-- 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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I recently visited Chicago Metro area. While there, I took Metra in From Westmont and Clarendon Hills a couple of times. When I I took these same trains in 2019 the reserved parking spaces were packed. In 2024 these same train stations had vast areas of reserved parking spaces with no cars in them. This does not bode well for mass transit in the Chicago metro area or for the downtown area the commuters were headed to.
They’re either working from home or driving. The highways are packed these days, seem worse than pre-pandemic.
With passage of Amendment 1 will it be possible to merge (consolidate) city and state transportation agencies? It’s my understanding that with passage of Amendment 1 for all practical purposes any consolidation of any of Illinois CRAZY 7,000 units of gov there will be no labor savings.
Bigger picture, as COVID funds run dry, layoffs and/or furloughs will have to be made or gigantic tax increases made. I assume any savings from consolidation of CRAZY 7,000 units of gov is out of the picture? Will Amendment 1 hinder making layoffs and/or furloughs possible?
Getting savings from consolidating units of government won’t materialize. Let’s say entity A and entity B decide to consolidate. Now entity A has a contract that is 15% more expensive than entity B. Which contract do you think the newly consolidated government entity will follow? Entity B gets a big fat raise and our new government agency costs even more.
Going unsaid in these plans is who will retain positions of power in the system? You can bet those people in upper management will feel threatened by this merger plan and will act to protect their positions and power. A sample of this dysfunction was the formation of the Department of Homeland Security. A friend who worked within the US Customs Service at the time said it took six to eight years to sort out the bureaucratic infighting between the former U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. They argue over what to call… Read more »