Category: Research

Red states, blue cities: Who’s to blame for America’s homicide crisis – Wirepoints Special Report

There’s a debate raging over who’s responsible for the surge in homicides and violent crime across the country, with some politicians and media blaming “red state” policies. But the problem with homicides is that it’s not a red vs. blue state debate, but rather a red vs. blue city one. And when you look at America’s homicide hotspots, the vast majority are run by blue leadership and have

Read More »

New IRS migration data: New York, California, Illinois are the nation’s big losers of people and their wealth, Florida, Texas the big winners – A Wirepoints 50-state survey

Illinois, New York and California continued their streak as the nation’s biggest losers of residents and their wealth to other states, according to a Wirepoints analysis of newly-released Internal Revenue Service migration data. Texas and Florida continued to be the nation’s big winners.

Read More »

Chicago, New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022 – A Wirepoints survey of America’s 75 largest cities

Chicago and New Orleans were the nation’s murder capitals in 2022. They’re just two of the local governments in America’s homicide hot-spots that continue to falter in their role as protectors of public safety more than two years removed from George Floyd’s murder and the covid pandemic. Chicago led the nation in total homicides with 697. New Orleans led the nation with a homicide rate of 74.3

Read More »

Thirty years of pain: Illinoisans suffer as property tax bills grow far faster than household incomes, home values – Wirepoints Special Report

Any way you cut them, the residential property taxes Illinoisans pay are punitive. As a share of household incomes, they’re up more than 60 percent compared to three decades ago. As a percentage of home values, Illinois property taxes are now the highest in the country. And as for their impact on house prices, property taxes have contributed to Illinois suffering the nation’s third-worst growth in home values over

Read More »

Communities in crisis: More than half of Illinois cities get “F” grades for local pensions – Wirepoints Special Report

Illinoisans are suffering from more than just the nation’s worst state-level pension mess. For most residents, another problem hits much closer to home: Illinois’ local pension crisis. Wirepoints has quantified the negative impact of local pension costs by examining the finances of Illinois municipalities from 2003 to 2019. While just seven of the 175 measured cities received an F grade in 2003, that number had grown to 102 cities by

Read More »

New poll details Chicagoans’ opinions about policing, race and Mayor Lightfoot’s performance – Wirepoints Special Report

While Chicagoans share many concerns over the city’s policing practices, 79% want the police to spend the same amount of time or more in their neighborhoods. That’s one of the key findings of a new Wirepoints/Real Clear Opinion Research poll that looked at a range of attitudes in Chicago on policing, race and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s performance.

Read More »

Solving Illinois’ Pension Problem | Part 4: A Solution for Illinois’ State Retirement Crisis

 

Wirepoints lays out a baseline restructuring for Illinois’ five state-run pension plans and the retiree health insurance plan for state workers. The plan significantly reduces Illinois’ retirement debts, helping Illinois escape its downward spiral. By reforming pensions, we can avoid tax hikes and reestablish a competitive level of services, tax rates and economic growth for Illinois.

Read More »

COVID-19 pushes nation’s weakest public pension plans closer to the brink: A 50-state survey – Wirepoints Special Report

 

The nation’s weakest public pension funds may soon be among the casualties of COVID-19. Many were facing insolvency even before the virus hit and the stock market meltdown will only accelerate their decline. In 2018, the most recent year with comparable nationwide data, some of those funds had assets equal to just a few years’ worth of benefit payouts.

Read More »

Illinois owes $68 billion in health benefits to government retirees. Politicians haven’t set aside a penny to pay for them – Wirepoints Special Report

Pensions get all the attention when it comes to Illinois’ collapsing finances. But there’s another government-worker benefit also wreaking fiscal havoc – free and heavily-subsidized health insurance for retired state workers, teachers and community college employees. Illinois owed more than $68 billion in retiree health benefits to state workers as of 2018.

Read More »

Why Chicago’s Lightfoot should push for a pension amendment, not tax hikes – Wirepoints Special Report

If reports of Lightfoot’s plans are true – that she wants to increase taxes and push debts off further into the future – then it’s clear she doesn’t intend to fix Chicago’s problems. If she did, she would instead push for an amendment to the Illinois Constitution’s pension protection clause and take a hard line on contract negotiations.

Read More »

Illinois’ other debt disaster: $73 billion in unfunded state retiree health insurance benefits – Wirepoints Special Report

Illinois’ $130 billion in official pension debt gets all the attention when it comes to Illinois’ collapsing finances. But there’s another government-worker benefit also wreaking fiscal havoc – free and heavily-subsidized retiree health insurance for state workers. Illinois owes another $73 billion in retiree health insurance debt and doesn’t have a single dime set aside to pay it.

Read More »

Overpromising has crippled public pensions: A 50-state survey – Wirepoints Special Report

Most reporting usually focuses on the underfunding of state plans and blames the crises on a lack of taxpayer dollars. But a Wirepoints analysis found that it’s the uncontrolled growth in pension promises that’s actually wreaking havoc on state budgets and taxpayers alike. Overpromising is the true cause of many state crises. Underfunding is often just a symptom of the underlying problem.

Read More »

Illinois state pensions: Overpromised, not underfunded – Wirepoints Special Report

 

Justice Alito wrote in the Janus vs. AFSCME decision that “Illinois’ pension funds are underfunded by $129 billion as a result of generous public-employee retirement packages. He’s right. Wirepoints found that Illinois promised pension benefits have grown 1,100 percent since 1987, multiple times more than the state budget, the economy and taxpayers ability to pay.

Read More »

Administrators over kids: Seven ways Illinois’ education bureaucracy siphons money from classrooms – Wirepoints Special Report

New Trier High School’s main campus

Listen to Illinois education officials’ demands for more money and it’s easy to believe Illinois grossly underspends on K-12 education. But the truth is Illinois already spends more on education than any other Midwest state. It’s just that much of the money is going to all the wrong places. Billions of dollars are being siphoned away from the state’s poorest districts by the state’s burgeoning education bureaucracy.

Read More »

Beyond Harvey: Many Illinois municipalities running out of options – Wirepoints Special Report

Wirepoints has performed an analysis of 180 Illinois cities with both a dedicated police and fire pension fund, examining their finances and their pensions. The findings, which will be released in a forthcoming paper, are alarming. Look at the numbers – at the collapsing funding ratios, broken budgets, and unsustainable tax burdens – and anyone can see that many cities aren’t far off from a breaking point.

Read More »

Why Rauner’s failures justify a reform agenda in Illinois

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s leadership failures have deflated the political pressure for reforms in Illinois. But his inability to change anything, ironically, only strengthens the case for structural reforms. The longer Illinois’ status quo policies remain in place, the more this state will continue to decline.

Read More »

Springfield fiddles while Illinois cities burn – Wirepoints Special Report

Special report: Decades of state mandates have pushed up costs, taxes and debts to unsustainable levels for many cities. They’re either at the brink of bankruptcy because of unfunded pensions or have lost people and businesses due to high taxes and fewer services. The most unfortunate cities, like Danville Illinois, are suffering from both.

Read More »