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Since the Cook County Board established the Land Bank Authority in January 2013 to redevelop abandoned and vacant properties in disinvested neighborhoods, it has seen its share of controversies, including insider deals and fraud by former staffers. But county officials claim the vast majority of projects have benefited homeowners, developers and communities in blighted areas of Chicago and nearby suburbs.
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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This seems to be one of if not the ONLY good thing county governance is doing, they clear all the legal BS so small developers can buy these properties free and clear otherwise the court costs would be too great to invest in these fixer abandoned uppers. Why they have that useless commie Preckwinkle up there when she has nothing to do this with this program I don’t understand. Well yes I do understand, that’s what commies do, take credit for things they didn’t create then wreck them. If I recall correctly this program is modeled after a successful land… Read more »
It’s absurd that County’s solution to its own broken tax system is to buy back the very house that lost for the taxes and then flip it like HGTV.
The cake is cut, the back slapping is over and the neighborhoods that became uninhabitable due to crime are now suddenly as safe as milk.