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.
This article seems to suggest that the market value of properties in Chicago has not appreciated over the time period measured or the property taxes in Chicago have sky rocketed as compared to suburban Cook County. Either reason is bad news for city dwellers. But, we already knew this.