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.
IL boosters, like Pritzker, always like to say that “outstanding” health care in IL, with Northwestern, Rush, and U of C, make IL a destination state and an incentive for people to stay in IL. 22nd out of 50 isn’t saying much.