-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Representatives of the Miami Downtown Development Authority arrived in Chicago this week on a four-day mission to lure Chicago firms to their sunny city. They’re particularly focused on small and mid-sized financial firms that can more easily pick up their lucrative businesses and head south, but they’ll take any firm, or those interested in simply opening a new Miami outpost.
“We’re coming after Illinois,” said Miami DDA Deputy Director Christina Crespi, noting that their efforts were spurred partly by the proposed Illinois graduated income tax that would increase levies on the state’s richest residents. Florida has no personal income tax.
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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Miami is a tough sell for Chicago folk because Miami is essentially the capital city of Central and South America. It is nothing at all like Chicago. Different demographics, different populations.