Скачать или смотреть Sprayregen: Restructuring Chicago’s & IL’s unfunded Pensions

March 5, 2025: Summary of a conversation with Jamie Sprayregen on how to restructure IL State and local retirement debt- Part 2
James Sprayregen, founder and leader for more than three decades of Kirkland & Ellis’ “Worldwide No. 1 law firm restructuring practice group,” and currently Chairman of Hilco Global, is an expert on saving private companies and government entities in overwhelming “Financial distress,” by re-structuring their liabilities- prior to or after they have filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
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Sprayregen, in Part 1 of his two part conversation with Public Affairs’ show host Jeff Berkowitz, focused on how to save Chicago, other IL cities and IL state government from their huge unfunded pension liabilities, totaling to about a quarter of a trillion dollars, and that discussion focused on the benefits to the cities and the state of the IL legislature passing legislation that enabled IL’s cities that had major problems with unfunded pension liabilities to file for bankruptcy. Sprayregen discussed how the power to file, without having to file for bankruptcy, might be sufficient to solve the city’s fiscal problems.
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Jamie Sprayregen describes what he does is help debtor corporations and other entities solve the problems of dealing with promises that can no longer be kept to makes payments in full.
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In Jamie’s hundreds of bankruptcies that he worked on, an approved plan to bring the debtor out of bankruptcy, operate the Debtor Company and make reduced payments to the creditors usually emerges, often after years of work and negotiation involving the Judge, the debtor, the creditor committees with input from consultants, experts and other witness testimony in court. Sprayregen explained during the show how much of this time, effort and expense can be avoided if stakeholders reach agreement prior to the debtor filing for bankruptcy.
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Part 2 of the two part conversation with Sprayregen focused on how best to deal with the almost quarter trillion dollars that IL’s cities and IL state government have in state and local retirement debt. As discussed in part 1, various civic leaders, politicians and citizens should work with the IL legislature to pass legislation enabling the cities to file for bankruptcy when needed to deal with their retirement debt, i.e., unfunded pension debt.
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But, neither the legislature nor Congress can give a State the power to file for bankruptcy. So, Illinois would need to pass an amendment to the IL Constitution that enabled IL to modify pension benefits. The procedures to pass such legislation are outlined in detail during Part 2 of the interview.
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Sprayregen also outlined how the Amendment to the Constitution, if passed, would provide a second powerful tool to those cities that have significant unfunded pensions. That is, the power to modify pension benefits.
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James Sprayregen emphasized if the IL legislature gives the cities and State Governments the tools that are needed for cities, counties and State Government to address their substantial retirement debt, by cutting pension benefits, these problems can be solved by strong civic and political leadership along with the development of thoughtful plans by those with substantial experience in these areas, but those involved, included the stakeholders, must get going on those projects sooner rather than later.
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