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
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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.
It’s March, which means we are being subjected the dumbest annual study going about how well Chicago is doing.
Justices on Illinois’ top court ran a Star Chamber. They personally comprised a cancel mob and acted in blatant disregard of constitutional rights to due process and free speech.
The cancel mob lives on. The latest example is in Illinois courts. There, the mob could hardly have been more brazen, defrocking a judge for daring to write about one of their favorite weapons – “lawfare” – abuse of the legal system for political or social goals.
The train of abuses in Illinois when it comes to free speech — democracy’s essential, bedrock right — is now long.
Questions about free speech, taxation, and the direction of city policy took center stage as radio host Dan Proft spoke with Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints, during a wide-ranging discussion on the state of governance in Chicago and Illinois. 
At long last, scrutiny over taxpayer-funded NGOs is rapidly expanding. Illinois is in the crosshairs. The Department of Justice is looking.
On Thursday night, all four leading major Republicans candidates for governor — Rick Heidner, Darren Bailey, James Mendrick and Ted Dabrowski — in the Tazewell County Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Forum. The video is a bit blurry, but the whole program is 
JB Pritzker’s scheme to boost the Republican he though he could best most easily — Darren Bailey — worked beautifully four years ago, so he’s at it again.
The state’s mandatory, annual training for its workers demands obedience to the worst of DEI catechism not just on language, but on thoughts and conduct. All state employees are now subject to DEI social engineering that’s as dogmatic and extreme as ever. Disobey and you can be fired.
Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon joined Dan Proft to discuss what they described as a deepening crisis of accountability in Chicago and Cook County. 
Government dependence is no way to go through life. 
A blind man could see through it in a minute. The now infamous video posted by six members of Congress was a transparent attempt to condition Americans to believe the Trump Administration should be stopped through military intervention.
Almost as scandalous, not one Illinois news source reported the vote and no Illinois editorial has condemned the resolution’s opponents.
A turbulent week for Chicago’s finances is prompting fresh scrutiny of the city’s long-term fiscal health, as municipal bond buyers balked at a major refinancing deal and analysts drew parallels between Chicago’s structural problems and those now engulfing Germany.
Another page in the volume of illustrations of why Chicago is a “failed city state.”
Who better to figure out how put itself at the center of central planning subsidies than the Chinese Communist Party?
Get ready for a new line item on electricity bills across Illinois totaling at least $7 billion as the absurdity of Illinois green energy policy continues. And that’s just the start of a monstrous new law.
An under-reported part of the State of Illinois’ most recent bond is noteworthy. State pensions will get $186 million of the borrowed money. That’s important because the state’s unfunded pension liability will drop, thanks to the new money, but the state’s bonded debt will increase by the same principal amount.
The disappearance is in the state’s newly released financial report. Any questions? Never mind, because you won’t find explanations there, here or anywhere else, but read on.
Mark and Dan discussed the policy direction of the state and the political consequences, with Mark pointing out Pritzker’s administration has prioritized messaging over results, such as expanding access to financial aid for undocumented students and new requirements for mandatory mental health screenings in schools. Mark also criticized the lowering of statewide academic standards and ongoing financial mismanagement at Chicago schools.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 8/10/25
Ted was on with Dan Proft to talk about President Trump’s recent comments about potentially intervening in Chicago’s crime crisis, the unhelpful reactions from Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker, Ted’s call for “safe cities,” and more.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s push to implement leftist policies at the expense of everyday Illinoisans, why the state has created so few new private sector jobs, the damage government does by picking economic winners and losers, the worsening Chicago pension crisis, and more.
Illinois’ stagnant job growth, rising taxes, and cultural divisions took center stage as Dan Proft welcomed Ted to discuss the state’s economic challenges. “We don’t create jobs in Illinois,” Ted warned. “It’s dismal.” This lack of opportunity is fueling population loss, with residents and businesses choosing to relocate to states like Texas, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to talk about the new pension bill that will provide some Chicago police officers and firefighters with higher pensions but will ultimately cost the city billions. Plus, Ted tackles the Texas Democrat lawmakers who fled to Illinois in order to prevent an important vote on redistricting.
Illinois private sector job growth under Gov. Pritzker has been almost nonexistent, a fact that stands in stark contrast to his administration’s recent brag about record jobs numbers. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Illinois has created a meager 15,500 net new jobs since January of 2019. It’s the nation’s 4th-worst performance among the 50 states.
“An unfunded mandate foisted on the city.” A far cheaper and simpler solution was readily available.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about why Illinois is struggling against other states in every major financial, demographic and economic metric that matters, the dangerous intersection of Illinois’ sanctuary status and the SAFE-T Act, the problem that is Chicago’s pension crisis, and more.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is considering reenacting the city’s corporate head tax. The mayor calls it an “option” as the city deals with multiple years of billion-dollar budget deficits. His constant arguments for more tax hikes is a growth killer for a city that’s already suffering a lack of jobs and growth.
Mark joined Dan Proft to paint a grim picture of Illinois’ financial trajectory, focusing particularly on the state’s spiraling property taxes, unsustainable public spending, and a lack of political accountability.
When will politicians learn? How many times must the lesson be taught? Industrial central planning by government doesn’t work. Government is no good at picking winners and losers. Leave that to the private sector and let it bear the losses on bets that don’t pay off. Illinois, however, recently announced yet another subsidy for another Canadian electric bus company.
No, this isn’t about Obama’s alleged role in the “Russiagate” hoax, currently capturing the headlines. There’s much more that many probably don’t know about the Obama Administration, making a new, 25-minute documentary well worth your time.
Property tax hikes are about to pile up on Chicagoans. Everyday Chicagoans and businesses are being taxed out because government officials simply won’t stop spending.
The WSJ’s readers marvel at what possible strategy could motivate Springfield’s fiscal malpractice.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about why Illinois lawmakers don’t deserve their $100,000 salaries, why Illinois pensions are such an impossible-to-solve issue, the tax hikes that are coming due to Chicago’s billion-dollar deficits, the state’s big debts and big population losses, the SAFE-T Act’s failures, and much more.
Ted joined John Kass & Jeff Carlin to highlight how Governor JB Pritzker is delusional about Illinois’ status as an ‘economic powerhouse’ and to warn the voters of New York City about the perils of electing unserious socialists. Plus, Kasso offers a hat-tip to Indiana’s favorite relator, Gov. Pritzker.
Ted joined Dan Proft to dissect the mounting failures of big-government policy experiments in Illinois and beyond—zeroing in on city-run grocery stores, ballooning pension obligations, and the state’s persistent tax burdens.
In case you missed it, the Illinois General Assembly recently passed a bill full of pension sweeteners for Chicago police and firefighters hired after 2010. It’s a horrible idea that will only worsen the retirement security of Chicago’s police and firefighters and burden future Chicagoans with even more overwhelming tax hikes.
Gov. Pritzker is touting a new CNBC business ranking – America’s Top States for Business – that puts Illinois at 13th-best for business in 2025. The media company’s findings run in total contrast with what Illinoisans and businesses have to live under.
Mark joined Dan Proft to discuss why Illinois lawmakers may soon face renewed pressure to embrace school choice thanks to a provision tucked into the federal tax package known as the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill’s opt-in structure for a new K–12 scholarship tax credit could force Illinois politicians to take a clear stand on the issue.
To the already long list of reasons to stop this project, add these.
“Counting on innumeracy.” Maybe that should be his campaign motto.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s move leftward in order for him to have any chance in the Democrat presidential primary, why Illinois is losing so many of its young people, the recent victory of Effingham taxpayers, and more.
Ted joined Chicago Tonight to discuss the impact the federal government’s Big, Beautiful Bill will have on Medicaid in Illinois. “When you have 25% of your population on something like this, something’s not good in the economy,” Ted told them. “Since Gov. Pritzker took over, we’ve had the fourth-worst economy in the country…Medicaid should be returned to its original mission: caring for the disabled, truly poor and seriously ill.”
Ted joined Dan Proft to discuss the growing alignment between far-left political agendas in cities like New York and the policies already being enacted in Chicago and Illinois under Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker. They also talked about the mounting costs of the Chicago Teachers Union contract and the deep crisis the city’s pension funds are in.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ data on Chicago’s pension crisis – the worst among big cities – in its editorial decrying the city police and fire pension sweetener bill awaiting Gov. Pritzker’s signature.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to talk about two stories of Illinois taxpayers pushing back against government efforts to raise taxes even higher. In Effingham, citizens rallied to stop their school district from irresponsibly borrowing money without a voter referendum. Meanwhile in Manteno, the ‘big, beautiful bill’ is preventing the federal government from subsidizing the Chinese electric-vehicle battery manufacturing company Gotion. Manteno residents have fought hard against Gotion.
We didn’t opine on the nearly $5,000 raise lawmakers gave themselves at the time they passed their record-sized 
Think what you want about the rest of the “Big Beautiful Bill” now heading for President Trump’s signature, but part of it is a triumph for sure: Federal taxpayers won’t pay the $6.5 billion subsidy to Gotion for its battery plant in Manteno, Illinois.
Sen. Dick Durbin opposes a new federal program that would deliver school choice to students in all 50 states, called the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). The program, supported by the President and Republican majorities, is part of the proposed budget omnibus currency being negotiated by Congress.
In the dark of night during the recent state budget negotiations, Illinois’ General Assembly passed legislation to sweeten the Tier 2 pensions of Chicago police and firemen. If Gov. Pritzker signs the bill, it will be another blow to police and firemens’ retirement security. For taxpayers, it will mean even higher property taxes.
A review of U.S. Census population data since 2020 reveals a perfect demographic storm that’s likely to worsen Illinois’ downward spiral. Illinois has experienced the worst collapse in youth aged 18 and under; the 6th-worst drop in working age residents; and a jump in the elderly’s share of population. All three foreshadow a vicious cycle of higher taxes and taxpayer flight.
If you’re a regular driver on Chicago area expressways, you already know about this problem: Superspeeders, as we should call them.
Ted joined Amy Jacobson and Jim Iuorio to sound the alarm on the latest economic developments in Illinois—warning that recent wage mandates and tax policies may deepen the state’s financial and civic challenges.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to talk about IL House Bill 4582, which removes an automatic referendum requirement for building projects that increase Pre-K or kindergarten classroom space, and how it stands to balloon school district debt.
Chicago is not as bad off as New York was in 1975, you might think, even if Mayor Johnson has proven more incompetent than anyone expected. Can Chicago’s current and future leadership learn anything from the 1975 rescue of New York City?
Kudos to Effingham voters for getting in front of a bad law that disenfranchises Illinois taxpayers. Signed in September 2024 by Gov. Pritzker, the new law makes it tougher for voters to stop their school districts from borrowing money. The law should be repealed.
More headaches for housing providers mean less housing and higher rents — a plain fact our politicians don’t understand.
Senators Durbin, Duckworth and Rep. Krishnamoorthi, do the right thing: Speak up publicly in support of the No Gotion provision. Make it a part of the final Senate bill. Spare taxpayers from this harebrained misadventure in central planning.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about the circus that was Gov. Pritzker’s congressional testimony, how much Illinoisans are paying for illegal immigrants, why our political leaders prioritize illegals over citizens, Illinois’ continued loss of population and competitiveness, and more.
Whether they’re doing it on purpose or out of just plain ineptitude, Illinois’ political leaders have been slowly destroying this state. What we’re talking about is all the wealth the state is giving up by pushing wealthier taxpayers out and inviting less wealthy people in. Not to mention the flood of illegal immigrants that have been “welcomed” to Illinois, many fully dependent on the state.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to highlight the longstanding dysfunction in Chicago Public Schools and Illinois state finances – namely, that many schools are nearly empty but remain open at massive cost to taxpayers. They also touched on Illinois’ broader economic challenges, including business flight and stagnant job creation, such as Japanese robotics firm Yaskawa’s decision to leave Waukegan for Wisconsin.
The economic consequences of Illinois’ spending on illegal immigrants are real. Everyone gets hurt by the higher taxes that spending billions more imposes. But there’s much more to the migrant problem than that. If Wirepoints had been at Gov. Pritzker’s congressional testimony, here are six questions we would have asked him to answer.
Krishnamoorthi bastardized his segment of the hearing with one of the most partisan, denialist, irrelevant and dishonest performances in memory.
It’s in the nation’s best interest for any burning, looting and murder, like what overtook the country in 2020, be nipped in the bud. 
As violent unrest in Los Angeles dominates headlines and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker prepares to testify before Congress on immigration policy, Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the state of public safety, fiscal policy, and Illinois’s growing economic flight.
Illinois has a millionaire problem. A Wirepoints review of IRS tax filing data shows Illinois has suffered the nation’s 5th-worst growth of millionaire taxpayers over the 2010-2022 period. Blame the Rust Belt if you want, but every one of Illinois’ neighbors grew their count of millionaire earners by far more than Illinois did.
Add one more state to the wave of Universal School Choice overtaking the country. This time the expansion is in New Hampshire. 
Sometimes you can only wonder how distant the planet is on which our most of our lawmakers live. How can they say things so preposterous?
It’s rare for common sense to win out when talking about Illinois state budgets, but here’s the story of one lawmaker’s idea that came out on top. It’s the simplicity of the idea that makes it special. Not only has it helped Illinoisans avoid billions in unnecessary pension increases, it also preempts a potential issue with the IRS.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about why every level of government is scrambling to pass nickel-and-dime taxes, the good news about the Tier 2 pension sweeteners failing to pass, the bloat and inefficiencies of Illinois government, the nonsense of fund-sweeps, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to push back hard against the whitewashing of Madigan’s legacy. They discussed the state’s new 2026 budget and why it’s a bad deal for Illinoisans and talked about how disastrous it would be if Illinois-style governance was exported nationwide.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the details of the state’s newly-passed $55.2 billion 2026 budget, why the good intentions of state lawmakers never pan out for Illinois residents and that, in fact, politicians’ policies make Illinois an extreme national outlier across almost all the metrics that matter.
Ted joined the Ray Stevens Show to talk about the latest crime statistics for Chicago and explained that while the numbers look good, the Johnson administration doesn’t deserve to take the credit for a national trend.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the economic stagnation occurring in Illinois, why the state budget could result in higher taxes, how badly the bill sweetening pensions for government workers will hurt ordinary Illinoisans, how lawmakers plan to make themselves look better by lowering education standards, and more.
More pension sweeteners for government workers. Worth billions. That’s what some Illinois lawmakers want to squeeze into the state budget negotiations this week just as their session comes to an end. Sweetening pensions – lower retirement age, bigger pensions and bigger colas – is, of course, the exact opposite of what lawmakers should be doing.
The fund provides relief for just one-one hundredth of one percent of residential taxes paid in the county. Thanks for nothing.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the eye-popping cost of so-called “affordable housing” developments in Chicago, the welcome but belated decline in violent crime in the city, and more.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is celebrating a drop in crime in Chicago. Murders are down 22% in 2025 over the same period last year, and so is overall violent crime. The drop can’t be ignored. But can Johnson credibly make the claim that his “investments” in people is the reason why? Or is it that Chicago is just riding the national wave – almost a year late – finally catching up with the rest of the country’s massive 
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of how Chicago is delivering poor results to its black residents in its piece describing Mayor Johnson’s hiring practices and how they led to a DOJ investigation.
Ted joined the Ray Stevens Show to talk about why business owners avoid expanding into Illinois, why the state’s dismal economic policies are causing areas around the state to decline, the potential for lawmakers to impose even higher taxes this year, and more.
Wirepoints joined Americans for Prosperity and the Illinois Policy Institute for a roundtable discussion on the proposed tier 2 pension sweetener legislation.
Join Americans for Prosperity, the Illinois Policy Institute, and Wirepoints today for a roundtable discussion on the proposed tier 2 pension sweetener legislation. Panelists will go over the history of the need for tier 2 and tier 1, why the discussions are happening, and what the implications will be for taxpayers if lawmakers do ‘sweeten’ public sector pensions.
There’s a big push in the state education bureaucracy to lower the school reading standards that determine whether a child in Illinois is considered proficient in reading and math or not. If lowering standards makes no sense to you, you are right to be confused. Lower standards will do nothing to help Illinois kids become more proficient in reading. In fact, it will likely make things worse.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Mayor Johnson’s racial rhetoric, the DOJ’s warning letter, the broader political and economic decay throughout Illinois, and more.
Economic growth in Illinois’ metro areas has been sucking wind for a long time. Start with Bloomington, which suffered the worst GDP performance of any metro area in the nation between 2019 and 2023. With a drop of 17% in real economic output, it’s dead last among the 384 metro areas the federal government tracks.
Ted appeared on Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson to discuss Chicago’s financial problems, much of which stems from burdening Chicagoans with the worst local pension crisis in the nation.
The question is, can we say “Chicago finally growing again,” like Crain’s Chicago just did in its coverage of the census numbers? Is that two-year growth a pattern that can be sustained?
Mark joined Jeff Daly to talk about the demise of Lion Electric, the general decline of the green energy and EV market, the scandals that Chinese company Fuyao Glass has been involved in, and more.
