax revenue generating wards to OK transferring tax revenue to poor low tax revenue generating wards. And just like BCH, it’s not clear who would have authority to decide who gets what $? City council alderman vote or board appointed by mayor (i.e. CTU)?