-- 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
Mass transit offers the rider a seat in a disease incubator leaving from an inconvenient place, at an inconvenient time, from a questionable part of town. Only to be dropped off in another questionable area at an inconvenient time, in an inconvenient place. It’s worth remembering that the bullet train that derailed near Seattle on its maiden trip at high speed from Sacramento would have saved 15 minutes over the old slow train.
Exactly. If the left wants to keep us in constant pandemic fear then they have to realize that mass transit is not a desirable means of transportation, especially trains which rape massive amounts of land and take decades to build because train projects are just giant slush funds for environmental lawyers, unions milking the job, vote buying, etc. And after all that slush spending you get a dinky little train that few want to use where you cant park to use it.
Both comments 100% correct. Also, Chicago’s light rail mass transit from the suburbs is poorly designed, with every line being little more than a hub and spoke from downtown to some far flung suburb. I used to take the train pre pandemic and it took 35 minutes on a local train to get downtown. And when I got downtown, I was still 1.5 miles away from my destination. I had to take a bus 1.25 miles and walk a couple of blocks from that. The train stations (other than the millenium park station) are both in the west loop, west… Read more »