A group of union-dominated states – including California, New York, Oregon, Colorado and Illinois – are opposed to any form of school choice. Now the feds may deliver school choice to those states anyway via the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA).
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the DOGE-like project taking place in Illinois, why Chicago’s policies are harming the city’s black community, the chance for change at the CTU, the nonsense of Chicago’s green social housing, and more.
Gov. Pritzker claims Democrats cut taxes for everyday people. What tax cuts? Illinoisans are paying the nation’s highest property taxes, the 2nd-highest gas taxes and the highest cell phone taxes. Where are the tax cuts for everyday Illinoisans, Gov. Pritzker?
While Bally’s explicit racism was clearly unconstitutional, it wasn’t what really bothered us about its securities offering. What really got us was that it was sold by Chicago officials as an opportunity for them to build “generational wealth” and was a “benefit to the black community.” Hogwash. The offering is complex and risky as hell, from everything we can calculate.
Ted joined the Ray Stevens Show to talk about why Illinoisans are paying some of the nation’s highest taxes, why the state’s gas taxes continue to grow, why Illinois was at the financial brink in 2019, the chance of lawmakers passing a drive-by-mile tax, and more.
Silence about Fuyao from Governor Pritzker and other state officials is telling us something.
Politicians have made a mess of opportunities for blacks in Chicago. In preparation for my 
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the potential payroll tax and mileage tax being considered in Springfield, why Illinois’ property tax system is so messed up, the latest on the lawsuit regarding Bally’s public offering, the good news of Texas passing universal school choice, and more.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about Texas’ adoption of universal school choice, why the public sector unions are so against choice, why pressure needs to be brought to bear on lawmakers, why Illinois has such high gas taxes, and more.
“A predatory move targeting vulnerable, disadvantaged communities, masked as a pathway to generational wealth.”
In what should create envy in many Illinois parents – especially those with children trapped in schools where not a single student can read at grade level – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed on Saturday the nation’s largest day-one school choice program into law.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Illinois’ high gas prices, the cripplingly high property taxes Illinoisans face across the state, the chance of Gov. Pritzker running for president, the dozens of zero-proficiency schools in Illinois, the lack of homes being built in this state, and more.
Ted joined Chicago Tonight to discuss the state’s looming budget deficit and the desire of many advocacy orgs to increase spending on specific groups. Ted said: “Now if they want more tax hikes, that’s a big problem and it’s always the little guy that loses when these tax hikes come up… if you try to make the rich pay for them, it hurts jobs and job creation. It chases wealthy people away from the 
Ted joined Ray and Nick to talk about the shocking numbers of children in Illinois schools that are not meeting math and reading standards and how this trend will greatly diminish their quality of life. Like at Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, where not a single one of its 366 students can do math at grade level.
Illinoisans are paying West Coast gas prices for the pleasure of living in the Midwest. The latest data from AAA shows Illinoisans pay an average of $3.41 per gallon of gas, the nation’s 7th-highest price and the highest east of the Rockies. The six states with higher gas prices are all on the West Coast.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the 80 schools in Illinois where not a single student is proficient in math, why so much of public education has turned into a daycare center, the failures of Chicago’s charter schools, why homes aren’t being built in Illinois, and more.
It’s time for an update on Illinois’ educational failures with the state’s 2024 Report Card data available. In 2024, there were 80 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 24 where no student tested proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students.
Illinois lawmakers continue to complain about the lack of housing, but it’s their failed policies have made Illinois a national outlier. Just 44,600 new housing units have been built since 2020 – an increase in the housing stock of less than 1%. That makes Illinois 49th in the nation when it comes to building new homes.
Ted joined NewsTalkSTL’s Mike Ferguson to discuss Sen. Dick Durbin’s decision to not run for reelection, the long list of people that could replace him, why it’s unlikely anything will change in Illinois even with Durbin’s departure, what it means for Illinois’ influence in Washington, and more.
Mark joined Dan and Amy to talk about the new data showing that Illinoisans are paying the nation’s highest property taxes, why the math in Illinois will eventually fail, what the market turmoil means for Chicago’s near-broke pension funds, the fact that Illinois is a jobs and economic failure, and more.
The new “record” number of 6,172,300 jobs means almost nothing. It was 6,137,700 in 2019 and 6,056,500 all the way back in 2000. So, Illinois has had essentially no growth in six years and not much in 25 years. Perhaps more distressing, recent job growth has been entirely government jobs.
It should be an embarrassment for every one of our legislators and government leaders. The latest report from ATTOM Data Solutions shows that Illinois’ counties and metro areas dominate the list of the nation’s highest property tax rates. Illinois has 27 of the nation’s top 50 counties for highest property tax rates. And five of Illinois’ metro areas are in the nation’s top 10, including the four highest in the country.
End work from home? Cut overtime? For government workers? We don’t hear those kinds of demands very often from Illinois politicians. Yet that’s what State Sen. Ram Villivalam and State Rep. Marty Moylan are calling for. But don’t get too excited.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about how the 2026 state budget deficit is growing behind the scenes, why government estimates are oftentimes very wrong, the impact Trump’s tariffs could have on Illinois farmers, the potential for Gov. Pritzker to testify about Illinois’ sanctuary status, and more.
Ted joined Shaun Thompson to talk about the two classes of workers that exist in Illinois: public workers and the private workers who pay for them, how Illinois became a net taker from the federal government, why Chicago pension funds are nearly broke, why gerrymandering has led to downstaters having no representation, and much more.
Chicago’s pension plans avoided a reckoning in 2020 after federal covid aid helped the city avoid a fiscal collapse. But reality is back and the financial market’s volatility is a reminder of just how delicate the situation is. The market’s drop this year alone has cost the city an estimated $1 billion-plus in mark-to-market losses, a big deal for a city that already has a $53 billion funding hole.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about why the strong economic growth of its neighbors means there’s still hope for Illinois, why lawmakers should demand efficiencies from Chicago’s transit agencies instead of raising taxes, why it’s good news that Texas is going to enact universal school choice, the attack on homeschooling by Illinois lawmakers, and more.
CTA and Metra say they’re on the precipice of a fiscal cliff and yet nobody seems to be asking the obvious question. With ridership still at 60% to 70% of their pre-covid levels, why are they operating their trains and buses as if it were 2019?
Ted joined Chris and Amy to discuss the details of the preliminary CPS teachers contract and the negative consequences it will have for Chicago, the continued expansion of school choice across the nation, why Chicago’s homicide decline isn’t impressive, why Brandon Johnson is such a failure, and more.
With new power in village government, Gotion opponents are dedicated to killing the project. And the biggest Gotion opponent of all is Mr. Market, who is killing off EV demand.
Ted joined Ray and Nick to talk about the universal school choice program that Texas is about to pass, why school choice is spreading so rapidly across the country, why Illinois lawmakers are trying to take over homeschooling, the details of the new CPS teachers contract, and more.
There’s a narrative out there among politicians and the media that’s promoting Chicago’s recent drop in homicides. Yes, everything else equal, Chicago’s drop in murders since its peak in 2021 is a good thing. But our pols and the media continue ignore the broader context.
Berkowitz discusses with Truth in Accounting’s Weinberg whether the SEC could prosecute IL again in the future based on what Pritzker has been saying now in terms of deceptive fiscal policy statements and misrepresentations regarding balanced budgets.
One of the biggest cons the CTU and CPS continue to pull off is convincing Chicagoans that the two are adversaries. After lots of supposed acrimony, they’ve just agreed to a preliminary teachers contract. The result is a win-win for them. Meanwhile, Chicagoans get stuck with the bill and the city digs a deeper financial hole for itself.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of Chicago Public Schools’ declining enrollment as part of its critique of the district’s new preliminary teachers contract. As the board says: The union still got its money, but as usual the losers are the students.
Illinois continues to suck wind at creating economic growth, wage gains and job creation, according to new 2024 economic data released late last week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. It’s a sad pattern that’s been true since before the pandemic.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to discuss the anti-homeschooling bill making its way through the legislature, why Illinois school superintendents are paid massive sums to manage failing districts, the additional millions in pension benefits they get when they retire, and more.
The Chicago Tribune cited Wirepoints’ research on superintendent salaries to decry the disconnect between the compensation that top school district administrators receive from taxpayers versus the actual reading and math outcomes in their districts.
Ted joined Fox News to explain why Chicago has been the nation’s murder capital for 13 years straight. The reasons are many. Start with demoralized, restricted police. Add a 1 in 20 arrest rate. Add unreported crime. Add a dismal 911 response rate. Then add city leadership that’s soft on crime. All that equals a near-zero chance of criminals ever getting punished. And so the bloodshed continues.
Ed Bachrach of the Center for Pension Integrity and Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski wrote a new Tribune OpEd covering the latest attempt by state lawmakers to sweeten the pension benefits of Tier 2 public employees. They warn that hiking pensions benefits – and hiding the costs using funding ramps – will lead to intergenerational inequity.
Lawmakers won’t pursue the structural reforms needed to fix CPS, so the only real short-term fix is to cut the district’s ballooning costs. Like shuttering the district’s dozens of near-empty schools. Or rolling back the massive increase in non-teacher staff hired during covid. Or holding the line on teacher salaries, which are now among the highest in the country.
The Lansing Journal reports that Dolton School District Superintendent Kevin J. Nohelty is set to receive a salary of $480,000.
No state has ever been this tardy. Illinois lawmakers are now preparing the state’s 2026 budget, to be finalized in May. They are doing so blind to essential information they should be considering.
“Trial lawyers, not taxpayers or businesses, call the shots.”
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk all about the anti-homeschooling bill making its way through the legislature, the hypocrisy involved with the bill, why lawmakers should focus on fixing the failures of public education, the trans agenda making its way through schools, and more.
Illinois politicians’ latest attempt to impose their will on homeschooling took one case of parental neglect and twisted it, expanded on it, and turned it into an indictment of homeschooling in general. But if you know anything about Illinois’ public education system, you’ll recognize the rank hypocrisy immediately. Illinois schools are full of truancy, abuse, educational neglect and poor accountability. Yet lawmakers do little to nothing about that.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the terrible state of criminal justice in Chicago, the fact that private sector job creation has worsened under Gov. Pritzker, the latest unaffordable demands of the CTU, the massive amount of money spent on K-12 education, and more.
The BLS just released its finalized employment numbers for 2024 so we can now do a full review of job creation under Gov. Pritzker since 2019. Illinois had fewer private sector jobs over the period, losing a total of 1,900 total jobs. It was the nation’s 5th-worst performance. Compare that to the net new private sector jobs created in Texas: 1.2 million.
For anybody seriously interested in the financial plight of Illinois, Chicago and many of the state’s other municipalities, the two-part interview of 
Illinois lawmakers are planning to sweeten the pension benefits of government workers yet again. Not only will this balloon the state’s already massive debts, but it will also hit taxpayers right in their wallets. Join Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau and Breakthrough Ideas’ Jeanne Ives for a special Facebook Live event all about Illinois’ pension crisis and how it impacts ordinary Illinoisans.
Too many Illinoisans have yet to connect the dots between their outrageous property taxes and the huge amount of money politicians keep pouring into K-12 education. In 2000, the state was spending $16.2 billion overall. If that had grown at the pace of inflation, today the total would be $29.5 billion. But the real number is far higher: $43.9 billion.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss Illinoisans’ nation’s-worst tax burden, the fact that Chicago had the nation’s most murders for the 13th year in a row, the need for an Illinois DOGE, why the federal government should stay away from the state’s own failures, the transgender ideology that continues to be promoted in elementary schools, and more.
Chicago was once again the nation’s homicide capital in 2024 with 573 murders – the 13th year in a row that the Windy City has suffered more murders than anywhere else in the country. 
Ted joined Jeff Daly for a special can’t-miss, in-studio interview about the dismal state of education in Decatur and across Illinois, what an Illinois DOGE could and should do for taxpayers, what Illinois’ future looks like unless school choice is implemented, and more.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to talk about former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent comments attacking the direction of the Democrat Party and his possible return to local politics. Plus, Ted shares his take on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s visit to Capitol Hill to defend Chicago’s “sanctuary city” status.
Ask the CTU for a bit of efficiency, like shuttering the district’s nearly empty, failing schools, and all hell breaks loose. Overall, one-third of schools at CPS are half empty or worse, according to the latest 2025 district space utilization report. Closing many of those schools could save taxpayers hundreds of millions a year and give kids a chance to attend more functional schools.
Ted joined Chicago Tonight to talk about the Congressional House Republicans’ proposal to slow the increase in federal Medicaid spending by $880 billion over the next decade. Ted warned that we need to take a serious look at the program; that it’s been turned into an entitlement for the middle class instead of remaining focused on the poor and needy. And that’s driven state enrollment – and spending – to unsustainable levels.
The League of Women Voters long ago threw away its place as a neutral arbiter of issues and elections. Today, it’s a leading voice of the far left — a shrill, intolerant part of the cancel culture.
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher recently, insisting that the nation’s mayors must focus on delivering “safe streets, strong schools, and stable finances.” Its a bit odd coming from him, as the record shows Emanuel accomplished none of that while running Chicago.
Some readers here asked if those responsible could face criminal prosecution. Probably not, but the sentiment is entirely understandable.
No white males are allowed to purchase shares in the offering.
Illinois politicians are once again touting a “balanced” budget. One problem. Calling the budget “balanced” completely ignores the fact that Illinois is underpaying its pension funds by the billions – same as it has every year for a long time.
There were two big takeaways from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 state of the state and budget address. First was Pritzker’s use of the speech to frame Trump and, by extension, his 70 million-plus supporters, as Nazis. The second big takeaway is how wide the gap has gotten between what the governor says he’s done for Illinois versus reality on the ground.
Good recent news if you are a homeowner, but not if you are a first-time buyer.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss Illinois’ overspending on education, why the state would have to break its two-class system to cut property taxes, the rock-bottom popularity of Mayor Brandon Johnson, the country’s desperate need for skilled trade-based jobs, the power of schools like Chicago Hope Academy, and more.
“What transpired in this affluent Chicago suburb was a canary in the coal mine” for opposition to radical indoctrination in schools. The canary lived. Let the bookends be February 28 2017 and 2025 on DEI’s era, and let the pages from that time gather dust.
Ted joined Andrea Darlas to break down Governor Pritzker’s proposed 2026 state budget, Pritzker’s divisive language, and why his speech is merely window dressing for a rumored run for the White House.
Pritzker’s grossly inflammatory and irresponsible insults will help nobody. Not him, his faction of the Democratic Party, the State of Illinois or the United States. Hatred and division hurt everybody.
Ted joined Greg Bishop of the Illinois Radio Network to discuss the details of Gov. Pritzker’s 2026 budget address, why Illinoisans can’t afford this budget, the harm Pritzker’s policies have inflicted on Illinois, the possibility of a new progressive tax push, Pritzker’s alarming rhetoric, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the billions the state has spent on illegal immigrants, why we only know a portion of what’s really spent, why Illinois shouldn’t dismiss Indiana’s overture to snap up “separatist” counties, and more.
A dramatic collapse in illegal entrants begs the question: will Illinois drop from its 2026 budget any spending dedicated to welcoming “asylum seekers?” It’s an important question given that Gov. J.B. Pritzker will deliver his combined state and budget address on Feb. 19. 
The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ research into the IRS’ “Safe Harbor” issue and how it could impact Illinois’ Tier 2 pensions. Like Wirepoints, the board says lawmakers need to learn far more about the IRS rules before passing any legislation.
There’s no excuse for the Biden Administration or the State of Illinois for this calamity. For the Biden Administration to have sent $160 million to a Canadian company, before production and with no progress payments, seems like criminal negligence.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the conviction of former House Speaker Mike Madigan on charges of bribery and wire fraud, the legalized corruption that defines Illinois, how the state’s political machine is perpetuated, the need for an Illinois DOGE, the coming loss of the Chicago equities exchange to Texas, and more.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to discuss the absurd layers of government that exist in Illinois, how much money the state bureaucracy eats up every year, and why it’s high time for Illinois to get its own Department of Government Efficiency.
Ted joined Chicago Tonight to talk about President Trump’s dismantling of USAID and what it means for Illinois. Ted argued that with the nation facing trillions in debts, it’s essential to know just what the government is spending taxpayer money on. Trump’s rapid actions on USAID shows what needs to happen in Illinois, because right now there is an entrenched bureaucracy of lawmakers, administrators and unions that will never audit itself without outside pressure.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss Gov. Pritzker’s sad attempt at humor, his dismissal of the Illinois counties voting to separate from the state, why the state’s downstate counties have a desire and need for representation, the potential of bringing DOGE to Illinois, the potential for a statewide tax hike, the fight against the Dexter Reed settlement, and more.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about the need for a DOGE in Illinois. Ted said he would start with Illinois’ overall budget, then dive into the spending on education and especially Chicago Public Schools, then Human Services, then onto the number of bloated, duplicative local governments.
If you reflect soberly on Illinois and Chicago’s problems – corruption, ever-higher taxes, declining services and a shrinking population – you’ll quickly reach the conclusion Illinois needs a DOGE of its own. If you’re not convinced, take a look at the mess at Chicago Public Schools.
