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.
This is nothing more than a union giveaway under the guise of bringing equity to the far south side. Or maybe a union giveaway in and of itself is equity. Biden rewards his supports and punishes his enemies moreso than any president in the history of the United States. He pushes for open borders for his voters, bails out Democrat donor banks, forgives student loans for democrat voters – double for blacks with student loans since the overwhelming majority of black borrowers received Pell Grants. Meanwhile, he punishes his enemies like vocal school board speakers, abortion protestors, forced vaccine shots… Read more »
Why not just burn the money in a bath tub?runthe redline down to Balmoral race track. Think of all the volume you’ll carry since they no longer host racing!
This is a classical IL scam. We lost our business property to the “Central Ave Corridor” project. Here is how it works. Create a really expensive project that has no chance of being funded. Keep in on the books as a phase 1 or planning stage. Lets you fund lots of small consulting projects, EPA reports and erases all the value of the property in the way. The property owners will not be able to sell at any decent value and no bank will lend on a possible state project. Next push up the property taxes on the effected properties… Read more »
Feeble minded Joe wants to piss away more taxpayer dollars as he virtue signals he way out. Pathetic.