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Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois, the biggest public pension in the state and one that's significantly underfunded, recorded the second-lowest investment returns of the past decade for its most recent fiscal year. The TRS annual return was 0.55 percent, after fees, for the year ended June 30. That’s down from 5.2 percent in gains for fiscal year 2019, and is the worst performance since 2010 with the exception of a .01 percent gain in 2016.
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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
24 Comments
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
2 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
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.
WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times falsely blame Texas Gov. Abbott for 2020 to 2024 surge in Chicago Latino HIV, AIDS infections – Wirepoints Quickpoint
March 31, 2026
11 Comments
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
Put half in an indexed stock fund and half in and indexed bond fund historically has outperformed assorted advisors at no cost.
However in Illinois the patronage employment system assures non competent individuals to run the pension systems at a great pay scale.
Those pathetic fools should buy some Lotto Tickets! Couldn’t do worse than the ‘connected’ money managers they hired for kickbacks. Or start paying the retirees with scrip. Redeemable at Madigan’s Company Store. It’s amazing what problems dishonest, stupid people can create. When checks bounce, things change. Get ready!
This is the flip side of the more well covered contribution issue that has not been adequately investigated. We understand that liabilities have massively outgrown contributions, but what role has poor after-fee performance over the last 20 years played in the massive deficits we have today? I’m sure even a cursory look will find (1) abnormally high allocations to politically-connected managers, followed predictably by (2) poor gross performance and (3) higher than market fees, combining to generate after-fee performance well below the benchmarks of other state funds.
I have said this many times before that someone should address pension management fees. How many billions in fees over the years have been spent with meager returns. How many more billions will be spent over the actuarial time frame? These fees are taken off the top. Hard to fully fund the pension funds with so many hands in the pot but taxpayers must have deep pockets. Ballotpedia has more detailed info but its 2012 data. Just search pension management fees. They show a comparison of fees and returns for all 50 states. Compare fees of Alabama to Illinois. Does… Read more »
Every sucker still working in Illinois pays the difference between what the pension fund earns and what it pays