Ted Dabrowski joined Univision Chicago to talk about the ongoing battle between CPS and CTU. No matter which group loses, salaries and costs will jump. Meanwhile, nobody’s thinking about the Chicagoans who’ll have to suffer more property tax hikes to pay for these schools, most of them operating under near-zero accountability. (The interview is in Spanish, but we’ve added English subtitles.)
Two lawsuits are now pending challenging racial and gender discrimination in a securities offering by Bally’s Chicago, Inc. Bally’s and the City of Chicago are defendants in both cases.
Dismal student outcomes. Billions of wasted dollars. An unaccountable bureaucracy. All-powerful unions. Join Ted for a special discussion on the failures of Illinois’ education system and what Kane County residents can do to address problems and improve student achievement in their local school districts. Hosted by the Three Headed Eagle Alliance.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of Illinois’ massive pension debts as part of their piece detailing the growing secession movement in downstate counties, along with Indiana’s offer to absorb those counties. As the Board says: “when he runs for President in 2028, perhaps Gov. Pritzker can explain to voters why so many of his citizens want to flee his brand of tax-and-spend governance.”
A look at ISBE data shows that the connection between teacher evaluations and student test scores has been bastardized for years. Take 2024. Even though just 39% of students statewide could read at grade level, 97% of all teachers were rated “excellent or proficient.” Now things are about to get worse.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss Illinois’ abysmal results on the Nation’s Report Card, why it’s so wrong for Illinois officials to sugarcoat those test outcomes, the continued decline in Mayor Johnson’s popularity and power, the growing likelihood of a doom loop occurring in downtown Chicago, and more.
Mark joined Ray Stevens to discuss Bally’s Casino selling shares only to women and minorities in its new gambling resort being built in Chicago’s River West neighborhood.
We’ve been asked by many readers for the real truth about Illinois’ reading and math results. Some commenters are trying to square up our recent negative piece on the newest national math and reading scores with what they are seeing elsewhere. The bottom line: Illinois’ education results are abysmal.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the latest developments regarding Trump’s efforts to deport criminal migrants, the continued high cost of doing business in Illinois, the state’s poor education scores on the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, and why it’s so important for groups like Wirepoints to continue to be positive while still critiquing Illinois’ many problems.
There’s another angle to this that’s at least as important as the discrimination.
Wirepoints and Ed Bachrach of the Center for Pension Integrity make the case that it would be political malpractice for state lawmakers to sweeten Tier 2 pension benefits. There’s nothing from the IRS itself — nor from the state’s actuaries or any government employer — that shows any individual is out of compliance with IRS rules.
Mark joined Dan and Amy to discuss the ICE actions in Chicago and why the press won’t mention that those arrested are guilty of gun-dealing, murder, violent sexual assault and much more. The officials who have allowed and promoted Illinois and Chicago’s sanctuary status have blood on their hands for allowing such violent people into the city and state, Mark says.
States have averaged just 200 days to publish their ACFRs, but Illinois still no report with audited financial statements for 2023, a fiscal year ended that over 565 days ago. No reason has been offered. Unacceptable.
It’s not just ordinary Illinoisans that are taxed too much. The state’s big companies are also stuck paying the 3rd-highest corporate income tax rate in the nation, behind only New Jersey and Minnesota.
“Chaos and confusion.” That’s what Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims President Trump is creating as he plans to deport illegal immigrants with criminal records. Many Illinoisans will be surprised by Pritzker’s claim given the chaos his own staunch support of open borders and Illinois’ sanctuary status has created over the last several years.
Trump, his tariff threats and four days of meetings last week between Stellantis and Trumps team got the results, but Pritzker won’t even mention Trump’s name.
Ted joined the hosts of NewsTalk St. Louis to talk about why all hope isn’t lost in Illinois, what creating a successful Opposition will require, what a successful disruption by Illinoisans will entail, why it’s so important for people to learn the facts and speak up, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the chaos caused by Chicago and Illinois’ sanctuary policies, the chances of a congestion tax coming to Chicago, the potential for a showdown between immigration czar Tom Homan and Pritzker and Johnson, and more.
Ted joined Chicago Tonight to talk about the disruption Trump will bring to Illinois on the border, on energy, on free speech, etc. – but he also talked about how real disruption must come from ordinary Illinoisans, what we must do to really honor MLK day, and more.
We’re not arguing for Trump to come and directly target Illinois for disruption, though we’ll benefit from much of what the president does at the federal level. The real disruption Illinois needs is local – and Illinois-specific. We don’t need Trump for that. We don’t need the feds. We don’t need outsiders. We need to do it ourselves. Ordinary Illinoisans disrupting what’s wrong with our state.
Bally’s, the big casino operator, is selling shares only to women and minorities in its new gambling resort mecca being built in Chicago’s River West neighborhood.
Ted joined Shaun Thompson to talk about the S&P downgrade of Chicago’s credit rating, the facts surrounding Detroit’s bankruptcy, how officials are trying everything – next up, legalizing prostitution – to stop the city from collapsing, the problem of using temporary covid money to fund ongoing spending, the counties in Illinois that want a separation from Illinois, and more.
Full of one-time revenue “fixes” and gimmicks, the 2025 budget assures Chicago will have the same deficit problems next year. 
Ted joined Mariano Gielis of Univision Chicago to discuss the Civic Federation’s analysis of the Chicago Public Schools’ budget mess and why it spells more trouble for Chicagoans.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the push in Springfield to legalize prostitution in Illinois, the fact that Bally’s had to warn potential investors about the impact of Chicago’s crime on their potential revenues, why CPS should implement a salary freeze, and more.
2024 just wrapped up and the Cook County Medical Examiner has what should be the final count of youth homicides for 2024. It’s beyond tragic. 91 kids aged 19-and-under were killed in Chicago in 2024.
In defense of the everyday Chicagoans that continue to be pummeled by higher taxes, fees and fines – and a city that’s increasingly at risk of some form of insolvency – CPS should reject the Chicago Teachers Union’s demand for 9% yearly raises. Instead, the board should implement a salary freeze immediately.
Ted joined Ray and Nick to talk about why big companies are reticent to invest big money in Chicago, mainly due to a widening pension shortfall and inability to preserve public safety.
Mark joined Shaun Thompson to talk about the fact that the Chicago Red Line expansion will cost $1 billion per mile, why so many people and businesses are fleeing Chicago, the sad consequences of the city’s sanctuary city policies, the chance of Chicago’s downtown collapsing into a doom loop, the massive budget deficits facing the city, CPS and the RTA, and more.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about why the state’s new property tax task force will fail just like Gov. Pritzker’s 2019 original, why property taxes continue to rise, the chance that lawmakers might reverse the Tier 2 pension reforms, the need to move government worker retirements into 401ks, and more.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to discuss the shenanigans happening during the legislature’s veto session, the growth in Illinois’ population thanks to illegal migrants, why the state’s population trends are still negative, and more.
Ted joined Amy and John Anthony to discuss Illinois’ population growth in 2024 due to the tidal wave of illegal migrants into the country, why homelessness is, “coincidentally,” on the rise, why Illinois Republicans lack a set of core principles, why so many cities in Illinois make the top-20 list of the nation’s highest property taxes, the need for e-verify, and more.
Transit expert: “For a Martian visiting Chicago, one of the more inexplicable aspects of the Red Line extension would surely be that there already is rail service to the Far South Side.”
The push for a progressive tax is back in Illinois, just four years after being rejected soundly by voters. Its proponents say Illinois needs a more “modern” taxation scheme. That argument falls flat given what’s happening across the country. Since 2022 alone, eight states have dumped progressive tax schemes in favor of flat tax rates, with Louisiana joining the list just last month.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to reflect on the past year and Illinois’ many problems, the 2024 population gain that was due to a surge in illegal immigrants, the fact that Peoria’s school superintendent is on track for the national “superintendent of the year” despite just 1 in 10 minority students reading at grade level in Peoria, why Peorians are paying the nation’s highest property taxes, and more.
As part of Illinois’ Reimagining Energy and Vehicles plan, Gov. JB Pritzker set the goal of one million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030 –five years from now. At the current pace, however, it would take ten times that long – 50 years – to reach that goal.
We couldn’t have planned it this way, but our seven most-read stories in 2024 each captured a different facet of what’s wrong with Illinois. Failing schools. Murders. Closing businesses. A bloated, overpaid government sector. Election interference. Population-loss denial. And Chicago’s twisted equity priorities. 2024 was another tough year for Illinoisans, even as we put covid further in the rear view mirror.
I never once saw anything from Carter that I wouldn’t have expected from the man I met nearly fifty years ago or the man he portrayed anywhere else. He was the person you saw, always, in public and in private, as so many who knew him attest.
Ted joined Tom Miller to talk about why Illinois’ population gains in 2024 are only due to the massive wave of illegal immigration into the country, why taxpayers continue to flee the state, why it’s a bad deal to exchange residents for illegal immigrants, the new laws taking effect in 2025, and more.
Gov. Pritzker and State Superintendent Tony Sanders have proudly announced that Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat, Superintendent of Peoria SD 150, is one of the finalists to be the nation’s Superintendent of the Year. Whatever personal merits or achievement she may have to deserve such a reward, the student outcomes at Peoria SD 105 are definitely not one of them.
Many of us didn’t need somebody to tell us Biden was incapacitated long ago. Others, however, believed what they were told. They were duped and betrayed.
Several proposals to increase the pension benefits of Tier 2 workers – government workers hired after 2010 – are being floated in Illinois. Considering so much is still unknown about the need for any changes, it would be political malpractice for lawmakers to pass any purported “fixes” to Tier 2.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how Chicago’s latest budget nickels and dimes residents and contains no real cuts, why next year’s budget problems will be even worse, how our politicians get away with lying about Illinois’ problems, and more.
For more than two decades, continuous “balanced budget” claims have been accompanied by a meteoric rise in Illinois’ unfunded pension obligations. Debts have jumped to $144 billion today from just $16 billion in 2000, according to the latest report from COGFA.
Gov. JB Pritzker has said repeatedly that Donald Trump is an “adjudicated rapist.” That’s false, and those statements are not meaningfully different than the basis a defamation claim made by Trump, which has now been settled in his favor.
Ted appeared on Univision to discuss the latest news regarding Chicago’s ongoing budget chaos, why the city’s alderman oppose the property tax hikes Mayor Johnson is proposing, why such a united front is unprecedented, where Mayor Johnson should look for cuts in the budget, and more.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Decatur’s latest dismal education results, why property taxes continue to grow in Decatur and across the state, why it’s wrong for Gov. Pritzker to take credit for cutting the grocery tax, and more.
Ted joined Greg Bishop of the Center Square to discuss Illinois’ worst-in-nation state pension debts, why Illinois is so uncompetitive because of those debts, why pension reform would lead to better growth in the state, and more.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the need to tell the truth about Illinois’ problems, why the state’s pension crisis is such a national outlier, why our neighbors have so little pension debt and what that means for the state’s competitiveness, how pensions enrich the public sector, and more.
It’s easy to spew rhetoric. To push anecdotes. To manipulate emotions. It’s what much of journalism does these days. But it’s another thing to write the truth – and to be able to defend it with facts and data. It’s what we strive to do every day at Wirepoints.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the massive amount of state pension debts that keep growing year after year, why it’s immoral for politicians to make promises they can’t keep, how badly Chicago home prices are faring over time compared to the rest of the nation, why that drives so many people out of the state, and more.
Chicago’s top-dollar real estate market is taking a beating. 
A nonpartisan Illinois commission last week reported some dismal numbers on the state’s lagging job growth. Bad as they were, it’s worse if you look at it from another widely accepted angle on labor numbers.
For a long time, the pain was felt more outside Chicago than in the city. Mayor Richard M. Daley knew to avoid the hated property tax, so he favored all kinds of other taxes and fees – a nickel and dime approach – to fund the city. But beginning with Mayor Emanuel, property taxes in the last decade have grown a whopping 3.5 times more than inflation. And that’s got Chicagoans livid and most aldermen finally pushing back.
It’s been an absolute mess for Chicago taxpayers and the retirement security of the city’s government workers. Both the city and CPS have poured a cumulative $20 billion taxpayer dollars into the city’s pension funds since 2015. You’d think all that new money would have made a dent in Chicago’s pension debts, but it didn’t. In fact, it’s been the opposite.
Wirepoints joined Univision Chicago to discuss why the costs of the Chicago Police Department are much higher than they first appear due to pensions, overtime, maintenance and other costs, why Chicago officials have lost control of the city’s budget, and what needs to be done to get costs under control.
Ted Dabrowski joined Ray Stevens to discuss why Illinois’ pension debts are so huge – the nation’s worst, why the pandemic bailouts staved off the crisis for awhile, who the top-paid pensioners in Illinois are, why the state’s politicians are to blame, and more.
Here’s one fact Chicagoans should know as the Chicago Teachers Union demands billions more for education: only half of the $10 billion spent at CPS each year makes it to classrooms and instruction.
It’s tough work, day in and day out, to take on the dishonesty of Illinois’ ruling political class. Fortunately, there are many other groups like us fighting back or allowing the truth to be heard, groups that we cooperate with, and for that we’re thankful.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Illinois’ terrible pension crisis and why it’s so hard for everyday Illinoisans to understand the scope of it, the difference in benefits between the private and the public sector, the current state of school choice in Illinois vs. the rest of the nation, the danger of maintaining the status quo, the sad state of Illinois’ job market, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the disaster that is property taxes in Chicago’s Southlands, Gov. Pritzker’s coming mistake in opposing Trump and his policies, Illinois’ extreme outlier pension debt, especially compared to our neighbors, the coming problem of Tier 2 pensions, and more.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF Carbondale to talk about the fact that Illinois is one of the biggest losers of population, the state’s coming budget deficits, the $172 billion in pension debt Illinois owes, the potential for politicians to try again for a progressive tax, why Gov. Pritzker opposing Trump is such a bad idea, and more.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the collapse in SAT scores across the state, why even top school districts are failing, why interventions like banning phones in the classroom are so important, the upcoming $23 billion in upcoming state deficits, and more.
Mark joined Dan and Amy to talk about the falsity of politicians saying that spending less than planned will save people money, why Gov. Pritzker should be the last person to claim to be a hero of democracy, what Pritzker’s ambitions really are, what the views of the electorate really are, and more.
It’s not just the projected five-year $23 billion budget deficit that Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his administration need to worry about these days. He also needs to get a handle on Illinois’ unemployment rolls, which have been creeping in the wrong direction for ten straight months. The unemployed now total 346,000 Illinoisans.
It would be comically hypocritical if weren’t so tragically destructive.
Illinois SAT scores are at or near all-time lows. But f
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the outcome of the election, why Gov. Pritzker is doubling down on his anti-Trump rhetoric after Trump performed better than expected and why the governor should focus on Illinois’ own problems instead of challenging the next president. The state is facing $23 billion in deficits, Chicago is still swamped with violent crime and new education data shows students still can’t read or do math at grade level.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Illinois’ lack of change in this election despite Trump’s growing success in the state, why principles and facts are so important when pushing back, why voters approving a progressive tax is a bad idea, why grievance politics are so destructive, and more.
The governor’s budget office recently projected $23 billion in deficits over the next five years. Why? Pritzker wants to continue the pandemic-era spending he’s put together since coming into office in 2019. If the governor has his way, the state’s budget will have grown by a whopping $23 billion by 2030 – a near 60% increase in little more than a decade.
Ted joined Greg Bishop to discuss the state’s projected $5 billion annual deficits, why Gov. Pritzker is increasing spending even though the covid bailout money has finally run out, the massive increase in spending on human services and education, why tax hikes drive Illinoisans out of the state, and more.
Ted joined NBC 5 to talk about the Chicago School Board election results. Ted argued that the Chicago Teachers Union simply has too much power and that 6 anti-union board members will help expose the problems created by the union.
Wirepoints told Axios Chicago what the likely impacts of a Harris or Trump win will be for Illinois regarding economic growth, the environment, energy policy and more.
Pritzker’s team on Friday released its five-year budget forecast and said it expects a whopping $3.2 billion deficit for next fiscal year, a $4.3 billion deficit for the following year, and $5 billion-plus deficits in each of the years 2028 through 2030. Those deficits would effectively swallow up the revenues of the “millionaire’s tax,” leaving little to nothing for property tax relief.
It should be considered one of Illinois’ most egregious failures. School officials across the state are graduating high school students at record rates even though most kids can’t read or do math proficiently.
Mark joined the Ray Stevens Show to discuss 23 state policies that hostile governments love. Also, what is the end game with open borders considering the $6 billion spent on illegal immigration in Illinois so far? That includes all state, local, and federal costs for most of the same services that citizens have with over 600,000 illegal border crossers — about 40,000 of which are in Chicago.
Ted joined Shaun Thompson to talk about the irresponsible spending of Chicago and CPS, the fact that Mayor Johnson is breaking his promise to not raise property taxes, why so many businesses and people that are fleeing Illinois, why we can’t push solutions until politicians recognize the state’s problems, and more.
