-- 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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Your average is for this year, not the entire retired group. And no, we do not get our insurance paid for. SHeeeesh?????????
Anonymous- Yes, those averages are for this year. Presumably, some recent, previous retirees get even more than those averages because they get “COLAs” irrespective of inflation, but most are no doubt lower. I say “presumably” because nobody has published clear numbers on that. I’ve been very clear that reform efforts ought to distinguish reasonable pensions from excessive ones, yet neither the pension reform committee nor anybody else has even tried. I’ll say it again, older retirees with reasonable pensions that bear a rational connection to the salaries they earned, who didn’t spike or double dip, ought to be fully protected… Read more »
Mark Glennon, The link you posted goes to the Illinois Policy Institute – an extreme anti-labor organization. (And the report at the Illinois Policy Institute site has apparently been moved so the link is broken) You are going to have find a source of information not so obviously biased to support your contention that these pensions are too generous. Articles like yours are pushing the conservative agenda that pensions are simply unsustainable in our current economy / business environment. What you fail to explain is how corporate profits can be so high while at the same time those corporations are… Read more »
Mr. Mitchell- The IL Policy Institutes’ numbers were taken straight out of the annual CAFRs of the pensions themselves. I’ve checked a couple of them and they are accurate. You may not like the IL Policy Institute’s politics, but their research is professional and objective, and ad hominem attacks on the facts they assert are not convincing. The link to the numbers they published are here: http://illinoispolicy.org/policy_posts/average-government-pensions-in-illinois/ Your linkage of pensions to corporate income taxes is commonly done by the left but is horribly wrong. Corporations don’t pay any taxes, they collect them, and they collect them regressively. That obvious… Read more »
THE TRS DOES NOT COVER HEALTH CARE.
IT IS COVERED UNDER TRIP AND RETIREES
HAVE TO PAY FOR THE COVERAGE