-- 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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Come on, folks bankruptcy is the only option.
Yet the taxpayers who pay their property taxes year after year and within those taxes are pension payments which were diverted to other projects will still be on the hook. Misappropriation of taxpayer money should be illegal and probably is. Did the taxpayers ever get a pension holiday?
So Chicago is doing the exact same thing as Harvey, skimping on pension contributions, but made it legal. So technically, Chicago will end up being worse off than Harvey at some point because they are able to delay longer, only making the problem worse.
“Chicago, even though it shorted many of its pensions for years, is not headed toward a similar fate. It had state law changed to allow for pension holidays. Harvey and other towns didn’t. ”
There are hundreds once grand mansions for the super wealthy 1% in Detroit and Cleveland that were left abandoned and became worthless.