“Unfathomable.”
But no foreign meddling was necessary. Our own leaders did it to us.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the disappointments of the Chicago Police leadership, the dangerous siren-song of the “progressive-tax-for-property-tax-swap” referendum, the likely property tax that’s coming for Chicagoans despite Mayor Johnson’s promises, the disaster that is Chicago’s transportation systems, and more.
A deep dive into why most CPS kids can’t read. Why the Chicago Teachers Union has so much power (hint: Illinois politicians). And why empowering Chicago parents – via school choice – must be the lead reform to bring about change. The time for incrementalist reforms has long passed.
Illinois’ Nov. 5 ballot will ask state residents this question: “Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3% tax on income greater than $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to property tax relief?” To entice more Illinoisans to support the $4.5 billion tax hike referendum – advisory only – the proposal is sugar coated with legislators saying they’ll dedicate “funds to property tax relief.”
Chicago’s Acero Schools has announced it’s closing seven of its 15 charter schools next year. Like CPS as a whole, charters are suffering from the machinations of the Chicago Teachers Union. Looking at student outcomes alone, it’s clear the CTU has made a mess at Acero – just like the union has done everywhere else.
The number of unemployed Illinoisans rose again in September. This marks Illinois’ 9th-month in a row for rising unemployment, now totaling 344,000. Illinois’ unemployment rate also remained the nation’s 3rd-worst.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the total disconnect many politicians have regarding the struggles of everyday Illinoisans, why government should serve the people, not the other way around, why we know Illinois is still shrinking, the hundreds of half-empty schools across Chicago, and more.
Ted Dabrowski joined the Ray Stevens Show to break down what it will take to restore Chicago’s culture, why the DNC was so well-protected while regular Illinoisans can’t even attend a concert without fearing gun violence, and what immediate actions can begin reversing the downward spiral of the city.
“We haven’t had population loss.” It’s a claim Gov. JB Pritzker and his allies have made before, and it’s preposterous. Unfortunately, they get away with it because the media and many of our supposed watchdogs let them.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the “progressive-income-tax-for-property-tax-relief” initiative on the November ballot, the latest on why Illinois can expect an electricity crisis, why Trump is right to criticize the bad policies and dismal outcomes in blue cities like Chicago, and more.
Ted joined Greg Bishop of the Center Square to discuss the Pritzker administration’s continued denial of Illinois’ population losses. Ted pointed out that every piece of data from the IRS to moving vans reports is showing a massive out migration of people. The state can’t turn that around until politicians acknowledge those losses.
Fresh data from the Census Bureau shows the continued loss of Illinoisans due to domestic out-migration: Illinois netted a loss of 93,247 residents to other states in 2023. Those losses are on top of the net 116,000 and 141,000 Illinoisans who fled in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the latest news about the coming part-elected Chicago school board, why it’s likely the CTU will go on strike, what President Trump might say about Chicago during his visit, the latest scandals of Mayor Johnson, and more.
Trump’s rhetoric on Chicago can often be nasty, but it’s not wrong. Too many Chicagoans experience the high-crime, low-literacy, high-tax, low-opportunity version of Chicago – which we detail below – and which Trump is likely to point at Tuesday. But because it’s Trump talking, expect the media and connected class to deflect or even deny that the city’s problems exist. 
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of Chicago Public Schools’ dismal reading and math outcomes as part of their piece criticizing Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for comparing fiscal responsibility to slavery. The reality is Chicago kids can’t read…and the Chicago Teachers Union bears much of the blame for that.
Ted joined John Kass & Jeff Carlin to talk about how Chicago’s school system fails its students, how the activists in power are driving the city off a financial cliff, why Mayor Johnson is trying to push CPS CEO Pedro Martinez out, and more.
Glencoe residents will vote on whether or not to give their city “home rule” status this November. What does home rule entail? And how might it impact taxes and governance? Find out by attending a Citizens’ Town Hall on 10/10/24. Wirepoints will be there to help residents understand the pros and cons of enacting home rule.
$300 million more in debt at Chicago Public Schools is suddenly a big deal? Since when did debt matter to the district’s school board? In all, total debts at the school district have jumped by nearly 50% in the last decade, to $24 billion. Those are the numbers that should elicit far more concern and panic from the board, yet we hear nothing from them.
Hardball, comprehensive solutions to Chicago’s failing schools are years overdue. Just don’t think that means our ruling class is ready to act.
We need a change of direction ASAP. With little else on the agenda for the General Assembly’s veto session that starts in November, that’s when to start.
Don’t expect something transformational from the current infighting between CPS and the CTU – the outcome won’t change what matters most: that Chicago’s children can’t read. The two groups’ nastiness and rhetoric force Chicagoans to pick sides, the fabric of the city becomes more frayed and the cracks in both CPS and the city get bigger and deeper.
On Thursday, October 3rd at 10:00 AM C.T. Congressmen Darin LaHood (R-IL) and John Moolenaar (R-MI) will hold a roundtable in Manteno, Illinois on Gotion’s troubling connections to the CCP and the risks its planned facility in Illinois poses to America. All are invited to attend live or join the livestream through the link provided.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to discuss the negative impact of the SAFE-T Act on Illinois, the deep financial crisis that governments at every level are in, the coming tax hikes on Illinoisans, and more.
When the covid bailouts hit Illinois, we predicted it would take several years before the state’s financial problems would rear their ugly heads again. Now the covid money is finally running out and the fiscal problems are back. Predictably, politicians are counting on tax hikes or bailouts – meaning tax hikes on someone else – to fill their budget holes.
Mark joined the Ray Stevens Show to discuss Illinois’ looming energy crisis. He outlines when gas and electric bills will rise, the reasons behind the increases, and if there’s any solution on the horizon.
Ted joined Amy and John to discuss the end of the ShotSpotter program in Chicago, the 8 reasons why it’s such a bad idea, especially considering black and brown Chicagoans make up the vast majority of shooting victims, why Chicago Public Schools should be closing hundreds of schools, and more.
With electricity price jumps coming and high risk of brownouts, maybe somebody will now pay attention to the folly of Illinois’ energy policy.
Worries about the impact of the SAFE-T Act and the end of ShotSpotter were clearly overblown, you may have recently heard lawmakers say. But the facts aren’t that simple. Could crime have been even lower today had the SAFE-T Act not been passed? And ShotSpotter has purportedly saved 85 Chicagoans lives – would they be murder statistics absent that technology?
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is taking fire from the Chicago Teachers Union for reportedly developing a list of at least 100 schools that could be closed and/or consolidated. CPS has more than 163 schools – about one-third of the district’s traditional schools – that are less than half full.
The number of unemployed Illinoisans rose again in August. This marks Illinois’ 8th-month in a row for rising unemployment, with nearly 38,000 more workers out of a job compared to December, 2023. We’ll keep saying it: Illinois’ leaders will never fix the state’s problems if they’re not honest about them.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about why Illinois is losing young, wealthy millennials to other states. Why should they stay in a city like Chicago, which only promises more crime and higher taxes? The loss of entrepreneurs and businesses means Gov. Pritzker has to resort to subsidies to get a single win: a Chinese company making EV batteries that the federal government won’t use due to security concerns.
Rather than one future or the other, it feels like we’re experiencing the worst of two apocalyptic visions. A Brave New 1984, if you will. We’re increasingly being told what we can and can’t do, say and can’t say… and at the same time, too many people are too distracted to care.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to break down why Illinois and Chicago have the worst credit rating among states and cities, how Chicago’s leadership is failing taxpayers, what Illinois could learn from Detroit’s financial collapse, and more.
Can’t we avoid the pain Detroit went through by enacting the reforms we need now – and not when it’s too late? Unfortunately, Chicago keeps making the same mistakes. No one, not Mayors Emanuel, Lightfoot nor Johnson, have learned a thing.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the growing anger of Chicagoans, the fact that Detroit and Chicago appear to be trading places, the fact that Chicago has the worst credit rating of big cities, the continuing failure of CPS officials to educate their students, why it’s wrong to get rid of ShotSpotter, and more.
Detroit’s credit rating was upgraded two notches by Moody’s back in March, finally returning to investment grade after more than a decade in bankruptcy. In the process, Detroit’s rating jumped over Chicago, leaving the Windy City with the embarrassing title as the worst-rated major city in America.
Chicago’s major crimes this year as of September 1 are down 11% vs. 2023, but keep in mind that 2023 was a banner year for crime in the city. 2024 crimes are still running far higher compared to any other year from 2019 and 2022.
It’s a remarkable change for all Democratic House members to vote for the ban, especially representatives from Illinois and Michigan, given the billions of dollars they’ve thrown to Gotion.
It’s not hyperbolic to say that Southland property taxes have spiked. In Dixmoor, the median residential tax bill more than doubled, up 122%. That’s led to justified outrage, and Southland residents want more than just talk. “Let’s get some action. I’m tired of signing petitions.”
Ted had a conversation with WVON’s Perri Small about the bad ideas Mayor Johnson has regarding the city’s budget, why the mayor is likely to break his promise and hike property taxes, why we still don’t know how much we’re spending on the migrant crisis, and more.
CPS CEO Pedro Martinez publicly stood up to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s call for more borrowing and instead pushed for cuts to the district’s budget. But while Martinez might have done the right thing for CPS’ finances, he hasn’t been doing the right thing when it comes to student outcomes.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the massive billion-dollar deficit facing Chicago next year, the reason why Chicago deserves the title as the nation’s murder capital, why it’s far from racist to talk about the city’s murders, the deficit in leadership among the city’s politicians, and more.
Mark Glennon joined ShaunThompson on AM 560 to discuss the national implications of Trump and Vance working to kill the Chinese-EV-battery-making Gotion project and Shaun also asks about the $1B deficit in the Chicago budget.
Ted joined Chicago Tonight for a discussion on the affordable housing crisis gripping both Chicago and the nation and what to do about it. Ted argued that government created much of the crisis via market distortions and low interest rates, and that throwing more money at the problem via tax credits will only make things worse. The way to fix things is to reduce the costs of PZR: permitting, zoning and regulations.
Ted joined The Ray Stevens Show to discuss why the traditional media are turning a blind eye to rising crime rates, the factors that have made Chicago the murder capital, why we should thank the police for enduring abuse from protesters during the DNC, and more.
Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance on Tuesday accused presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and the current Democratic administration of “helping China destroy and replace our auto industry from the inside out” with subsidized electric vehicle battery plants being built by Gotion. Coverage is appearing in much of the media including the New York Times and Fox.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Illinois’ dismal education results, how the education system fools parents into thinking their children are doing well, why uninvolved parents and an uncaring, bloated education system are both to blame for students’ failures, and more.
Illinois’ media continues to give state and city politicians cover for their many failures. The media is so protective, in fact, that even pointing out the city’s obvious failures can get you dismissed as racist. The latest instance comes from the Chicago Sun-Times. It purports to fact check JD Vance’s declaration of Chicago as the nation’s murder capital, but the article is really more of a murders-and-crime-are-not-as-bad-as-they-say sort of piece.
You have a constitutional right to vote, and Illinois took it away. Thank the Liberty Justice Center for changing that.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the actual facts of Illinois instead of Gov. Pritzker’s rhetoric, the reality of homicides and crime in Chicago, why it’s wrong for the state to pick winners and losers in green energy, and why Chicago police have stepped up protections for the DNC that don’t extend to ordinary citizens, but should.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the potential consequences of Kamala Harris’ economic proposals, the facts Wirepoints’ new billboards tell about Illinois: we’re overtaxed, we’re shrinking, we’re losing jobs, and more.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has spent the last several days hyping up Illinois to the attendees of the DNC and a national audience. But how real is Illinois’ success story really? Pritzker claims that Democrats are champions of jobs, small businesses and the middle class, yet when you look at the direct impact his own policies have had on Illinoisans, the reality is very different.
Foxx has essentially posted a green light to mass criminal behavior by convention protesters. Her policy is utterly irresponsible and an extraordinarily dangerous abuse of prosecutorial discretion.
This deal smelled fishy from the start and is now stinkier.
Wirepoints’ report crowning Chicago as the nation’s murder capital for the 12th year in a row was cited in the New York Post’s piece detailing the failed policies of Chicago and Illinois.
Mayor Brandon Johnson in his own words.
Let’s hope private schools follow the trend. Private, “elite” schools have long been the most notorious preference-givers to kids of alumni and donors.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of Chicago Public Schools’ dismal outcomes for black students as part of their piece criticizing Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis-Gates and her rhetoric embracing the bigotry of low expectations. The reality is Illinois and Chicago kids can’t read…and the union bears much of the blame for that.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about the lies that will be told about Chicago and Illinois as the DNC begins, the fact that Chicago continues to lead the nation in homicides, the potential for a violent Democratic National Convention, the consequences of Illinois’ high unemployment rate, and more.
Nobody should hope for the day that our differences become so severe that even a soft separation of some sort becomes policy in some states. Just know that the day may be closer than you think.
For years the CTU was the proverbial dog chasing the car. It attacked mayors and CPS administrators for not giving in to their demands – it thrived on always having someone else to blame. But when it won the mayoralship with Brandon Johnson last year, the union finally caught the car. Now it has no idea what to do as both the Chicago Public Schools and the City of Chicago flirt with $1 billion budget shortfalls.
Let’s hope this federal court once again ridicules our lawmakers over their hostility to free expression.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to discuss the fact that one of the things Democrats are doing as they gear up 
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about why it’s important to fight for liberty wherever you are, what the true impact of progressive government on Illinois and Chicago really is and why all Americans should care, the fallout from Gov. Pritzker failing to become Harris’ VP, and more.
Long-time readers of Wirepoints’ IRS out-migration work will know Illinois is a net loser of households in every single income and age bracket the IRS tracks. Now a new cut of the data shows Illinois ranks near-last nationally in almost every one of the brackets, revealing just how repellent the state’s policies are for all Illinoisans.
Mark joined Scott Childers on the Ray Stevens Show to talk about why the so-called “Worker Freedom of Speech Act” has been met with harsh criticism across the state. It’s clearly a violation of the First Amendment and will be hit with lawsuits almost immediately.
There’s another side to the story of triumph you will be hearing. Here are the documented facts on the consequences of progressive policies.
“Hey, raise your hand if you went to school on a school bus!” Harris said. Yes, and raise your hand if you’re tired of the government trying to pick industrial winners with your money.
Count this as another example of how radical the left has become just in the last ten years.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s dismal showing for Harris’ VP pick in swing state polls, the latest on the battle over EV battery-maker and CCP-linked company Gotion’s efforts to build a plant in Illinois, the billions in tax dollars lost as residents flee Illinois, and more.
In what’s surely a painful, if only temporary, blow to his political ambitions, polls in the five major swing states show Gov. J.B. Pritzker ranks last as a VP choice for Kamala Harris.
Ted joined the Ray Stevens Show to talk about how the constant out-migration from Illinois has cost the state billions in income tax revenue over the years, why people-winning states like Florida are swimming in cash despite not taxing income, why Illinois continues to be a Democratic state despite a lack of progress, and more.
Why would Gotion plow ahead in the face of so many threats to its Manteno project? Here’s one good reason: Gotion is playing with the house’s money.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to discuss Gov. Pritzker’s chances of obtaining the Democratic nomination for the vice-presidency considering Illinois’ failures, the loss in billions of state revenue due to Illinoisans leaving the state, the huge property tax increases that just hit many Southland homeowners, and more.
One of the most damaging impacts of Illinois’ people loss to other states is the destruction of the state’s tax base. When people leave in a given year, they take their incomes with them, and that means the state’s tax base suffers. Unfortunately, Illinois’ out-migration problem is much bigger than just a one year loss: the state has lost people and AGI every single year since at least 2000. We calculate the cost.
Ted joined Amy and John Anthony to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s chances of obtaining the Democratic nomination for president, the huge property tax increases that just hit many Southland homeowners, State Rep. DeLuca’s call to use migrant dollars to fund property tax relief, and more.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to tap the bond market for $300 million and push CPS deeper into debt. Did his closest advisors forget to tell him that CPS is already junk rated, the only one among the nation’s 15 largest school districts?
Here’s something you don’t see every day: An Illinois Democratic officeholder defying the prevailing policy putting illegal immigrants first.
The Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago next month. You can be sure Chicago and all of Illinois will be held up by the political establishment as showcases of the success of progressive policies. But who has the facts, data and analysis to help expose what’s really happening here? Wirepoints does.
Ted joined the Ray Stevens Show to talk about why the Democrats’ critical thinking skills have faltered, why Gov. Pritzker’s attacks on Trump and his supporters are so damaging to the nation, who might have the momentum to challenge Donald Trump and JD Vance, and more.
GOP National Committeeman Richard Porter vs. Matt Gaetz.
For those now saying there’s no place in democracy for political violence, the hypocrisy is shameless.
Wirepoints contributor Jim Iuorio breaks down the dismal jobs situation for both the nation and Illinois. Illinois has suffered a loss of private sector jobs as more residents continue move out and taxes remain high.
