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.
Here is the url to the seven page July 2020 IPPFA Pension Obligation Bonds information bulletin:
http://www.ippfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Pension-Obligation-Bond-IPPFA-Study.pdf
“Some local governments have turned to pension borrowing including the Chicago suburb of Berwyn, the Orland Fire District, Round Lake Park, Bedford Park, Winnebago County, Rantoul, Granite City and Milan have used POBs, but it’s not been widespread.”
not widespread, yet!