Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer
April 22, 2026
No Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Said Chris Goodman, associate professor of public administration at Northern Illinois University. "It's hard for public-sector employers to compete with private-sector employers because a lot of the public-sector jobs are highly unionized, so it's hard to increase salary demands with those regulations." Roughly 13% of all state government jobs in Illinois are vacant, with significant holes in public safety and health care posts.
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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
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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
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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.
I find it hard to believe there is difficulty in hiring unless the criteria requires affirmative woke action meaning the average Illinoisian doesn’t meet eligibility
Not in the woke criteria then no job for you
There…fixed the criteria
Interesting how it all comes back to education. ISP is required a bachelors degree to submit a resume. Nursing four year bachelors degree. So how many times has WP reported on low scores when it comes to math, reading ,science. There are not qualified applicants out there. I have both in our family.
Just put in cardboard cut outs, they will do a much better job than a lazy government Lackie.
Well, the “can’t pay enough” argument is pretty much a red herring. State jobs typically come with a starting salary range that’s available to supervisors without having to change bargaining unit agreements. It’s agency directors and supervisors and Central Management Services who collaboratively control what wage within that range will be offered, and suffer from deciding to offer pay at the low end of the available starting-wage range. In my experience, the upper limits of the salary ranges available when hiring state employees are entirely competitive with the private sector for similar work – to say nothing of the fact… Read more »
You forgot MLK day and Juneteenth.
14 paid holidays – still including Columbus Day. Not a bad deal when you in include 10 to 25 days of paid vacation, 3 PTO days, 12 days of sick leave that roll over, 10 weeks of paid maternity “leave”.
Not that much of this matters, since the bargaining unit agreements protect public union employees from any prompt or appropriate actionable discipline as a consequence of them simply not showing up for work.
Wake up folks. It’s far, far worse than you think….
After Lightfoot and Pritzker destroyed employment contracts and goodwill with vaccine mandates, why would anyone want to work with them?
I’ll sign up for one of these jobs, but I have standards! Nothing less than110k, no work and no requirement to report anywhere.
If you can check a few of the right boxes on the application, you’ll get everything you asked for, otherwise no job for you!
This can’t be. You all told me that public sector workers are paid way more than the private sector and are all millionaires. If it’s so lucrative then why isn’t there a massive line competing for these jobs? It’s ok I forgive you. This problem can easily be fixed with more pay. Maybe they can sweeten that tier 2 pension as well? The next round of contract negotiations should be able to rectify this problem.
LOL, these are all self-caused harms, has very little to do with pay. According to the article, the two largest sectors with jobs hardest to fill are Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Corrections, and healthcare and nursing. Maybe if the state didn’t go full blown ACAB (all cops are ba****rds) while mandating repeated clot shots for government employees, they wouldn’t have such a hard time filling these positions. But our wonderful inclusive progressive utopia, by definition, excludes Deplorables, which means half the country is not interested in moving to IL to take these jobs, regardless of pay.… Read more »
Don’t forget the new gun ban legislation that purposely cleaves a divide between LEOs and the public! Who would want to be on the front lines of law enforcement after partisan politicians purposely disregarded public opinion and intend to benefit from the ensuing chaos?
LOL, these are all self-caused harms, has very little to do with pay.
According to the article, the two largest sectors with jobs hardest to fill are Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Corrections, and healthcare and nursing.
Maybe if the state didn’t go full blown anti-police while mandating repeated clot shots for government employees, they wouldn’t have such a hard time filling these positions.
But our wonderful inclusive progressive utopia, by definition, excludes Deplorables, which means half the country is not interested in moving to IL to take these jobs, regardless of pay.
This is what the voters wanted.
Must be over the target as some of you say. Prepare for the next round of contracts.