-- 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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I don’t want to add to the problem so I guess I’ll have to put my dream of living in Rockford on hold.
Homes values are still way below a comparable one in states or cities with much lower property taxes. The buyers will get quite the shock when get get the property tax bill especially after the quadrennial reassessment. Tax rates should go down with rising prices but they will never be lower than they are now because of Ptell but the percentage of taxes to home value may go down somewhat. A $300K home in Rockford pays about $11-12K in taxes depending on deductions.
Right. Someone would have to be quite naive to buy a house in Rockford without researching the obscenely high PT bill. Or, put another way, how could Rockford be a hot housing market when it has a four percent PT rate? The findings in this report don’t make sense.