-- 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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Is anyone from Illinois reading this? What have the unions brought to the table except suffocating pension costs, strikes and refusals to work if benefits are diminished? Illinois needs a clawback provision when the pensioners move out of state – reduce their benefit or have them pay taxes to Illinois equal to the income tax rate. They created the mess, they should have to suffer the consequences.
Well, so far there is pesky little “pension clause” in the 1970 IL Constitution that states once a pension has been granted it shall not be reduced or even diminished. But, perhaps you that and may simply be wishing it away.