Neighbors who opposed the expansion questioned why TIF funds are needed to fund neighborhood improvements, parks and schools when they are already paying high property taxes.
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.
Your high property taxes by and large go to pay for the health care and pensions of alteady retired municipal workers.
That is the equity argument that will overturn the pension clause in the constitution. It’s not fair or equitable that primarily white Tier I pensioners are quite literally taking food, books and playground equipment away from young black and brown children.
I hope that doesn’t end up wishful thinking on your part, because you present a good argument for overturning the pension clause.