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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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Be wary of PTELL. When property values go up taxing bodies are limited to the 5% or 1/2 of inflation whichever is less but what is not fully disclosed is that when values go down they can exceed the 5% threshold. Any home or business that gets any tax incentive or reduction like an abatement everyone else’s tax rate goes up to compensate the loss of revenue. Under PTELL they can get what was LEVIED the year before not billed or collected and that’s why they can’t lose. Here in Rockford the tax rate a while back went up 8-11%… Read more »