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 --
The Illinois House passed a bill April 8 that would exempt teachers who take on extra classes and extracurricular work from a state pension penalty that has cost some school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. State Rep. Steve Reick sees the bill as chipping away at limitations placed on school districts to prevent salary spiking and out-of-control pension costs.
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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.
Do we really need the “extras” that these people provide or is this just another way for them to get extra money? Most are likely willing to get a pay boost if minimum effort is required. There are few metrics by which added value could be measured. The notion of doing something “extra” is a fiction. GETTING something extra for minimum effort is, of course, part of the nickel-&-dime schemes we see every day. Pay for attending useless meetings where lunch is provided (or a trip to a sunny resort in February) is just another perk for burnouts whose seniority… Read more »
Bombast seems the perfect description for you in that you are usually so quick and willing to be harshly judgmental as an outsider knowing very little of immediate consequence as a natural consequence. The world rarely needs more outside critics who speak without knowledge or hesitation, but I’m sure you feel free to elucidate further. God bless America, one of the few places where “everyman” is an expert.
Oh, the irony of your statement.
Instead of an ad hominem attack, why don’t you have the courage of your convictions and wordsmith a counterargument?
My hominy grits have spoken. Hominy times does it need repeating?
You have already exceeded your quota.
The P.T. pays homage to Barnum who knew that a sucker is born every minute. The circus came to Chicago and stayed.
Democrats buying votes from the teachers union that owns them.
exempting earnings from pension spiking penalties will just serve to further erode the TRS funded ratio which, as of 2025, was a paltry 48% as it merely shifts the financial burden from the local tax base to the perpetually underfunded state level.
Then the solution is to do what they do for fire and police OT. Those earnings do not count towards their pension calculation.