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.
In Illinois, public sector employees don’t fret about the low level of assets in their plans because the State Constitution forbids benefit cuts, leaving the fund deficits to be made up by taxpayers.
Staggering, absolutely staggering. Good to see they include unfunded health care costs, unlike the city and state.