Pritzker’s organization wants you to believe that Trump and Republicans will violate both their party’s platform and their own commitments.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to discuss the 50-state metrics Illinois is failing so badly at, the contrast between Illinois and states like Florida and Texas, the gall of state lawmakers giving themselves multiple raises as Illinoisans struggle, and more.
Ted joined the Ray Stevens show to talk about Illinois lawmakers giving themselves a 33% raise over the last few years. They’re paying themselves well for constant failure. Illinois is the 4th-worst in the country for economic growth and 6th-worst in unemployment…among other dismal economic metrics.
It’s the fact check that’s bunk.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the mass of violence in Chicago over the holiday weekend, why Mayor Johnson’s attitude toward crime is completely counterproductive, why Illinois is a national outlier on the economy, jobs and out-migration, the ongoing CTU/CPS contract negotiations, and more.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker told America last week on a CNN interview that President Biden has “…done a lot to revive American manufacturing. In my state, you know, we’ve seen jobs and companies coming back to the United States and to Illinois.” But the governor’s comment about Illinois is simply not true – not when you measure it by the number of Illinoisans who are actually employed. Fewer people are on Illinois’ employment rolls today than when Pritzker took 
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of the IRS’ state-to-state migration data in their latest piece documenting the annual drain of people from blue states to red states.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the 87,000 people who left Illinois in 2022, why a net number of Illinoisans leave here for any one of 40 other states each year, what the consequence of that out-migration is — including higher property taxes on those who remain, and more.
Wirepoints recently warned in a Chicago Sun-Times oped that Chicago’s pension mess was going to get worse. As Chicago’s latest annual financial report shows, that’s just what happened.
The shock will be devastating for many. In the south and southwest suburbs, the median residential bill jumped by 19.9%, to $6,117. For other south suburbs, the jump is far more.
Ted joined Ray Stevens to talk about the migration patterns in Illinois and how the state’s losses negatively effect the economy. The numbers show that people with higher incomes are leaving Illinois and those with lower incomes are flowing in. High taxes are causing the wealthy to leave for states and cities with lower tax rates and more opportunity like Atlanta and Houston.
Illinois’ population and outmigration losses keep piling up. The latest, freshest IRS data for tax filing year 2022 shows Illinois netted a loss of 87,000 residents to other states. And they took more than $10 billion in AGI with them. Illinois went zero for six vs. its neighboring states and lost people to 40 states overall.
Most lawbreaking was fine when protests purported to be about George Floyd in 2020, but when they are directed at a Democratic convention, well, we can’t have any of that, right?
If America’s big states are any indication, it’s the better managed, less expensive states that are winning out over the government-centric, high-cost states. Illinois, New York and California continued their streak as the nation’s biggest losers of residents and their wealth to other states. North Carolina, Texas and Florida remained the nation’s big winners.
When Chicagoans call 911, there’s a 50/50 chance there’ll be no cops available to help. Of the 256,000 high-priority 911 calls made so far in 2024, nearly 127,000 had no police available to immediately respond. 
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Ed Burke’s light sentence and what it means for Illinois’ reputation for corruption, why Chicago’s high commercial property tax rates could accelerate a doom loop in the city, and more.
Ted Dabrowski joined the Ramblin’ Ray Stevens Show to discuss the new hike that will increase Illinois gas taxes to 47 cents a gallon on July 1st. Ted explains why Illinois has some of the most expensive gas prices in America and who is responsible for the gas tax hike.
Chicago has the highest effective commercial property tax rate among some of the nation’s biggest cities. Those taxes are one of several pressure points – including an ongoing crime wave, faltering public transportation, a failing school district, not to mention the continued impacts of working from home – that threaten to send the city into a downward spiral.
We got a call recently from a resident in Lisle who insisted his school district, Lisle CUSD 202, was bloated with administrators. The numbers show h
Two new developments in the battle over the factory to be built in Illinois by the company linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
If you’re mad about Illinois gas prices as you prepare for your Independence Day travels, blame Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the lawmakers who voted to double motor fuel taxes back in 2019. Illinois’ motor fuel tax will increase to 47 cents per gallon on July 1, up from 45.4 cents per gallon today.
We call it out because it’s a small waypost on what’s likely to be AI’s impact on journalism — for better or worse.
For decades a duopoly of power has run the Chicago Public Schools: District administrators control all the schools, and the Chicago Teachers Union controls all the teachers. Parents and kids come last. Starting next year, that all begins to change, at least in theory. Chicagoans will finally get to vote for school board members.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about the 100K-pay club of government workers, the expensive failures of Illinois’ public education system, the nonsense of Illinois lawmakers claiming the state’s budget is balanced, and more.
Duckworth manufactured the issue with the most hyperbolic language available.
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard is getting national attention for her alleged corruption. Spending public money on lavish travel and dining. Launching police raids on “uncooperative” businesses. Creating political billboards with taxpayer dollars, the list goes on. But there’s another travesty in Dolton, and it revolves around the failure of the city’s schools to teach Dolton children to read and do math. What’s happening there needs just as much attention.
For a state that prides itself on “equity,” it’s hardly equitable to let wealthy school districts pass off their cost this way.
Many of you will recognize Jim Iuorio from his frequent appearances on CNBC and Fox Business, and at national financial conferences and events.
If you think all college kids are naive snowflakes with no critical thinking skills, you are not familiar with Chicago Thinker.
“Newly discovered information indicates that Gotion maintains extensive business relationships…with companies directly linked to forced labor and involved in the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.”
Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski joined Mary Ann Ahern of NBC 5 to discuss the details of the state’s new 2025 budget. Just as in years past, this was a budget for politicians not people. Record spending fueled by over $700 million in tax hikes…and still no property or income tax relief for the state’s taxpayers.
TV viewers will recognize Chicago native Jim Iuorio from frequent appearances on CNBC, Fox Business and other outlets. Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski and Mark Glennon joined him and his cohost Bob Iaccino on their nationally followed, no-holds-barred podcast, Futures Edge, with a concise discussion of Illinois’ and Chicago’s problems, and their pertinence to the nation.
In 2017, Illinois politicians passed a new education funding formula that they said would “transform” Illinois K-12 education. Seven years and $8.5 billion in dedicated funding later, the only evidence so far is that Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) has been a flop. Despite all the money Illinoisans have poured into education in the name of EBF, it hasn’t enhanced student outcomes at all.
The bill would even cover 501(c)(3) nonprofits like Wirepoints that research and write on political issues. That’s what we do. Illinois thinks they could bar us from making those meetings mandatory? Not a chance.
A bill awaiting Gov. Pritzker’s signature made headlines last month for renaming some “offenders” as “justice-impacted individuals.” 
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the 2025 budget for Illinois, why lawmakers won’t support school choice despite attempts to revive the Invest in Kids Act, the cost of illegal immigration, and more.
Chalkbeat recently reported that the number of migrant children in CPS this year, depending on how migrants are defined, is somewhere between 8,900 to 17,000. At an operating cost of $24,132 per student, the additional taxpayer costs of educating those students range from $215 million to $410 million.
New Trier Township HS District 203’s Superintendent Paul Sally is set to retire next year and he can count on lifetime pension benefits of nearly $8 million. When he does retire, he’ll join the ranks of the Teachers Retirement System’s top pensioners.
The list of our columns about how stupidly Illinois manages its cash is getting long.
All other Illinois House members voted for of the bill.
Illinoisans spend all-in $44 billion, or $24,000 per student, on PK-12 schools. They’ve doubled their per student spend over the past 15 years – the nation’s 3rd-biggest increase. They’ve done their job in funding the state’s education system, and their highest-in-the-nation property tax bills are proof. Despite all that, the system continues to fail Illinois children.
Harvard and Northwestern are reaping the whirlwind of the radically left culture they created. JB and Penny Pritzker are common denominators. On Thursday, it will be Northwestern’s turn to face the music before Congress.
Take a couple of minutes to analyze a recent U.S. Census map of the nation’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and you’ll find the nation’s two extremes in population change.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the continuing exodus out of Illinois, why businesses continue to struggle in this state, especially in Chicago, the failure of government “affordable” housing programs, and the dismal student results in Wirepoints’ new 2023 School Report Cards.
Wirepoints just launched a new version of its School Report Cards, updated with 2023 Illinois State Board of Education data, for all 3,600 schools and 865 school districts in Illinois. Parents deserve to know the truth – that many Illinois kids can’t read at grade level.
When even the Washington Post calls for rolling back a part of woke culture, you know it’s long past time for universities to pay attention.
The bill passed despite their votes in response to certain incidents where local prosecutors are thought to have been too lenient with non-citizens assaulting cops.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of Chicago student proficiency data in their latest piece condemning the Chicago Teachers Union’s outrageous contract demands…all while a vast majority of Chicago’s children graduate unable to read at grade level.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to discuss how politicians can never spend enough on education despite there being no accountability for that spending, the growth of education staffing across Illinois, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $1 billion demand for Chicago schools, why Gov. Pritzker is providing $830 million in taxpayer subsidies to struggling EV carmaker Rivian, and more.
Illinois education officials continuously claim there’s a teacher shortage across the state. Yet data from the state’s own Illinois Report Card shows that hiring at schools has been booming over the last 25 years, especially when you consider that student enrollment has been shrinking at the same time.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently promised electric car maker Rivian $827 million in taxpayer subsidies when he shouldn’t have given the company a penny. The question is, was it negligence or something more?
Details emerging about Chicago Teachers Union’s upcoming contract show just how divorced its demands, both extreme and expensive, are from the reality at Chicago schools. It’s not just about massive salary increases, but also about money for migrant students, climate initiatives, abortions and gender-affirming care. About blocking parental notification. Count on CTU’s demands to veer further from reality until the public finally says no. 
Gov. JB Pritzker calls it “ethics” reform.
It’s rare to see city leaders in Chicago take an open, unabashed stance on the collapse of literacy. To complain is deemed as too political, too racist or too anti-public schools. So it’s refreshing to see Willie Wilson, a successful businessman and leader of the black community, call for a literacy initiative “with the goal of getting 100% of Black students reading at grade level.”
While this new advisory referendum could be nothing more than a political distraction, it could also be that lawmakers are gauging Illinoisans’ appetite for another bite at a progressive income tax hike – this time with lower property taxes as a sweetener.
At $1.5 million per job, the new incentive package from the state is at least 15 times the norm. For this much money, the state could have just handed out a million bucks to 827 people, instead of creating 550 jobs.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to discuss the university student protests erupting across the nation on the Israel/Palestine conflict, why it’s so dangerous for society if the media abandons facts in favor of narratives, why that allows government to spin away the problems like crime and financial crises, why it causes the voting public to become apathetic, and more.
When you hear the complaints from Illinois politicians, remember the hypocrisy: 40,000 bused to Chicago, but 161,562 allowed to fly directly to Florida.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the problems and costs of the Chicago Bears’ proposed new stadium, why its unlikely to happen in its current form, why the ongoing wave of violent crimes makes residents scared of the city, and why the funeral of slain police officer Luis Huesca matters to Mayor Johnson’s reputation.
We’re supposed to worry that climate change itself is to blame for Illinois’ failing climate policy, but far bigger problems are obvious.
Ted was on The Chicago Way with John Kass and Jeff Carlin to discuss the proposed $5 billion lakefront stadium project proposed by the Chicago Bears & Mayor Brandon Johnson, why Chicago is struggling compared to other metro areas across the country, why the city might or might not go the way of Detroit, and more.
Some Illinois lawmakers continue to deny that covid aid and other federal stimulus bailed the state out of its fiscal mess. But a look at past and projected revenues from COGFA shows just how much the bailouts blew out the state’s revenues. And now that they’re over, how much harder it will be for Illinois revenues to grow.
Illinois just suffered the lowest presidential primary turnout since 1960, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Blame voter apathy on a lack of competitive elections. On gerrymandering. On the concern people have, thinking their votes don’t matter. It’s likely a little bit of each.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the free speech controversy brewing in Wilmette due to the city’s refusal to fly a religious freedom flag, the city’s left-wing excesses and the growing culture war, the latest money spent on the illegal immigrant crisis, and more.
Chicago Public Schools is failing its students in almost every way. What can be done to save the educational futures of Chicago’s children? Join Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski as he participates in an education roundtable discussion hosted by Seeking Educational Excellence (SEE).
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot’s investigation into corruption in Dalton, IL, why so many communities are struggling with legalized corruption, why Illinois has the nation’s highest property taxes, the factories closing across the state, and more.
The Democratic National Convention is coming to Chicago in August and its organizers are likely sweating over the potential mess it might become. Not because of the pro-Palestinian protests that are likely to occur, but because of Chicago’s unabated crime. It’s a mess that Chicago Mayor Johnson and other city officials have been incapable of addressing.
Quaker Oats just announced it’s closing its factory in Danville, Illinois, putting more than 500 workers out of a job. It’s the latest of four major factory closures that have occurred in Illinois this year. While every closure is disappointing and another black mark on Illinois’ dismal manufacturing performance, the loss of the Danville plant is particularly meaningful to us. One of the first articles we wrote for Wirepoints’ was about Danville’s struggles.
Another tax study, another loss for Illinois taxpayers. Illinois again has the highest effective property tax rate in the nation. Not only that, five of the top 10 metro areas with the highest property tax rates in the nation are in Illinois: Rockford, Champaign-Urbana, Peoria, Springfield, and Chicago.
It’s truly difficult to understand how anybody, particularly in a governmental affairs unit of a major university, plus a U.S. Senator, can be this detached from reality.
The Chicago Sun-Times printed an OpEd by Wirepoints, the Illinois Policy Institute, the Technology and Manufacturing Association and the Center for Pension Integrity – all members of the Taxpayer Pension Alliance – that warns Chicagoans are being burned by the proverbial “slow boil” that’s wiping out retirement security for city workers, burdening residents with increasingly punitive taxes and depressing opportunities for the city’s most vulnerable.
Few Illinoisans found reason to vote in the most recent primary elections. Overall, voter turnout was maybe just 20 percent statewide. Perhaps it was a lack of competitive elections. Or gerrymandering. Or people think their votes don’t matter. Maybe it was a little bit of each. Whatever it was, few seem to care. And that’s bad news for Illinois’ future.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the hundreds of new sexual abuse and misconduct cases reported by CPS in 2023, the massively lower gas prices Ted experienced traveling down to Florida, why so many productive people are leaving the state, and more.
Sexual abuse. Sexual misconduct. Grooming. The allegations happen year after year at Chicago Public Schools. The list of abuses and complaints is long, buried in the OIG’s 133-page report, so nobody sees them. We’ve broken a majority of them out in short snippets one by one for parents to see.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the results of the Illinois primary including the fact that turnout was at a record low, the fact that that political powers like the unions failed to mobilize, the mixed bag of local referendums in the face of high property taxes, the close results of some of the votes, the failed attempt to take out local downstate Republicans, Illinois’ high gas prices, and more.
Travel anywhere around the country, with the exception of the West Coast, and you can’t help but get angry at how high Illinois gas prices are. That’s especially true during Spring Break, when many Illinoisans fill up their tanks out of the state.
Why would anybody in Illinois vote to create a new taxing authority to add to property tax bills? Many Illinois townships and counties vote to do just that, creating what are called “708 boards.”
The law was bulldozed through in 2010 by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton in less than 12 hours with no analysis, debate or actuarial assessment.
“We are not in good shape” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski told ABC 20 Champaign during a segment on Illinois’ latest population losses. Illinois was one of just three states to shrink in the 2010-2020 period and has lost another 300,000 people since then. Ted says things need to change. “It’s too expensive to live here, there aren’t enough good jobs and nobody trusts the government anymore. There’s just other places to go where you can be more satisfied.”
Mark joined Dan and Amy to talk about just how much the illegal immigration crisis is costing Chicagoans and Illinoisans, why it’s so hard for the public to realize how big the state and the country’s spending problem is, why Illinoisans have so little confidence in the state’s election security, and more
Satire and sarcasm may abound, but loss of confidence in elections is no laughing matter. The ways to restore both the perception and reality of honest elections are simple.
Chicago ranked last at 22%, far lower than the national average of 62%. Austin topped the list at 110%.
It will take a mighty big change of fortune for the electric vehicle industry to meet Illinois’ goal of one million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the steady growth of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion across all levels of Illinois government, why DEI’s focus on dividing people into racial/political groups is so poisonous for schoolchildren, predictions on what will happen during Tuesday’s primary, why the race for Cook County State’s Attorney is so important, and more.
I continue to run into parents who don’t know what to think about DEI in their children’s schools even as
We recently highlighted that Alabama will become the nation’s next state to offer school choice to all of its students. Unsurprisingly, some in social media scoffed…for Alabama is a Southern state and must have stereotypical poor student outcomes. What those detractors don’t know is that states like Tennessee, Texas and Alabama have reading results roughly on par with Illinois, even though Illinois spends 60% to 80% more per student than those states.
Once again, it’s deny, delay, extend and pretend. Pritzker’s new pension proposal is nothing more than that.
Illinois lawmakers’ decision to end school choice last year is making Illinois look increasingly extreme as more and more states across the country embrace educational freedom.
