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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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This later Miller column is a bit disingenuous. It talks about the state’s perceived lack of “higher education appropriations” lately but glosses over the #1 reason for this: Pensions. He states “State higher education appropriations peaked in fiscal 2002 at $2.4 billion” but fails to mention the state was only obliged to contribute only $300M to SURS back then (POB doesn’t count). This year, I think the pension contribution tops $1.7 billion. If you take into account ALL higher ed funding (operations, grants, pensions, etc), higher ed appropriations have tracked quite well with inflation, it’s just that pensions have consumed… Read more »
Mr. Miller, quite frankly, is a goof with a pen.
Takes shots at you on his site, blocks your response, then lets his lying followers spew away with total crap. Chicken shit and dishonest.
Mark – This goes back to how Miller is clever in manipulating the conversation. He’s so focused on the 2-to-1 funding ratio between lower and higher ed, which deflects from the main issue why funding for higher ed has lagged in general. And this question goes unasked: If the 2-1 ratio is so important, why not take a third of that $300M per year for “equity based funding” and pump it into higher ed? He kinda touches on that point, but more in the sense of a separate equity based funding for higher ed. Basically, his article is a marketing… Read more »
Miller is a serial spin artist for public unions. Particularly dishonest and chicken sh– the way he rigs his comment board.