-- 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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Coronavirus is gonna wreck havoc on Cook County’s budget too, as legions of uninsured patients with COPD and diabetes fill every hallway and broom closet with a bed. Maybe the county cigarette and soda taxes were a good idea.
Declaring the area as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants that will need public health care adds to the problem; amazingly the politicians that prescribe sanctuary status will get re-elected.
The beat goes on…
“Which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it.”
Captain, Cool Hand Luke
Toni P. regularly chastises local private hospitals for not treating uninsured patients for free. Considering that the county’s job is to provide healthcare for free (medicaid for all!), and even they can’t afford it, this is the best example of how socialized medicine is a failure.
And the tax break (which in theory lower costs of care for actual patients instead of uninsured charity care) quid pro quo will never be enough. The county will always ask for more, saying it’s never enough, it’s never enough. The hospital systems know this too.
Good article. Whenever I attend LA Philharmonic concerts, I always see the LA County Board of Supervisors in the program. I always wondered what they do. I assume they likewise operate the LA County General Hospital, the Dorothy Chandler Music Center, and anything with “county” in the title. Sheila Kuehl is a union supporter and former board member Zev Yaroslavsky was somebody who did worry about pension costs. I don’t know if the other board members are worried about unfunded pensions.