-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority would be a major potential source of financing, because it funded construction of the current Sox home at Guaranteed Rate Field. But without a change in state law, the agency has only about $100 million in available funding, CEO Frank Bilecki said — not nearly enough for a development that could cost more than $1 billion.
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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sorry Jerry, we the people are taking a hard pass on another one of your boondoggles. No one would notice if the Sox left.
Let them go. There are plenty of places where an obese teacher can smuggle a gun in using her girth that then goes off and wounds someone and is then handed off. That scenario does have a distinctively South Side of Chicago feel to it, though.
So they are going to borrow taxpayer’s money and it will get paid back when taxpayers sign up for a streaming service or buy tickets to watch games. Sounds like a win win for the Sox and a lose lose for the taxpayers. What else would you expect in Illinois.
Anything but a nice, clean, safe place to see a winning team is to be expected in Chicago.
Must have missed something…why again do the WhiteSox need a new ballpark?