-- 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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The article shows house prices in the west suburbs declining between 20.8% and 52.9% over the January 2007 to January 2015 interval in inflation-adjusted terms. Well, the national 20 city Case Shiller home price index declined by 25.5% in inflation-adjusted terms between January 2007 and January 2015. Is this also to be blamed on high property taxes? Or is it perhaps possible that something entirely different, the bursting of the real estate bubble, might have had something to do with the price declines in the Chicago area?
Between January 2007 to January 2015 the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Chicago Home Price NSA Index has declined more than the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price NSA Index.