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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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Cook County judges are elected because their name appears on the ballot; but in reality, the slating goes on behind the scenes with Madigan at the helm. Slating has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with wooing the Democratic party. (https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/2019/how-to-become-a-cook-county-judge-one-key-step-woo-dem-party/) And even after a judge is elected, the choice courtrooms are doled out to the most favored and connected judges. A judge with no connections might get stuck in a small claims court at a suburban court house for years on end. A judge with connections will get a chancery or Law division courtroom in the… Read more »
Good comment, debtsor. My experience with my own attorneys is very judge-based. In other words, we don’t discuss the merits of the argument, but the merits of the judge. The risk of the case is whether the judge will actually apply the law as it is, versus allow some tangent to derail the legal process. Litigation is a quagmire here, and I have zero confidence that these guys/ladies are any better than the attorneys in front of them. It’s a crapshoot. With all that said, I have interacted with some great judges, who try to balance fairness with what is… Read more »
I think, a lot of times, the state court judges are lazy. Some of them graduated from, well, lower tier law schools, putting it nicely, and have a family history of politics. A judgeship is often more of a family guild than a competitive elected office. A judge in a courtroom has hundreds of cases many of them with complicated legal issues, often in areas of law they have no familiarity. Some of the judges will take on the challenge to learn the law and apply it effectively. I think they really do want to do the best. Others, well,… Read more »
We are 100% on the same page. I have a phrase that I use often, which is perhaps overly disparaging, but true in many cases: “Judges are just lazy lawyers.” I firmly believe that the only reason you would give up the pay and stress of good attorney work (not DUI’s and child support and collections, but really neat legal work involving cutting edge people) is because you’re tired of working and you want the guarantees and pension of a judgeship. Work/life balance. There actually isn’t anything wrong with that. A little prestige in telling everyone you are a judge,… Read more »
A few years back,I had an evening pre-trial on a tuesday with a judge in federal court, while during the day the judge was conducting a very famous trial. The judge said that he/she was going to work until 2:00 am that night to prepare for some motions up at 9:00 a.m. the next morning. Working until 2:00 a.m., in the middle of the week seemed pretty routine. Not all federal judges work that hard but it just shows the kind of people they try to appoint over there. Much different than the family guild in cook county.