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Comment: See our own article on this fishy proposal linked here.
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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.
With Discussion Beginning About Pension Buyout Program For Chicago, Beware of Baloney – Wirepoints
March 28, 2026
17 Comments
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.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago’s Fiscal Crisis Has Passed the Point of No Return, Bond Market Already Signaling Collapse
March 25, 2026
24 Comments
Full interview and summary linked here.
Reality will bite. If this trick saves $18M for the first year, i guess that is fine, if one is also willing to assess a price in terms of lack of flexibility as bond holders secure themselves evermore, making any turnaround in bankruptcy even harder. But $18M is a drop in the bucket as to the overall deficit, so even if the City can take a $200M liability decrease by including projected decreases in the future, it does nothing to close the very real cash deficit Chicago is facing. If anything, this announcement is agitprop, because one of the few… Read more »
One point I perhaps should have been clearer on: In these kinds of refundings, the city can get actually get a check in the current year for the present value of the future savings (as opposed to just saving the $18M in lower payments every year). I assume that is what the city is doing. Still, that’s a one-off payment that will have to be filled the following year, and the logic for doing it to fill a budget hole is obviously not there. If they do take a check up front and keep the maturities and regular payments the… Read more »