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 --
Among the new taxes being proposed include $1.7 billion excise tax on capital gains, an $840 million billionaire wealth tax, and $830 million to raise the corporate income tax in Illinois. At 9.5 percent, Illinois already has the third-highest corporate income tax rate in the country.
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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
34 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.
The goofy IL Dems will never learn. These tax increases will only further legitimize IL as The Incredible Shrinking State.
Newsflash – IL Democrats don’t care about you the citizen taxpayer, they are all about public unions, illegal aliens, and wokeness.
*** Isabel’s Top Picks *** * Capitol City Now | Legislative leaders eye budget: The above healdine is from Miller’s Capitofax(today) It makes no mention of the tax increases under proposal. I copy and pasted the data provided in this article (but from the WTOV source) Miller refuses to print it. Tried twice. Only goes to show how Leftist’s like Miller operate. He and the rest of them personify Bigotry- the refusal to be tolerant of other people’s views. That is what rational people face. A total shutdown of any news the liberal MSM does not want people to know… Read more »
SCF.
Spending cuts first.
I would support candidates that believed in that premise. Unfortunately, most voters want more free goodies.
When it comes to those unhappy about the pension issues I suggest they consider the actions of former Governors Thompson and Edgar regarding pensions and then recognize that they were both Republicans before finger pointing at the Democrats. Yes the democrats have their problems but, in Illinois, the Republicans are just as bad and possibly, even worse.
The Republicans saw the money flowing from public unions to Dems, and foolishly thought they could make a bid for union money and votes. They passed legislation to make the unions happy, expecting to sway the union votes. Thompson and Edgar counted on the code of honor among thieves. But there was no honor to be had, only thieves.
Love all the downvotes you received. Just goes to show that many comments here don’t like the truth when it stares them straight in their face. Don’t confuse them with the facts RB. GOP good and Dems bad. Anything else must be fake.
The cost of a public union utopia is very high. Nice to see these tax increases will only benefit a very small percentage of the population, and further hurt the vast majority.
Ever dollar of tax increase in taxes should only be allowed with 5 dollars cut in spending.
This can’t be true. It must be “fake” news. I’ve been told by several commenters here that it’s impossible to raise taxes any more because Illinois is already the highest taxed state in the union and taxpayers have nothing left to give. Nothing to see here. Taxes can’t go up any more.
I think the proper way to ask the question is whether tax increases at this point raise or lower revenue. Yes, they do in the short run, but it backfires in the longer run as more people and employers flee. That happens over a course of years.
That happened in a state out east, can’t remember which, and the lost so much money they repealed but they didn’t come back.
I’ve stated several times that Illinois has plenty of taxes left to be raised only to be told it can’t. You are discussing whether or not that is a good strategy “long-term”. Clearly Illinois can and will continue to raise taxes despite what many of your commenters believe. Oh, and yes, increasing taxes also increases revenue. I’ve stated many times that this will continue as long as revenue increases. You can make your claim that the increased revenue doesn’t keep up with the growth of other states but that assumes that not raising taxes would have kept those same individuals… Read more »
For all the truckloads of verbiage that have been spilled on this topic, I think the great economist Ernest Hemingway will be proven correct, although he only needed 3 sentences: How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
I believe that Illinois taxes can be raised to where they could actually become confiscatory. Should that occur I doubt Illinois voters would wake up. Quite frankly Illinois voters love spending and they deserve to be taxed for each and every spending program they have voted for.
Sure they can. Illinois leads the nation in outmigration too. More tax hikes without spending cuts will raise the numbers even higher. This leads to lower revenue (always far lower than the imbecile political animals predict taxes will confiscate). Leading to more financial distress. Leading to calls for more tax hikes.
Municipal bankruptcy is always looming over Illinois.
Not to worry though, PPF, the PBGC will step in and make sure that pensions are indeed paid first.
The PBGC won’t and doesn’t need to step in to make sure pensions are paid first. They have zero responsibility on the matter of public pensions. The US and state constitution provide all the protection for pensioners that they need.
Also, raising tax rates doesn’t always cause less revenue. The last income tax hike resulted in more tax revenue collected. You would have needed a massive population explosion to make up for that 65% tax increase. Sure a few people may have left over the tax increase but overall the state collects more revenue.
I love how you twisted what I said. I said that tax hikes never produce the money the political animals you love so much promise. The thieves confiscate more money from hapless taxpayers, yes. Never as much as promised.
The truly wealthy will abandon Illinois for a better run state. There are at least 20 to pick from, none of them run by the left.
I didn’t twist your words. You wrote it leads to lower revenue and then in parenthesis you put always far lower than predicted. I interpreted your sentence as you wrote it. Revenues would be lower and far lower than predicted. Why make that distinction in the parenthesis if you didn’t mean both of those things? Now you’re writing it without the first part and saying I’m twisting your words when it’s exactly what you wrote. If you didn’t want to state that revenue would be lower then don’t write that. If you want to state revenue will be lower than… Read more »
The never ending It’s ALWAYS a Revenue problem not a SPENDING problem is in full display. How do these creatures sleep at night?