-- 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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That comment was taken from quite awhile ago and maybe as much as 2-3 years ago. It hardly seems fair to charge Cullerton with making that statement at a time when the financial status of IL wasn’t even close to as bad as it is today. In short, it seems you’ve reached out somewhere in left field to make your point incorrectly implying that he made that statement far more recently.
Yes, he has backed off from that kind of talk lately. But where we are now is a straight line, predictable trajectory of where we were then. He has no excuse for not having acknowledged then what we and many other realists saw then.
Wire Points:
You should be leading the call to filing bankruptcy!
Please inform your readers that States are not able to file bankruptcy, until federal legislation passes allowing them to do so.
Come on, there’s no way in hell that the State of Illinois will ever be able to pay those ridiculous and obscene pensions.
It’s either bankruptcy, or Detroit II.
Take your pick.
I’ve been doing that so much I’m hoarse! I was on WTTW saying it’s inevitable for Chicago. I’ve written repeatedly that legislation for the state itself should be our number one priority: https://wirepoints.org/bankruptcy-code-improvements-should-now-be-illinois-imperative-wp-original/