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.
This shouldn’t be too hard to project. There are currently about 50 retirees in MEABF with pensions over $97,000 that, with 3% COLA’s, will top $100K next year. So you’re looking at a 20% increase next year.