Politicians never tell parents the truth: that literacy has collapsed in Chicago schools, particularly for black students. Add Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner to the group of lawmakers who deny Chicago’s education problems. His recent response to Rep. Blaine Wilhour’s comments on the House floor puts him on the list.
Minorities and the poor who’ve supported the progressive equity agenda should say, “We’ve been had.” Progressives should say, “We’ve failed” and, most importantly, the rest of us should say, “Enough of this.”
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the cottage industry of school officials, unions, lawyers, construction firms and more that work together to pass multi-million tax and bond school district referendums, why the spending on unreliable, expensive EV buses might be headed to your school district, why the EV push is an example of why governments are terrible at picking winners and losers, and more.
“It’s gonna get a little hot in this city in the next few months” over contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union, says its president. Looks that way.
Mark joined Dan and Amy to talk about the fallout from the unanimous Supreme Court ruling striking down Illinois and other states’ attempts to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, the power of special interests to get what they want during off-year and primary elections, why Illinois is a moderate state that’s stuck with an overly-powerful political machine, the latest news on the illegal immigration crisis, and more.
Like other Illinois school districts this month, Glenbard Township High School District 87 is asking voters to approve a bond issue to fund improvements to its schools. And like other districts, the vast majority of the political contributions in favor of the project come from the parties that stand to financially benefit. It’s yet another example of the local machinery that exists to get tax hikes passed in school districts across the state.
Pause further investments in electric school buses to allow for the completion of proper pilot programs, cost-benefit analyses and other feasibility assessments, and stop them if they make no sense.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s cynical reasons for ending the grocery tax, why Rivian proves its a bad idea for government to choose winners and losers, the continuing troubles of the EV industry, and the property tax sticker shock awaiting Cook County homeowners.
Elk Grove Village property tax bills grew 24% in 2023. Des Plaines’ jumped 29%. Northlake, 37%. And homeowners in Melrose Park experienced a near 50% increase. Residents across the Northwest suburbs were hit with the largest tax hike in 30 years – a consequence of Cook County’s revaluation of property values. Overall, Cook County homeowners were hit with a 7.2% increase in their FY 2022 taxes (paid in 2023), the biggest hike in 16 years.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s exorbitant spending, the tax increases included in Gov. Pritzker’s 2025 budgets, why Illinois budgets are created for politicians and not people, the fallout from Mayor Johnson’s “mansion tax” referendum being struck down by the courts, and more.
Ted joined Jeff Daly for an in-depth discussion on Gov. Pritzker’s proposed budget for 2025: what the governor plans to spend a record $52.7 billion on, which kitchen table issues really matter, why the elimination of the 1% grocery tax does so little, and why this and all previous budgets have failed to make life better for Illinoisans. They also talked about Illinois’ failing schools and why it’s so hard for residents to oppose school district spending referendums.
It’s become nearly meaningless to opine on the details of Illinois’ annual budgets. Year after year, Illinoisans are on the hook for more debts, taxes go up and people continue to flee the state. Gov. Pritzker’s previous five budgets have failed on kitchen table issues and his latest proposal for 2025 is on track to do the same.
Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski joined Univision Chicago to talk about the failings of Gov. Pritzker’s proposed 20205 budget. “Illinois’ budgets have been unbalanced for 20-plus years,” he said. “Once again, this is a budget for politicians, not people.”
Chicago officials want you to think that the only reason black and Latino student scores are bad now is because of the pandemic. Nonsense. Failure by CPS leadership and the CTU was already harming “the long-term outcomes of a whole generation of children.” The pandemic – and the draconian decisions to shut down schools by officials – only made horrific 2019 scores even worse.
Ted joined Scott Slocum to talk about the mistakes of politicians like Mayor Brandon Johnson, the fact that no student can do math in 67 Illinois schools and zero can read in another 32, why education officials continue to push failing students up and out of the system, why Illinois is losing college-educated adults to out-migration, and more.
Chicagoans have a right to be concerned considering just how many stories there are of released defendants committing mayhem. Many make the news every day, but it’s hard to know just how prevalent they are among the sea of other crimes committed. That’s why we’ve compiled a short list of defendants who’ve been accused of committing violent crimes since the start of the new year.
Most headlines focus only on the tip of the iceberg.
Proterra electric buses, darlings of green energy, have become nightmares for many cities across the country.
Ted joined the Annie Frey Show to talk about Wirepoints’ new report on the 67 Illinois schools where not a single child tested proficient in math and the 32 schools with zero students proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials end up graduating almost 70 percent of the students in those schools.
In 2023, there were 67 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 32 where no student tested proficient in reading. In a sane world, schools that don’t and can’t teach a single student the most basic of skills would be shut down. Instead, such schools carry on and students suffer.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about why Illinois is losing its brainpower – well-educated residents – to out-migration, the $2.2 billion spent by Illinois on migrant welcoming programs alone, the news of Elon Musk and others helping expose Illinois’ education failures on X, the latest data related to the SAFE-T Act, and more.
Illinois’ population woes continue. Not only is Illinois’ population shrinking overall, it’s also experiencing a consistent brain-drain of well-educated adults. In 2022, Illinois experienced a net loss of 54,000 educated residents age 25 and older to other states.
For several years we’ve been sounding the alarm about Illinois’ dismal rates of literacy. But the education establishment and its allies in the traditional media often suppress the facts. So when several high profile individuals, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, help us expose the truth on X, we’ll take it.
Ralph Martire is the often-quoted Executive Director of the progressive Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Here are his key claims in a recent Daily Herald op-ed on the migrant crisis, along with some facts.
Ted joined Dan and Charles to talk about the early impact of the SAFE-T Act, including the decline in jail and EM populations and the explosion in appeals of detention orders, why Chicago criminals remain emboldened, the impact that will have on the city, and more.
Wirepoints has warned Illinois universities, especially U of I, to get ahead of the surging anti-woke backlash. To eliminate or pare down their DEI programs before they face wrath of unhappy donors and Americans fed up with “woke” excess. Unfortunately, there seems to be no evidence of a pullback. The university is still employing dozens of DEI admins with salaries in the six-figure range.
While it’s still too early to know if the concerns regarding the SAFE-T Act are true, there are three data points that are already a cause for concern. Jail populations are shrinking. The number of defendants on electronic monitoring are down. And appeals against detention orders have skyrocketed.
A group of state attorney generals including Illinois’ Kwame Raoul have asked the United States Supreme Court to gut free speech and lobotomize democracy.
We have found no reporting on any explanation for why they would have voted against the bill.
The No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorist Act passed by a 422-2-1 vote. The two lawmakers voting against it were “Squad” members Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). Voting present was Delia Ramirez (D-IL).
Illinois and Chicago’s recent ‘welcoming’ programs have helped boost the cost of illegal immigration in Illinois by at least $2.2 billion over the last two years, according to a Wirepoints’ review of various government grant reports, budgets and other public documents.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the continued influx of migrants into Chicago, the growing fight between Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson over where migrants should be sent/located, why the SAFE-T Act has led to an overwhelming number of appeals taking place, the continued attempts to further weaken policing in Illinois, and more.
The Illinois Local Journalism Task Force delivered its report last week. Its proposals are mostly about getting taxpayers to pony up and putting government in control. No mention of journalism’s own failures.
In 2020, Illinoisans rejected Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his legislative allies’ push for a progressive income tax scheme in Illinois. And with it, they rejected claims a progressive tax would “modernize” Illinois’ income tax. Right they were. Over the past decade far more states have moved to a flat tax structure than vice-versa.
Data overwhelming shows Illinois is losing population and people to other states.
If ordinary, middle class parents don’t push back against Illinois’ education establishment the only option for their children may soon be their failing neighborhood schools. That’s already the case for the families of Cicero and Berwyn.
There’s little that better highlights the moral bankruptcy of Chicago’s ‘equity’ agenda than a look at how CPS is treating two of its schools: Northside College Prep and Douglass High.
The illegal immigration crisis is surging on a foundation of lies, hypocrisy and distortion, the full consequences of which are yet to be inflicted. As usual, nobody in the Illinois media called Pritzker out on any of this.
“We’re building the most prosperous and accessible cannabis industry in the nation,” Pritzker wrote Sunday
It’s a common sense step that was long overdue and had bipartisan support. Pritzker’s Friday statement on the court decision only called the law “meaningful reform.” That’s progress on two fronts: A good bill and an appropriately modest description.
Join Ted Dabrowski Jan. 22, when he moderates a discussion with Ian Rowe, the founder of Vertex Partnership Academies and a senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, on the power of school choice and the ways to revive it in Illinois. Presented by New Trier Neighbors and the National School Choice Awareness Foundation.
Ownership of almost all small businesses had always been private. If their stock isn’t publicly traded, most companies haven’t needed to disclose the identify of owners anywhere. That’s now over for most U.S. companies.
Illinois’ individual income tax has had a moderating effect on Illinois’ otherwise overall high tax burden. It’s been one of the few tax “advantages” Illinoisans have had. But that advantage has been gradually worn down over the years.
With Chicago short 120,000 affordable housing units, revenue from the Mansion Tax can’t make a material difference.
A glance at the news coverage of the recent Inspector General report on financial and sexual misconduct at Chicago Public Schools shows it’s the fiscal mismanagement that’s getting all the attention. But it’s the more urgent issue of sexual abuse in CPS that should dominate the headlines.
Oopsie. Progressives overlooked the cost of new transmission lines when they spent hundreds of billions of dollars to switch electricity production to wind and solar. Grab your wallet. They’re now pushing a costly fix.
Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski joined the Blessed News Network’s “Inside the Square,” sponsored by Freedom Square, for an in-depth discussion about Gov. Pritzker’s multiple executive orders regarding the migrant crisis, why CPS’ plan to eliminate selective-enrollment schools will only damage student outcomes, and how Illinois’ population losses will result in a loss of political influence in D.C., and more.
Wirepoints joined the Technology & Manufacturing Association, Illinois Policy Institute and the Center for Pension Integrity in drafting a letter to Mayor Johnson regarding the city’s worsening crisis. We’re calling for the Pension Working Group to base its recommendations off the core principles created by the Society of Actuaries.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about how Illinois’ high-ranking taxes continue to burden residents, how government-imposed mandates hurt businesses in Illinois, why motor vehicle thefts in Chicago grew 37% this year, why Illinois politicians care more about the needs of migrants than they do their own constituents, and more.
Suppose, just suppose, for this fall’s elections, a Democratic candidate emerged somewhere in Illinois and said things centrist and popular.
“Spearheaded by research from Wirepoints, a coalition that called itself the Taxpayer Pension Alliance commended Mayor Brandon Johnson for accelerating payments to bring down Chicago’s pension debt. They worried, though, that the Pension Working Group Johnson established will recommend actions that kick the problem down the road.”
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Mayor Johnsons’ plan to open a government-run grocery store while theft continues grow across the nation, how CPS should be held accountable for its millions in lost tech materials and its sexual assault scandals, why Gov. Pritzker’s 18th disaster proclamation for the migrant crisis remains unchallenged, and more.
Pritzker has said that the border situation is “untenable.” Yes, it is, and it’s thanks solely to him and his allies. Vesting nearly unlimited emergency authority in him is the ultimate betrayal of legislative responsibility.
Ted joined Greg Bishop on Air to discuss the latest news concerning Illinois’ population problems and Chicago’s crime statistics for 2023. Ted points out that no matter how you count the census numbers, Illinois is either shrinking or stagnating compared to the rest of the nation.
It wouldn’t be a new year in Illinois without new unfunded mandates on businesses. Of the 300 new laws that took effect January 1, one of the most burdensome on employers is Illinois’ new Paid Leave for All Workers Act.
Ted joined Perry Small of WVON for an in-depth discussion on Chicago’s 2023 homicide and other crime numbers. Ted points out that while homicides are down this year, thankfully, Chicago still suffered more total killings than any other city. Meanwhile, major crimes are up 55% compared to 2019.
Ted joined Scott Slocum of WJOL to talk about the spin on crime Illinoisans can expect as we head into 2024, the fact that Chicago remains the nation’s murder capital, the easy calculus of a Chicago criminal, why Illinoisans continue to move out to less-costly states, and more.
Mark joined the The Shaun Thompson Show to talk about the growing hypocrisy of Illinois’ political leaders regarding the migrant crisis, how crisis nationwide is reaching a tipping point, the vast difference between Democrat and Republican fundraising dollars, why Chicago is the nation’s homicide capital, and more.
Count on hearing repeatedly this year from Chicago’s leadership that it successfully brought down the city’s murder total by 13% in 2023. Chicago finished the year with 617 homicides, down from 709 in 2022. What you’re unlikely to hear are five additional facts that would temper any optimism gained from that first fact.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s misleading end-of-year message on the success of Illinois, how taxpayers are paying billions to provide healthcare services to migrants, how the migrant crisis has exposed a rift between Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson, the final results on Chicago 2023 crime, and more.
For its New Year’s resolution, Illinois should look in the mirror and acknowledge what it is. Illinois’ political leadership is part of today’s progressive left along with the policies they’ve enacted. The public, however, is not.
Two stories developing over the past week have a common theme.
‘Tis the season of giving. For many Illinois politicians, ‘tis also the season of receiving. 
Ted joined Jeff Daley to talk about the latest Census data showing Illinois has lost a quarter of a million people since 2020, how Illinois’ population woes led to a loss of congressional representation, why Mayor Johnson is blaming Gov. Abbott for the migrant crisis when he should be blaming the Biden administration, how Johnson and the CTU are set to shut down Chicago’s top performing schools, and more.
The best solution for pensions is structural reform. But that’s unlikely to happen as long as state politicians continue to receive pension benefits from the same retirement plans they’re supposed to fix. It’s a clear conflict of interest.
Illinois’ leaders can deny the state’s population problems all they want, but a collapse in the state’s number of congressional seats is proof enough of the state’s population woes. The Brennan Center calculates the state will lose another two seats by 2030 if current trends continue.
Details on the lawsuit to halt construction of the plant are in the press release reproduced herein.
The multi-year pattern of population growth among the nation’s big red states – and shrinkage among the big blue – continued in 2023. Texas and Florida remain a magnet for both Americans and foreigners alike. Deep-blue New York, California and Illinois, meanwhile, only drive more Americans away.
It’s another year of population shrinkage for Illinois, the third year in a row. The latest state population estimates for 2023 were released by the US Census and Illinois’ population dropped by 32,000 between July of 2022 and June 2023.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Mayor Johnson’s plan
Several Ivy League schools have been put under a national microscope recently for applying the right to free speech inconsistently. But what also deserves attention are the growing DEI bureaucracies in Illinois’ universities and the significant financial costs associated with them.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ data on Chicago Public Schools’ student reading proficiencies in its new editorial criticizing the district’s decision to end selective enrollment schools. The board says those schools are on the chopping block because their success undermines the union line that public schools merely need more money.
Chicago officials have announced they want to wipe out selective enrollment and magnet schools all in the name of equity. The irony shouldn’t be lost. It’s at those top schools where ‘equity’ is actually being achieved in Chicago.
Not only are Chicago Public Schools failures and incompetence really that bad, they’ve been going on for at least 50 years. Norman Lear, who passed away this month, highlighted those failures all the way back in 1974.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the victory for free speech regarding Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s blatantly unconstitutional pregnancy center law, why Illinois is falling behind our neighbors in tax competitiveness, the collapse in the state’s manufacturing jobs, why the Evanston school district is segregating classrooms, and more.
Illinois’ toxic combination of high taxes, anti-business environment, the nation’s-worst credit rating and overall failed governance continue to cripple its manufacturing sector.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the many new laws that are coming to Illinois on January 1st, why Gov. Pritzker is taking a gamble on EV plants despite their growing failure across the nation, why suburbs are unwilling to assist Chicago with its migrant crisis, the complete failure of Evanston to educate its minority students, and more.
The Tax Foundation released its annual State Business Tax Climate report and Illinois scored 37th out of the 50 states, its worst rank in over a decade. Not only did Illinois worsen, but all of its neighbors improved their competitiveness, some significantly.
Critics are right to call out Evanston Township High School for its segregation of minority students from white students in several Advanced Placement classes. The district’s hypocrisy is on full display. Administrators blame “white-supremacy” and racism to justify those segregated classes, but at the same time they expect little-to-nothing from most of their minority students.
Schools like Evanston Township High School are so obsessed with equity that they no longer care about merit. They blame white supremacy for the achievement gap between white children and minority children. If kids hear that throughout their learning, when they get to competitive courses you will have an excuse to move them to separate classes so they can perform.
It’s fascinating to look back on what was widely agreed about pensions not long ago, and how all that was said is now forgotten.
Pay what’s reasonable to get more pipes replaced more quickly. Instead, Chicago is paying multiples of what it should cost. It’s inexcusable.
COGFA is out with its state pension reports for both FY 2022 and 2023 and its analysis shows that while record-high inflation has reduced the stress of pension costs on the budget in the short-term, those retirement debts continue to be a major threat to the state’s fiscal and economic stability.
