-- 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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Just as the article-writer Steve Cortes, I also grew up in Park Forest, class of ’73 Rich East. All the changes ( I go back ea 10 yrs for reunions) are shocking, mostly ruined by more and more govt, egregious prop taxes, overpaid, over-benefitted and overstaffed govt. The level of govt fiscal malfeasance described in the article is breathtaking. A pension of $300,000/yr to a 65-yr old woman, with annual COLA increases, would cost $6Million or $7M to buy from an insurance company to guarantee it.. And yet Democrats would call her a “public servant”. And ZERO students at Rich… Read more »
It’s all good to create more awareness of the absurdity of public employee compensation. But it’s all just talk, and endless complaining. Nothing will change, because the public unions have more than enough power to hold the status quo. Whether it is spending gobs of money to lie to the easily deceived public (who mostly see things through a lens of feelings and emotions), or to spend money to change the subject to social justice warrior issues, there isn’t enough political will in this state (or country) to change it. In short, they are more powerful than us, and it’s… Read more »
IE: It is not “just talking and complaining”. It is articles in the airwaves, internet and news-sites like RealClearPolitics, Wirepoints, WallStJournal, and it’s going more mainstream because it’s not possible for the SunTimes, Trib, NYTimes, WaPo to ignore forever. What else would you suggest? You’re right about the Dems’ power in ILL, and there is no solution. The money in the pension funds will run out, run dry, in 5-10 years and then bfts will HAVE to be cut and the plans will become Pay-As-You-Go, meaning annual cash contribs will immediately go out to the Retirees who won’t get their… Read more »
Their power results from being organized and their consequent ability to elect charlatans to office. That power is manifest in their ability to disrupt our lives. We (the taxpayers) seem too comfortable — parents don’t want to risk teacher strikes, for example. Higher property taxes for schools that provide “free babysitting” is something that they depend on. Nobody wants their kid to miss 6 months of school and delay graduation and college. We have to be willing to endure big-time disruption in order to regain some traction — cause them more misery than they are able to cause us. All… Read more »