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.
“Give people job and educational opportunities and invest in the neighborhoods and there will be no need to hire more police.” Which is what Rauner is trying to do, so until the liberals recognize the reality that Mike Madigan is the single biggest obstacle to reform, nothing will change. If they truly want to change the situation for the better, the dogs need to bite the hand that feeds them.