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.
While these politicians debate changes to expressways named after our newfound black heroes, the bodies continue to stack up and people flee the city as a result. Soon, the Buckners won’t have to worry about anyone using the new, improved pathways. Priorities people, priorities.