Eight states moved to universal choice in 2023 – Ohio, Iowa, North Carolina, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah and Florida. West Virginia and Arizona were already in. Tennessee is 
Gov. Pritzker’s latest campaign pitch was full of statistics and anecdotes designed to make his performance as governor look far better than it really is. The problem is Pritzker’s rhetoric doesn’t match the facts – especially on
Mark talked with WGFA’s Carl Gerdovich about the Gotion controversy: Chinese electric vehicle battery maker Gotion is expected to receive $8 billion in taxpayer subsidies to build a factory in Manteno, Illinois. Opposition to the project is growing stronger, with a majority of Kankakee residents already opposed.
The latest labor report for October shows Illinois still has the nation’s 3rd-worst unemployment rate in the country. A 4.6 percent jobless rate means 297,000 Illinoisans are unemployed.
Frerichs’ unbridled dominion over taxpayer money has gone on far too long, and now borders on megalomania. It’s up to the General Assembly and governor to impose oversight and transparency.
The $200 billion Illinois’ public and private sectors got in federal covid bailouts pulled Illinois back from its decades-long, self-inflicted financial decline. But what the bailouts didn’t do is make a significant dent in the state’s core problems, most notably pensions.
Come listen to Mark Glennon of Wirepoints and other speakers as Manteno citizens rally in opposition to the construction of an EV battery factory by Chinese company Gotion.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how Chicago crime has grown nearly 60 percent compared to 2019, how more criminals are roaming the streets due to no-cash-bail coming into effect, how a Michigan township recalled its entire local government that supported a Gotion deal similar to that in Illinois, why New Trier Neighbors sponsored a discussion on trans issues that impact lives on the North Shore and beyond, and more.
Where Chicago crime heads next year is still tough to guess. Has Chicago’s “crime wave” hit a peak and begun to flatten or trend down, as murders appear to be doing? Or will Chicago’s decarcerationist trend – supported by the end of cash bail and Mayor Johnson’s soft-on-crime policies – embolden criminals to do more?
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ calculations on the more than 1.2 million students that can’t read at grade level in Illinois and what that means for the state now that politicians have killed the state’s one and only school choice program.
Wirepoints interviewed former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Cella of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group – a leading critic of both the Michigan and Illinois Gotion projects – to discuss the stunning recall of the entire slate of township supervisors who supported Gotion in Michigan.
School choice in Illinois is dead. For now. The teachers unions were on a warpath to kill Illinois’ small tax-credit scholarship program, and their Democratic allies weren’t willing to cross them. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon failed to call a bill to a vote this week to extend the program and with that, the Invest in Kids Act sunsets at the end of this year.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how bureaucrats over-regulate businesses that are struggling to survive, how CTU president Stacy Davis Gates receives a tax break from an Indiana home she doesn’t live in, how the fate of the Invest in Kids Act will be decided during this week’s veto session, why per student spending continues to increase despite dismal results in reading and math, and more.
We recently reported new 2023 student outcome data that shows only one-third of Illinois K-12 students statewide can read at grade level and only one-quarter of them are proficient in math. But what’s gotten less attention is just how much Illinoisans are paying for those results.
It’s incredible that Illinois politicians and the teachers unions are focused on maiming – or even killing – the state’s tiny 9,700-student school choice program even though a whopping 1.2 million Illinois public school students can’t read at grade level and 1.4 million aren’t proficient in math.
Through the first third of this fiscal year, which started July 1, total General Funds receipts are up $611 million or 3.8% over the same period last year.
Mark joined Shaun Thompson Show to talk about the latest developments in the Gotion controversy. Wirepoints’ new poll shows a majority of Illinoisans oppose the plan for Gotion to build a EV battery factory in Manteno, Illinois.
A Global Times column directly highlights Gotion’s E.V. battery factories planned for Illinois and Michigan as examples of China’s expected preeminence in the U.S. market.
Subsidies for the new deal reportedly will exceed the excessive Gotion subsidies, and at least some of the new jobs will come at the cost of layoffs elsewhere.
Fresh data from the U.S. Census continues to point to the loss of Illinoisans to domestic outmigration: Illinois netted a loss of 116,000 residents to other states in 2022. Those losses are on top of the 141,000 Illinoisans that fled in 2021.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about how Illinois student outcomes are still below 2019 levels despite a $6 billion increase in spending, how many students are grade levels behind despite a vast majority of teachers being rated “excellent or proficient,” how college professors are struggling to teach recent graduates, and more.
By 53% to 27% — a spread of 26% — Illinois voters are opposed to the Chinese project. Opposition significantly exceeds support in both parties, all age groups, both sexes and in all regions of the state. For independent voters, opponents outnumber supporters 48% to 28% in the statewide poll and 51% to 16% in the Kankakee poll. Voter opposition in Kankakee County is still stronger, with 59% opposed and 29% supportive — a spread of 30% — with 43% “strongly opposed.”
Good on NBC 5 for not listening to ISBE’s rhetoric about Illinois’ 2023 student outcomes and instead citing the dismal results highlighted in Wirepoints’ report. Reporter Mary Ann Ahern pointed out that just 8 percent of black students statewide could do math at grade level this year. Ted pointed out that education officials are too focused on spending more money instead of what matters most: literacy.
The casual skimmer of news can’t be blamed for thinking things are good in Illinois schools. But Wirepoints has analyzed the 2023 data and found there’s little to cheer about. Yes, 2023 student outcomes are somewhat improved over 2022, but they are still below pre-covid 2019 levels. And that’s despite a whopping $6 billion increase in operating expenses statewide.
Ted joined Cities 92.9’s Cat Petersen to talk about the latest attempt by Illinois’ political class to claim Illinois is growing. All the evidence, from the U.S. Census Bureau to the IRS to United Van Lines to U-Haul to Allied Van Lines, shows Illinois losing far more residents to other states than it gains. Illinois consistently ranks at the bottom of most population/migration statistics.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how the migrant crisis has Chicago in chaos, how Venezuelans are lying in order to get asylum, how researchers set to talk on gender dysmorphia have once again been ‘canceled’, how Pritzker is forcing Illinois residents to beg for an extension of the Invest in Kids Act, and more.
That’s apparent in the material at the top of 
Ted was on The Chicago Way with John Kass and Jeff Carlin to talk about his recent visit to the Chicago Police Station at Division & Larrabee, where he met with Venezuelan migrants who’d been recently bused from the US/Mexico border. What he found was nothing but chaos and a city with no plan for how to take care of thousands of migrants – never mind the city and state’s “welcoming” sanctuary status.
And “everyone in the Venezuelan community knows that it’s a lie,” he says.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ calculations on the billions of taxpayer dollars that will be spent on Gotion Inc., a Chinese EV battery manufacturer, so that the company will build a factory in Illinois.
Among America’s current insanities, few are more pernicious than deliberate incitement of division, especially on race. Among officeholders most guilty, two are here in Illinois.
Mark joined Amy and John to talk about the why there’s no plan to help the 20 communities in Chicago that suffer the worst combination of violence and a dismal education, the $14 billion CPS wants to spend on its half-empty schools, and the latest costs imposed by the migrant crisis.
There’s a good reason why Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis-Gates is sending her son to a private school instead of the public one in her neighborhood. Roseland is one of the 20 worst communities in Chicago where violence and a dismal education intersect, creating a toxic environment for families.
A drop of 13.5% from the last reported poll.
“This unprecedented period in our nation’s history” – that’s the phrase used by the American Sheriff’s Association. But that’s understatement. When has any nation destroyed itself in plain view with the full support of its elected government?
The Gotion project proposed for Manteno, Illinois is nearly identical to the Gotion project in Michigan, which is one project that the poll is clearly about, though not named.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Gov. Pritzker’s support for Israel in contrast to other politicians who refuse to fully condemn the attacks, Pritzker’s hypocritical comments when it comes to the Gotion controversy, the disregard for local control regarding the migrant mess, and more.
Search the Chicago Tribune’s site for “far right” and “right wing” and you will find a total of 5,465 articles. Search “far left” and “left wing” and you will find less than half that — only 2,477. They were at it again Wednesday.
With some of the pillars of Illinois political culture for the last 50 years crumbling around them, you would think that the current leadership of the General Assembly might reflect on these developments and change their ways. Nope. Michael Madigan’s ways are now standard operating procedure.
Questions mount as the fight reached one presidential candidate’s podium.
CPS is at it again. The district says it needs $14.4 billion to address emergency building repairs and to fully renovate all 522 of its public school buildings. What Chicagoans should know is that much of that money would be wasted on hundreds of half-empty schools. Over one-third of the city’s 473 traditional schools are at less than 50 percent capacity.
The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman took a look at Chicago’s wave of robberies in his “Best of the Web” column on Monday. He cited Wirepoints’ latest data on the city’s unanswered 911 calls which shows that Chicago victims can no longer count on prompt assistance.
Miller and the papers that publish him should be helping spread warnings from U.S. counterintelligence and top officials from both parties about dealing with Chinese operations, not countermanding them. His column is wrong on key facts, reckless and irresponsible.
Ted was on the The Shaun Thompson Show to discuss the corrupt nature of commercial property assessments in Chicago, why Illinois home values have barely grown over the past 20 years, Gov. Pritzker’s failure to keep his promise to lower property taxes, how Illinois’ 7,000 units of government overwhelm residents’ ability to hold them accountable and more.
Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon joins IL Freedom Caucus Reps Miller, Wilhour & Halbrook to talk about the latest developments in the Gotion controversy. Gotion Inc., a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, is set to receive $8 billion in taxpayer subsidies to build a $2 billion battery factory in Manteno, Illinois.
Congressman Jim Jordan’s visit to Chicago did more than expose the depth of the city’s crime crisis and how badly police have been handcuffed in their job to protect Chicagoans. It also exposed the willingness of city officials to distort the truth in the face of political pressure, and the ease with which some in the media will accept those distortions.
Character is destiny, it has long been said, but the courage to take a stand is an essential element of real character. Stand up as Manteno residents are doing. Stand up against all that’s going wrong in America and Illinois. Stand up in whatever way you can. The majority of our people will then prevail and their character will again be America’s destiny.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker promised to cut property taxes in 2020, part of his State of the State speech. Nearly four years on and he’s done nothing for homeowners. In fact the pain has only gotten worse. Illinois falls dead last nationally when it comes to home value appreciation since 2000 – worse even than Michigan.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ Chicago crime data in their piece criticizing Mayor Johnson’s idea to open government-run grocery stores on the South and West sides of Chicago.
Pritzker is dead wrong to brush off criticism of his Gotion battery project as “MAGA Republican” and “xenophobic.”
Ted joined Cat Petersen to talk about to talk about the first criminal released under Illinois’ new no-cash-bail law, how Gotion’s deep ties to the CCP pose a threat to Illinoisans, and why the chance of criminals getting caught and punished in Chicago is near zero.
The spin is on. A few media outlets have gotten early access to the newest test data for Chicago Public Schools, and the 
Maybe we are past the point of merely needing answers and should simply demand that all Gotion projects in the U.S. be cancelled -– based on evidence we already have.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about Illinois taxpayers being forced to subsidize EV-maker Gotion, Northwestern’s poor treatment of free speech, that the chance of a Chicago criminal getting caught and punished is near-zero, the hypocrisy of CTU President Gates sending one of her children to a private school, the need for a whole new model of education in Illinois, and more.
Chicago has experienced 225,000 urgent 911 calls with no police available so far this year. Victims of robbery, sexual assault, battery, stabbings and shootings will continue to wait hours for police to help them because of the failed policies of Chicago’s leadership.
Univision News anchor Enrique Rodríguez interviewed Ted as part of Univision’s in-depth analysis of Wirepoints’ new report: “Chicago criminals have green light to rob, loot, burgle as odds of punishment collapse to near zero.”
For Chicago and Illinois, suicide is apparently preferable to the only real solution available – ending sanctuary status and demanding that the border be enforced. Why?
“That’s how I am ultimately going to grade whether our public school system is working — based upon the investments we make to the people who rely on it,” Johnson said.
FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, this week it released it’s new, comprehensive rankings of 248 colleges and universities for student free speech and open inquiry.
Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday night blasted critics, arguing that he’s being held to a “different standard” as a black man.
She thought she was making the case for her choice to send a child to a private, Catholic high school. But teacher union honcho Stacy Davis-Gates couldn’t have made a better case for school choice as a policy.
Mark joined WXAN radio host Will Stephens to talk about the one-sided attack on pro-life activists’ free speech, why the anti-doxing law is horribly written with the goal of suppressing political criticism, how freedom of thought and freedom of speech is at risk in law schools, and more.
Hypocrisy at its most revolting: Look at what Stacy Davis-Gates and her union have said about school choice and the Invest in Kids Act, then compare her own choice.
Mark joined Greg Bishop of WMAY talk about Gov. Pritzker’s assault on free speech, why the federal courts took such a strong stand against the state’s new law policing abortion speech, how the new doxing bill is another example of the government’s attack on the First Amendment, and more.
It’s early days for Chicago’s new top cop Larry Snelling and we don’t know much about him, but it was hard to ignore what he said – and what he didn’t – in his introduction as the city’s new superintendent.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about why Illinois’ progressive policies harm black residents across jobs, incomes, poverty, education – it’s all a disaster. They also discuss Mayor Johnson’s own harmful policies and his inability to accomplish anything within his first 100 days, how Chicago’s sky-high commercial property taxes hurt businesses that want to stay in the city, and more.
Last month Wirepoints wrote about how Illinois’ progressive and equity-focused policies have inflicted harm on the state’s minorities, particularly its black residents, on issues like employment. The same problem holds true for issues like poverty and household incomes.
Former NYT reporter Mary Walsh features Wirepoints’ recent trip to Peoria in a piece that looks at the state of public education in the city. Back in the days of the Nixon Administration, White House political operatives gauged every public policy decision against a question: “will it play in Peoria?” The article covers what’s playing in Peoria now.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s fact-indifferent routine for dismissing criticism reached a new low last week. “Carnival barkers,” his standard response to any critics, apparently now includes the Wall Street Journal, or at least sources like Wirepoints that they cite.
Finally, a Chicago Democratic alderman that‘s willing to talk in a direct, no-nonsense way about the city’s major problems, notably crime, education and the city’s increasing embrace of Socialism. Ald. Ray Lopez doesn’t shy away from the violence and education metrics that plague most parts of the city.
The current total of Illinoisans working is just 1.7% higher than it was 23 years ago. In other words, the number of jobs held in Illinois is essentially no better than it was in 2000, lagging badly behind employment growth for the nation and all but one of our neighboring states.
Chicago’s crime wave is still on the move nearly two-thirds of the way through 2023. The number of total major crimes committed in the city through July is 34 percent higher than the same period in 2022, which in turn was 33 percent higher than in 2021, according to the city’s crime data portal.
Ted joined Steve Cochran to talk about Peoria’s dismal education results, how 10 of the 24 schools within SD 150 have no more than 5 out of 100 students able to read at grade level, why the education system lacks accountability, why Illinoisans are paying out-of-control property taxes to fund education, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the systemic failure of Peoria’s school system; how schools can be rated “commendable” when less than a quarter of students can read at grade level; the excuses Peoria’s superintendent has for students’ dismal achievement, including blaming historical racism and classism; why Gov. Pritzker denies the education data that comes from his own Board of Education; and more.
Emblematic of Oakland’s change is an open letter sent last week by none other than the Oakland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a leading Black minister.
What does it really mean? Goodies for the union members of course.
Wirepoints traveled to Peoria Wednesday to discuss with two local groups the failure of the Peoria public school systems to educate students in the tri-county area. In Peoria School District 150, just 5 of every 100 black students can read at grade level. In math, it’s just 2 in 100.
Wirepoints was interviewed by Peoria’s 25News Now to discuss the failure of the Peoria public school system to educate students in the tri-county area. In Peoria School District 150, just 1% of students at Manual High School, only 3% at Peoria High and 31% of students at Richwoods High, can read at grade level, according to state numbers for the past academic year.
The latest mayhem in Chicago saw hundreds of youth loot a 7-Eleven in the city’s South Loop. Mayor Johnson handled the event just as he’s done in the past – by justifying youth violence.
What the law gave with one hand it took away with another, stoking political and racial division.
CPS recently announced it’s using Clemente High School as an enrollment center for the city’s illegal immigrants. The Johnson administration said it wants “to ensure better educational outcomes.” At Clemente, just 5 of every 100 students are proficient in reading.
An Illinois appellate panel last week affirmed a trial court ruling dismissing Emily Fox’s whistleblower action in the Jenny Thornley saga that we’ve covered closely.
AFSCME and Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently agreed to a new 4-year contract that will reportedly increase state costs by $625 million over the next four years. It’s a perfect example of the divide between Illinois’ two-classes of workers.
Ted joined Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur to talk about Illinois’ high unemployment rate – including the nation’s 2nd-highest black unemployment rate, the state’s poor jobs climate, why so much of Illinois’ problems are due to the state’s poor policies, why equity initiatives harm the very minorities they supposedly help, and more.
