-- 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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Somehow Pritzker seeks to blame 50 years of Democrat failure on the Republicans. Or maybe on Trump. And on on Rauner. I’ve got it: blame all three!!!
Instead of blaming republicans perhaps Pritzker can simply cut costs. Especially the obscene and criminal government worker pension costs. If IL government eliminated 2/3 of the staff no one in Illinois would notice and there would be zero effect on IL government productivity.
Pritzker: Hey Republicans, send me your proposed budget so I can use it to crucify you with the help of a compliant, biased and willing press corps. Republicans: No. Show us your budget cuts. Pritzker: Silence. Then, watch me wave this magic wand and do some hocus pocus dominocus to save us some money.
Perhaps start making farmer’s pay tax on the fair market value of their real estate as it was when the law was first passed. The tax was based on a statewide basis but then the agricultural special interests later got a carve out especially just for them. Special interest loopholes like this take their toll and should be simply eliminated.
Farm land in IL is taxed based upon the potential productivity of the soil classes present as listed by the USDA unless the property is actually zoned and used instead for non-agricultural purposes. The fair market values when bidding takes place by fellow farmers are determined by those underlying attributes.
“Lowering the deduction for taxpayers who donate to private school scholarship funds.”
Has Illinois had enough of teachers unions yet!?