-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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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Well, if “people are leaving in droves” then this must be more than offset by other folks moving in, because New York City’s population has increased by over 400,000 since 2010, and by over 1.5 million since the low point of the mid 1970’s. Somehow, the city’s extremely high taxes (the combined city + state income tax rate on a typical middle-class household exceeds 10%) has not prevented the population from growing handily and businesses like Amazon from relocating to the city. And because New York taxes have always been high, their pensions are close to being fully funded.