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
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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.
“The Welcoming City policy has been around for 40 years. We comply as a city with all laws, local, state and federal,” Mayor Cliff Notes said. That would be except for immigration law, WGN’s very own Jewell Hillery and BJ Lutz. “This budget amendment is a step in the right direction because it is the responsibility of our public school board to ensure that we are investing in the hopes and aspirations of our families in our public schools,” Mayor Cliff Notes said. Note to WGN’s very own Jewell Hillery and BJ Lutz: A chimpanzee can regurgitate talking points from… Read more »