-- 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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If you were a high schooler in 2020 or 2021 and were kept out of school and sports and treated like a prisoner while many other states (with lower covid deaths) were out and about – why would you ever come back?
The surge in violent crime is making the decision to leave Illinois easier for younger people. Particularly Asian people.
Pensions Paid First has assured us brain drain and people leaving is not a problem. So no worries, right?
the net loss of population during the past decade has been fairly insignificant in percentage terms as I recall it. But, we also know the income level of those who have left significantly exceeds the income of those entering during that period. That’s not a good omen. Put the past is not necessarily prologue either.
By any chance do you know how many people came to Illinois because of the sanctuary status? Many came from Mexico and Central America but they are for the most part not high wage earners. If I’m not mistaken they tend to have larger family units all living under one household so property taxes are spread out between most of them instead of having multiple homes.
No, I don’t. I believe the responses you and Riverbender have given are correct in a general sense but have no data on it.
Thank you!!
Many move to Illinois to participate in the State’s generous welfare systems. Many with jobs move out because they are tired of paying taxes to support the State’s generous welfare systems.
In the past two decades, the transformational change in the demographics of school aged children in this state has shocking. My own high school in less than two decades went from 80% white to 25%, and from 15% hispanic to 65%. This has occurred in districts all over the state. Even formerly wealthy districts like Palatine have exploded and half of all elementary school children get free lunch. You can look up the 5 year trends for any school in IL at Illinois report card with the state and it’s obvious that working and child age bearing natives are leaving,… Read more »
In my local downstate area assorted districts had become so filled with no cost lunches that they have simply let all students eat at no cost. I can’t give exact numbers but I know what i see any more than I can say the sky is blue, but I can’t prove it.
No different up in north east will county in my school district, my question is how many teachers and staff throughout the district are taking food home for themselves.
https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/library/libraries/pdfs/il-nslp-eligibility.pdf
Here’s a list of districts with free lunch eligibility. There’s some federal law that says if a certain % of kids are low income, the entire school gets free lunch.
As a small business owner that is on the verge of leaving, another factor is the cost of doing business including health premiums in cook county. After contacting our Dem “reps” about the suffocating costs of doing business here, they told me we should realize those costs were for the good of the other people in the area and we needed to share the burden And it is the line they give for everything. They know it is hard to transplant a business so they keep pushing. We are punished for being in the chicago area – insurers, taxing agencies,… Read more »