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Vallas: "Ultimately, the greatest obstacle to balancing the city’s budget and ensuring vital services are the CTU’s intransigence and unsustainable pension burdens. The CTU is no longer a conventional labor union advocating solely for teachers; it's a political machine, often at odds with broader public sector labor and the interests of the city."
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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CPS needs to be financially ready. CTU needs to be designated as a political organization, not a labor union.