-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Richie Miller gives the party line in this missive. The fact is Illinois is already flat broke, and it seems that nearly every agency of Illinois government spent like drunken sailors for the past five years and are simply reluctant to right-size their budgets. Chicago transit agencies are no different, except those agencies have fairly obvious customer totals that can be used to gauge their utility. Their customers are still not coming back, and probably will never return in the regular numbers seen in the early 2000’s. The ‘mass’ is missing from the ‘mass transit’ that JB the Hutt refers… Read more »
Big picture, ZERO discussion for returning CTA, PACE, METRA budgets back to pre ARPA-COVID levels? Ditto for rest of state & municipal budgets….. Now, will state cave to public sec unions “United We Move” bill which essentially calls for chump taxpayers to pick-up tab for larger % of non-fair total budget NO MATTER HOW EMPTY THE TRAINS & BUSES? And possible tax on driver mileage dedicated to transit???
All the crazy OT @ CTA, METRA & PACE is basically impossible to fix or outsource services with passage of Amendment 1. Every pol in Springfield and labor unions knows it. Ditto for all other 9,000 Illinois units of gov…taxpayer chumps are screwed as usual.
Hopefully, enacting a mileage tax while keeping the toll fees and the obscenely high gas tax will cause a nice spike in the exodus of residents from this mismanaged, taxpayer-abusive state.