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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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.
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USPS hasn’t worked for decades. Civil servants with short careers and good salaries and platinum benefits have put that “enterprise” further in the hole. Amtrak likewise. Social Security gasping for breath. Amazon and UPS and FedEx and Uber worked reasonably well until government mandates held their collective heads under water because of politicians giving employees and contractors unreasonable expectations based on unsustainable economics. The loathesome capitalist patriarchy promotes risk and reward, but politicians inflame voters with one-sided sermons about taxing the rich (omitting reference to the entrepeneurs who have gone broke). Cave men of both genders [never >2] were able… Read more »
Downstate the Metro link has not been in place that long but has been riddled with crime including crime at its various stops. Those familiar avoid the Galleria since the Metro Link goes there. Just the other day someone was brutally beaten and the St Louis Post Dispatch didn’t even report it as it must not be news anymore. Plenty of Government money was sloshed around on it with the result of just more violent crime.
Welp, Metrolink is asking for more $$$ – the sheer sturpidity NEVER ends…!!! “Metro is the epitome of America’s transit systems today, which have forgotten their mission to improve urban mobility as they focus instead on new construction… That’s even more true since the pandemic, as downtown St. Louis’ recovery is ranked 51st among the nation’s 52 largest downtowns, with only San Francisco recovering less… Metro wants to spend more than a billion dollars building two more light-rail lines radiating away from downtown ” https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=21001 I Couldn’t Have Said It Better By The Antiplanner | June 2, 2023 | Transportation… Read more »
Like the further extension of the so-called ‘Debt Ceiling’ into the stratosphere postponing the inevitable financial collapse of the US, the drunken sailor distribution of Covid relief funds only delayed the inevitable collapse of the political patronage jobs program known as public transit in the US. You’d think that the concept of rideshare would be applauded by the skinny jean man bun types, but no, to these keyboard warriors all cars are evil. The loons currently advocate the destruction of reliable, cheap energy in the US to satisfy the religion of the Climate Clerics. Just wait until these same loons… Read more »
Government decision makers don’t take the bus.
We don’t want crime ridden government transportation and nothing is done to protect the innocent people using public transportation!
Public transit has had its day — remote work and the failure of Democrat cities has made transit obsolete
Government should stay out of it. Let the free market decide on allocation of capital.
Public transportation in Chicago is too dangerous for anyone but a criminal to ride on. That has been years in the making. No education, so only job skills are criminal. No law enforcement so why stop be a robber? This is not going to change for generations.
Most of the time if you ride it you are scared to death and will never ride it again.
I suppose government could lead by example. Start requiring ALL your workers back in the office five days a week. Realistically though the lockdowns broke a lot of things and just like Humpty Dumpty you can’t put them back together again.