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In which I discuss some of the fiscal plans for Chicago of the new mayor Brandon Johnson and some of his political friends… and the constraints they will labor under: a population that has already shrunk and a significant revenue target that has already threatened to up stakes and move out of Illinois entirely.
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This is not a new issue.
When public pensions in the United States started, many were on a pay-as-they-go basis.
Then the Great Depression hit.
So people learned that pre-funding pensions might be a good idea.
But fully funding those pensions, even with very optimistic assumptions, has turned out to be...
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In this episode, I’m talking about the upcoming theme for posts this week: CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES…. for retirement policy. The big choices: retirement age, the shape of benefits (COLAs, taxable?, etc), and more… but there was a choice made before all these that influenced how all of these will turn out: total fertility rate.
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In this podcast episode: The long-time comptroller general of South Carolina was recently forced to resign due to a $3.5 billion cash balance error that accrued over a decade in accounting. How did this happen, and why didn’t this affect state budgets? What is the difference between budgets and financial reports?
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Congratulations to Paul Vallas on losing the election for mayor of Chicago:
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson was out Wednesday thanking voters and talking about his agenda and priorities for the city.
With 99% of precincts reporting, Johnson has 51% of the vote with 286,647 votes, with Vallas having 49% of the vote...
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Looking at an 2 April 2023 op-ed from the Wall Street Journal about public pension strain in “blue” cities and states. Note: “red” cities and states also have this problem, and they won’t fail within the time period when they’d supposedly get a bailout (next two years)
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Let us check in with France as it seems they’re on round 4 or 5 (for this season) of protesting raising the retirement age from 62 to the unconscionable decrepit age of 64 years.
WSJ: French Workers Hold Fresh Strikes Against Macron’s Pension Overhaul
Thousands of people went on...
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Back in January, I kicked off my Public Finance Spotlight series, highlighting Liz Farmer.
For this second edition, I want to highlight one of my premier data sources for public pensions analysis: the Public Plans Database.
You can see me highlighting the Public Plans...
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Yes, I’m bringing back Taxing Tuesday! (four weeks into 2023, but I’m bringing it back)
It may not be every week, but I saw a story, and I knew I had to bring it back.
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This is part of my 2023 public finance focus project.
I just paid for a subscription to Liz Farmer’s Long Story Short substack last week.
(Mea culpa — I should have done it earlier!)
She had posted 5 things I’ve learned after a...
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