Audio: Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon says Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades – Chicago’s Morning Answer
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
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.
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them.
Oh go ahead and vote yes. I’m sure those millionaires will sit still and take it. I’m sure it will have no effect on business in your state. I’m also sure that the definition of who is a millionaire will not change. Just as I am sure the money will absolutely be used to lower real estate taxes. Are you people really this dumb? Somebody who really believes this needs to respond. I need a laugh.
That’s the thing. The millionaires, mostly Democrats who believe Illinois is an amazing progressive utopia, they will take it. They’ll cope by saying “taxes buy civilization”. The real damage comes from growth of smaller businesses and the middle class that shrinks. California has the highest taxes in the country (state taxes) and it also has the most millionaires and produces more every day. But what it also has is extreme poverty everywhere, the highest poverty rate and the highest number of people in poverty. That’s what high taxes do. Same for NY state, which has high taxes and ultra-wealthy progressives… Read more »
I can tell you from direct experience that the Millionaires are not sitting still.
While anecdotal, I too was just in the home of legit bonafide ‘millionaire’ income family in my neighborhood on Thursday for Halloween (son’s friend’s dad, we get along over college football) and yes, while we spoke generally of leaving, there are no concrete plans if an extra 3.0% tax was enacted.
And again, I don’t care if mostly Democrat voting millionaires pay more tax. Not my problem.
Not your problem … yet.