-- 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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Illinois real estate are only ATM machines for all the local taxing bodies. Having the same amount of money elsewhere rather than real estate they could not touch any of it. With an expensive home or a lower price one you still get the exact same services (school-police-fire) but at a different cost to you. What if they charged more money for gas depending on the value of your car (Lexus vs Yugo) there would be outrage? This seems to be an asset tax or a net worth tax since real estate are most people’s largest asset. Last I checked… Read more »
I’m confused. The real property transfer tax is $5.25 per $500, not $3.75 (buyer/seller is responsible for $3.75/$1.50). If I’m the buyer, I’m having the seller either pick up this obscene transfer cost or asking for an equivalent reduction in the sales price. If the latter, the real estate agents stand to lose a few hundred dollars per transaction.
The execution of this is flawed anyway. It’s the amount properties are OVER $1 million that should be subject to the surcharge, not the total sale price. Otherwise, that $1 million sale pays $19,500 but the $999,999 sale pays $10,500.
Yup.
If these aldermen ever watched a Barrett Jackson auto auction, they’d understand that potential car buyers factor in the 10% bidder’s premium when they’re determining what to spend on a car. The 1965 Ford Mustang you just saw on TV that sold for $50,000 actually cost that buyer $55,000. OTD is what matters.
isn’t the cha/city already sitting on $10s of millions of section 8 vouchers that could be used to house the homeless? and astoundingly instead used some of the $ to pay off pensions in advance?
I’m waiting for Chicago to put up toll booths on sidewalks.