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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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None of the noodles thrown at the wall seem to point to anything of value, at least the pieces of stuck pasta that are favored by the bureaucrats at Metra.
Service cuts are in order, followed by rationalization of plant and equipment. Cancelling the ridiculous, expensive Alstom railcar order should have happened yesterday. At least some of the ‘friends and family’ jobs need to go, despite the possible loss of support from the grifting political class.
Note that these geniuses only pick the sticky noodles that keep the gravy train going.
Chicago’s Public Transit Systems Are Failing And Obsolete — Riders Now Avoid Them Thanks To: (1) The Work From Home Shift; And (2) The Crime, Drugs, Filth, Chaos And Anti-Social Behavior That Now Prevails On Public Transit — But Transit Grifters Want To Tax Everything That Moves, To Prop Up This Dead Rotting Horse – Chicago Tribune
Metra is obsolete just like CTA — public transit is a failed paradigm
Metra exists to take people to/from downtown. That’s about it. I can’t go cross-town at all, and, there’s really only one or two stops I’d want to make on a Metra anyways between here and downtown…and it’s 5x easier and faster to just drive there instead, especially during cooler weather months.