-- 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 fraudulently obtained largess that Illinois will receive really won’t change much of anything – nearly all the economic activity Pritzker helped to kill off won’t be backfilled any time soon. There will be a brief pause as Pritzker and Democrats scramble for their take of the largess. Many in Illinois will use this distraction as a good opportunity to leave before the next Democrat downturn.
If there is one thing you can count on in Illinois State government, it is no meaningful structural reform.
Debt is to Illinois as fentanyl is to an addict.
And Illinois is already slumbering in eternal rest. Wake up Illinois
Lard A** has his fat hand out. He knows not what he is doing other than he wants money.
What else the relief windfall does is chart an even smoother glidepath toward a second gubernatorial term for JB. Was that in doubt anyway, what with an unlimited war chest and a lack of emergent GOP candidates with bona fides and not easily characterized by the MSM as right wing social radicals? Probably not. But a looming dystopia…that would have been hard to run against. Now that’s likely off the table. For a little while at least.
Also allows him more time so that he doesn’t need to raise income taxes until after his election. After that, a flat tax increase for all or a progressive tax increase for the rich. Voters choice.
I would rather vote for Donald Duck or goofy before I ever cast a vote for Pritzker, he is not a leader he is a activist
Donald Duck or Goofy stand about the same chance of winning as any other Republican in the race. Unless the ILGOP can find another 1 million GOP voters or turn 500k Dem voters they will be in the minority. Again.
Which is why you can stay in Illinois and expect an ulcer or leave and finally sleep well at night.
There is a third way, and that is to rely on low Democrat turnout. Democrats are the definition of a low information and unreliable voter. Republicans have won the state before when Democrat turn out is low. The wildcard though is how many votes Cook County manufactures in the basement in the middle of night.
The silver lining is that the fraudulently obtained largess will provide a window for escape.
The money will come; it will be squandered on many of the usual dark holes of the Illinois political financial calculus. Some however will be applied in a manner that will kick the can down the road once again and in the blink of an eye we will back to where we are now. Meanwhile property taxes will continuing their rise and outward migration will not stop. Hopefully I am wrong but based upon my age I have seen many things happen in Illinois for the past 70 years and in my mind…nothing is going to change beyond an extension… Read more »
Wrong! Squandered 20 years ago.