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MHUB is embarking on a $46.8 million venture for which it is slated to get $17.6 million in city help via tax increment financing plus state funding of $9.6 million. MHUB’s equity in the project is $350,000.
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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These guys are disrupting energy markets too and are most likely culpable for your high energy bills this season.
There are so many red flags here. If the City wants it, why not buy it outright or take it via eminent domain proceedings – like with the post office? Who has a first position lien in this deal? Is it the bank? If the bank has first position and the project fails, the city would have to bid for it’s equity stake, at a foreclosure proceeding, and it would likely cost taxpayers a lot more than fair market vale of the building to recover the equity. Venture-capital should not be allowed to piggyback on this deal or skim off the top. Any profits… Read more »