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.
Horrible
The powers that be just push ahead and screw over evil regular Chicagoans who want our lakefront free and open to the public as park space as the Daniel Burnhsm plan envisioned ….
Forever
Nice enough fellow from Minneapolis. Did a good job for the Vikings. But totally tone deaf on the politics in Springfield and Chicago. Not gonna’ happen on that schedule under any circumstances. And Aurora has no money, no infrastructure, and no way to put all the Chicago legislators on board for a move for the team out of Chicago. More noise and no progress for the Bears.