-- 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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We’re just a few pandemics away from a AAA rating.
I can see the Corpulent Trust Fund Baby’s pitch being met with skepticism. Listen as His Rapaciousness handles the critics…
“Pay no attention to that open air in front of Illinois. Fiscal cliff? Naah, you must be thinking of Florida. What? Day have a surplus down dere? Oh. We do too. A surplus of big ideas that come with a bigger price tag. This means big money for youse finance guys. You can be the trust fund for Illinois. I mean…everybody has a trust fund. right? Risk? What risk? We had eight upgrades in our credit rating.”
Buyer beware with Illinois GO debt.
Talk about a carnival barker!
Pritzker has the audacity to refer to Wirepoints as a ‘carnival barker” while he’s busy talking up the great promise of a more-than-half-dead state.
Read the room, JB – Illinois is barely on life support and investors know it.
Seemingly every day JB announces another new program with a hundred million dollar price tag. Free college, free child care, free mental healthcare, and whatever else you may want. A state on solid fiscal ground would be hard pressed to offer these things. A state with a growing tax base would be hard pressed to offer these things. Pritzker built his promises based on federal assistance that is running out, and revenues generated by record inflation that will dry up with the oncoming recession. Given that pensions eat up an increasing percentage of state revenues, all his promised programs will… Read more »
Realize how JB grew up … unlimited resources his entire life. You want it; it’s yours!
Somehow his concept of cash flow is a bit off kilter.
Wonder if had a swing in his backyard like many kids had? Maybe he played on a teeter totter.
Wasn’t it said JB’s greatest frustration as a young man was not being able to buy a Ferrari on the credit card his Dad gave him?