-- 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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It is not just that lawmakers overpromised it is also pension money was diverted over the years to either pay increases or political pet projects. When did the taxpayers not fulfill their obligations? Year after year taxpayers receive property tax bills and if not paid you lose your home to a tax sale. Within those tax bills are pension payments and in many school districts teachers have pension pickups in their contracts. So we taxpayers paid but the money was misappropriated to everything else under the sun but not to fund pensions and we are stuck with the bill again.… Read more »