As you in the private sector assess the impact of the recent Supreme Court ruling on racial preferences, rely on a better lawyer than Kwame Raoul.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the three big lessons we should learn from Detroit’s bankruptcy, how 10% of black Illinois residents are unemployed, why equity and progressive policies continue to perpetuate the downward spiral Illinois is headed on, and more.
Wirepoints has documented in detail how Illinois’ progressive and equity-focused policies have inflicted harm on minorities. Now add the state’s jobs climate to that list. Illinois is an extreme national outlier when it comes to fostering a robust jobs environment for black residents.
The latest labor report for June shows Illinois still has the nation’s 5th-worst unemployment rate in the country. A 4.0 percent jobless rate means 258,000 Illinoisans were still unemployed as of June. 
The failure of Chicago Public Schools to teach the city’s children is undeniable. The question is, just how far behind are those students? That data shows CPS’ failures are even more dismal than first thought. Most students are nowhere near proficiency.
Mark joined Annie Frey Show to talk about Illinois’ underperforming economy, why the state has been living on the federal dole since the pandemic started, why Illinois is such a high-tax state, and how Illinois loses the race for people and businesses just by standing still on reforms.
Ted was on Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier to talk about how the Chicago Teachers Union has morphed into an organization more interested in pursuing “social justice” instead of helping students learn. Under their control, only 11 out of every 100 black students in Chicago can read at grade level, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s most-recent data.
Illinois expressly grants “bonus points” to racial minority-owned applicants for cannabis. But the U.S. Supreme Court last month all but banned racial preferences by government as violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Poof. Over $25 billion of debt earlier reported just disappeared. The unfunded liability of Illinois’ three big healthcare trust funds for government workers is about $25.1 billion less than last reported — a 43% reduction.
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 been for decades.
So now we have a federal judgement rendered on Friday affirming that the alleged harassment was a lie, but still nothing on the fraudulent workers’ compensation claim on which it was based or the Pritzker Administration’s alleged involvement.
Ted joined Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur to talk about 
Good news for now, but just as states beat their revenue forecasts during the pandemic because they underestimated the impact of federal money, the reverse may now happen as the federal binge ends.
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered three historic decisions Friday. The response by leading Illinois progressives insulted not just the Court but most Americans — who side with the Court.
If you’re looking for some good news about Chicago crime, here’s some. 
Friday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is about far more than college admissions for both public and private sectors.
This sure is enlightening. Check out the priorities of new leaders in Chicago’s City Council.
Ted joined Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur to talk about the tax increases facing Illinoisans on July 1st, why taxes drive people out and reasons why the book ban “ban” is a political stunt.
FOX32 Chicago highlighted Wirepoints’ Wednesday press conference in front of the Chicago Public Schools headquarters, where a coalition of concerned Chicagoans spoke out against the district’s 5% tax hike. Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski explained: “the problem is parents aren’t putting up with this. People are fleeing CPS. It’s too expensive, the teaching is not working, and in less than 20 years, it’s gone down 116,000 students.”
Recent Chicagoland price increases continue, though the longer term shows a different story.
Take a look at the graphic in this piece and then decide if Chicago Public Schools and the unions that run them deserve a penny more from city residents – or, for that matter, from any other taxpayers in Illinois or the rest of the country.
“As mayor, I will not raise property taxes.“ That was a key message Brandon Johnson made during his run for Chicago mayor. Now less than two months since he assumed power, the Chicago Public Schools board is set to hike property taxes by 5 percent and there’s no pushback whatsoever from Mayor Johnson.
“Good riddance,” Illinois progressives often say to fleeing centrists and conservatives, and “welcome” to progressives. Illinois now has stronger competition in the region for that kind of thinking.
Illinois’ constant bleed of residents to other states has been well documented. Now the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released data that shows businesses are leaving Illinois, too.
Book ban ban bunk.
The Chicago Public Schools recently responded to a Wirepoints report and press conference that called out the school district for its failure to educate students. Rather than take responsibility for the district’s dismal results, however, officials only made excuses and empty promises.
This time it’s for Illinois’ political leadership to answer. Tell us, why have your “equity” policies failed so miserably?
Top executives in the financial world and research reports by financial advisers are saying it’s clearly plausible that Pres. Joe Biden would drop out of the race and be replaced, perhaps, by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker or California Gov. Gavin Newsom, two possibilities mentioned by name.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how Hispanic students, which make up nearly half of the population of Chicago Public Schools, are largely unable to read at grade level, how Gov. Pritzker can deny out-migration from Illinois despite all the evidence, why the CTU continues to get whatever it wants from Mayor Johnson, and more.
The state has long simply ignored the problem so the liability grew, and was never reflected in “balanced budgets.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker continuously denies Illinois is losing population, but sources all keep pointing in the same direction – people are leaving Illinois for other states in record numbers. More than 146,000 net Illinoisans left for other states in 2021 and now we now know where they moved to.
Speeches Friday promoting universal basic income by Mayor Johnson and Cook County Board President Preckwinkle, plus a new column by Jackson Potter of the Chicago Teachers Union, tell us much about what Chicago faces.
Telemundo Chicago joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where 85% of students graduate despite just 4% of them being proficient in reading, to cover Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.” Wirepoints has added English subtitles to the interview.
There is no end to the further damage Kim Foxx may inflict on Cook County in her final years.
ABC 7, FOX 32, Telemundo, Univision and WBBM joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where 85% of students graduate despite just 4% of them being proficient in reading, to cover Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.”
WBBM Radio joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where only 48 out of 1,700 students can do math at grade level, to report on Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.”
News anchor Enrique Rodríguez interviewed Ted as part of Univision’s in-depth analysis of Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.” Wirepoints has added English subtitles to the interview.
FOX 32 Chicago joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where only 70 out of 1,700 students can read at grade level, to report on Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.”
Ted was interviewed as part of Fox News Illinois’ investigation into the salary hike state lawmakers just gave themselves. State politicians are responsible for the policies that consistently leave Illinois at the bottom of the barrel nationally – they don’t deserve a new annual salary that’s 25% higher than the state’s median household income of $72,205.
El futuro de Chicago depende en gran parte del éxito de los estudiantes hispanos de hoy. Pero el sistema escolar de la ciudad les está fallando. Sólo 17 de cada 100 estudiantes hispanos pueden leer al nivel de su grado. Y sólo 12 de cada 100 son competentes en matemáticas.
“When you think of a place like Chicago, these kids, you’re more likely to get shot than you are to get a world-class education in some of these places.” Hyperbole, maybe, but not that far off if you only consider the city’s struggling black community.
Have mercy if this list is woefully incomplete. The recently concluded session of the Illinois General Assembly sent a blizzard of some 560 bills to Gov. JB Pritzker for signature, so we certainly don’t know what all is in them.
Pritzker’s comments Wednesday about violence prevention were to the same effect as Johnson’s that were widely ridiculed earlier in the week.
Illinois lawmakers are responsible for policies that consistently leave Illinois at the bottom of the barrel nationally – from debts to taxes to credit ratings to out-migration. And yet those lawmakers have just hiked their base pay by nearly $5,000, to $89,675 a year – the 4th-highest pay in the country.
If you relied on the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times for news, you’d know nothing about four major, national scandals.
Ted joined Steve Cochran to talk about Chicago’s massive pension debts, how lawmakers are about to increase those debts by adding benefits to police and fire pensions, why Chicago residents can soon expect a major tax hike, why Illinois is stuck in a vicious cycle of residents leaving, and more.
Where, but in Illinois, would an advocacy group that claims people don’t move because of high taxes get grants for economic development? That’s the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, which also supports pretty much every tax and spending idea that comes along.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ Report Card data in their latest piece condemning Illinois lawmakers for killing the Invest in Kids Act at the behest of the state’s teachers unions.
Illinois lawmakers are considering major pension boosts for Chicago police and firefighters this week even though those pension plans are effectively insolvent and among the nation’s worst-off. The benefit increases threaten the already-tenuous retirement security of Chicago police and firefighters and create an additional burden on city taxpayers.
Thirty-two state lawmakers have stepped up their efforts to save the Invest in Kids Act, Illinois’ tax credit scholarship for more than 9,000 students. Those who refuse to show their support are effectively giving in to the teachers unions, which strongly oppose Invest in Kids and are actively pushing to end the program.
The potential of Chicago entering a “doom loop” is finally getting the attention it deserves, but one part deserves special notice: the coming massive shift in property tax burdens from commercial to residential owners in Chicago.
Reversal of the work-from-home trend arguably provides the best hope for breaking what’s now often called the “doom loop” for downtown areas like Chicago’s. Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t cooperating.
A short exchange on he House floor says it all about how your money is to be spent.
Ted and Matt Paprocki of the Illinois Policy Institute joined Craig Dellimore of WBBM Radio for a special interview covering the risks Brandon Johnson faces as Mayor. Ted and Matt agreed that more cops won’t matter unless city officials restore the chain of criminal justice: to arrest, prosecute and sentence again. Ted also said Johnson should be obsessed with achieving literacy among Chicago’s schoolchildren, but worries the Mayor will try to erase standards instead.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wrongly compared the fatal police shooting of an armed 13-year-old to the murder of a police officer by a group of teenagers. Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon highlighted how the mayor’s comment leads to a further demoralization of Chicago’s police force.
Two weeks ago Wirepoints warned that the Invest in Kids Act was at real risk of being eliminated by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the legislature. Chalkbeat effectively confirmed that on Wednesday. The scholarships likely won’t be part of the budget negotiations this week and will instead be pushed to later in the year, just as we warned.
You gotta hand it to today’s left when it comes to the path to power. The title on their proposal is “First We Get the Money: $12 billion to fund a just Chicago,” echoing the wisdom in a famous line in the movie Scarface, “First you get the money, then you get the power….”
“As an educator in the inner cities, I’ve seen and lived the reasons why our young people are not learning. And as a parent who has raised three sons and a daughter and has grandkids in this system, parents need real choice.”
The Wall Street Journal’s James Freedman highlighted Wirepoints’ Report Card data in his piece criticizing Mayor Johnson’s union-friendly/anti-taxpayer requirements for the post of deputy mayor.
Illinois government schools lost 0.8% of their enrollment last year. Only Hawaii lost more
Chicago’s transition to an elected school board doesn’t start for another year and a half, but the predictable is already unfolding. A draft map released last week is gerrymandered by race, so racial fighting ensued.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ Report Card data in their piece condemning Evanston Township High School’s attempt to return to “separate but equal” by restricting certain AP classes to specific races.
Ted Dabrowski joined former state Rep. Ken Dunkin to talk about how Illinois lawmakers may kill the state’s only school choice program, how bad Chicago Public Schools’ student outcomes really are, why power over education should be taken from administrators/unions and returned to parents, and more.
Ted joined Scott Slocum of WJOL to 
Gov. JB Pritzker reflected this week on how he and the state handled the pandemic. No remorse whatsoever about the long list of errors made.
Indiana, too, is moving toward a universal school choice program. Some 95,000 kids are expected to use the voucher program in 2025, up from 53,000 today. Contrast that to Illinois’ tax credit program which awards scholarships to just 9,000 students. The Invest in Kids Act is worth just 0.16% of Illinois’ public system, and yet teachers unions consider the scholarships to be an existential threat to their existence.
Educational freedom. That’s what the Iowa legislature is set to give families in the Hawkeye State later this year with the passage of the 
“General Funds revenues took a dramatic turn in April 2023 as receipts fell a stunning $1.844 billion as compared to the same month the year prior.”
Even a discussion about central principles of The Enlightenment — reason, logic, evidence and tolerance of competing ideas — gets censored by the thought police.
Wirepoints joined FOX 32’s GoodDay Chicago to talk about the challenges facing Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, including Illinois and Chicago’s loss of residents (which Gov. Pritzker continues to deny), the increasingly empty downtown, why high taxes, growing crime and a lack of opportunity are forcing people and businesses out, and more.
Sources have informed Wirepoints that the school scholarship program for Illinois students is dead. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson and others in the state legislature are going to kill the program for low-income, working-class families when it comes up for renewal this legislative session.
There’s no indicator quite as damning of a state’s failure to govern than the flight of its residents to other states. In Illinois’ case, the state is doubly damned, as IRS migration 
Ted joined the WJPF Morning Newswatch to talk about the new IRS data migration data that shows Illinois lost another 105,000 people to other states in 2020, Gov. Pritzker’s denial of the IRS and its facts, the problems that are causing Illinoisans to leave in droves, and more.
Last week the progressive, public union-friendly CTBA released a detailed proposal to expand Illinois’ estate tax by lowering the “exclusion amount” thereby subjecting more Illinois estates to the tax.
The Chicago Tribune last week ran a guest op-ed by four New Trier Township residents about “right wing” groups around the country trying to influence school board elections with “extreme partisanship” and “national agendas.” It contains claims the Tribune knows or should know are false — as well as a phony narrative the Tribune itself routinely tries to paint.
“They’re young. Sometimes they make silly decisions,” Johnson said as he doubled down on his language regarding the recent teen takeover of Chicago’s downtown. It’s madness for Johnson to equate typical teen stupidity with the kind of violence that Chicago’s youth inflicted.
By overwhelming margins, Americans don’t want biological men competing in women’s sports. But on Thursday, every Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against a bill to ban transgender females from school sports teams.
Ted joined Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur to talk about Brandon Johnson’s reception in Springfield, the impact of the teen takeover of Chicago over the past weekend, the city’s vacant downtown office buildings and what that means for property taxes, Illinois’ risky property market, and more.
Wirepoints’ special homicide report was cited by Politico in its coverage of U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s Judiciary Committee Manhattan crime hearing. Politico is the latest news outlet to use Wirepoints’ report, following ABC and CNN.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the “teen takeover” of Chicago’s downtown, the lack of response from Chicago’s traditional institutions, how New York City managed to get its homicide problem under control decades ago, the problem of repeat criminal offenders, Brandon Johnson’s potential tax hike trouble, and more.
Remember when Gov. Pritzker promised gas price “relief” – just in time for his reelection campaign last year? Well that’s come and gone and Illinoisans are still getting stiffed, paying the highest gas prices of any state east of the Rockies. That’s in large part because Illinois has the second-highest gas taxes in the country.
Wirepoints’ special homicide report was cited by a CNN “fact check” of the fight between Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan over New York City’s crime statistics. CNN used our data to confirm that NYC had a far lower 2022 homicide rate compared to fellow big cities like Chicago and Philadelphia.
Illinois lawmakers are moving toward stacking the pension system further in favor of only the most senior public union members while ignoring cost to taxpayers and other, huge problems with Tier 2.
Hampton advocated for violent, communist revolution in America. He invoked the worst of history’s communists in the name of that cause. Mayor-Elect Johnson says he was “one of the great educators and organizers,” part of the rich history of Chicago’s West Side.
Ted joined Newsmax to discuss the Walmart’s decision to shut half of its Chicago stores. The company’s decision, Ted says, was likely driven by the city’s growing crime, high taxes and political dysfunction. Its those same issues that have driven out other companies like Boeing and Citadel.
“Corporate racism.” “Disinvestment.” ”A broken promise.” That’s the criticism Walmart is getting from activists and politicians for its abrupt decision to close half of its Chicago stores. Perhaps Walmart would have stayed if it saw any chance of improvement in the city’s trajectory.
Ted joined Cat Petersen to discuss Chicago’s crime facts: that Chicago has led the nation in total homicides for 11 years in a row, that the city’s 2022 arrest rate was an abysmal 5%, that the city’s policies make it hard for police to do their job, that Brandon Johnson’s policies will only make things worse, and more.
Wirepoints’ recent homicide report escalated the war of words between Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and U.S. House Rep. Jim Jordan over President Trump’s indictment. 
Massive deficits loom at Chicago Public Schools despite billions in recent federal bailout money, persistent property tax increases, plummeting enrollment, empty schools and abysmal outcomes for students.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson’s plan to multiply the taxes on city businesses, the failure of the city’s elite to challenge Chicago’s failed policies, the city’s recent loss in population, the continued crime spike, why Chicago’s pension crisis will soon reemerge, and more.
Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson’s primary focus on crime is on “root causes,” with little-to-no emphasis on containing today’s out-of-control violence. It’s a strategy doomed to failure. Tackling root causes is important, but they take a long time to address. What Chicago requires immediately is deterrence.
Eli Steele was spot on: “When we use race as a means to power, we’re never really focusing on the problems that are right in front of us.” Johnson used race as a means to power and there’s no reason to expect him to stop.
Ted joined Jeff Daly of WZUS Decatur to talk about the results of Chicago’s mayoral election and why it matters to downstate Illinoisans, why residents chose the extreme progressive policies of Brandon Johnson, the dismal results found in Wirepoints’ school district Report Cards, why Gov. Pritzker is still issuing disaster proclamations, and more.
Even if Chicago hadn’t elected radically left Brandon Johnson as mayor, state legislation to address the existential threats to the city would have been required. Johnson’s election makes state intervention all the more essential.
Brandon Johnson had the smarts to know you’re now a real Chicagoan if you’re what we used to call a deadbeat.
Chicagoans kicked out Lori Lightfoot, a mayor more interested in imposing a progressive vision on Chicago than enacting reforms. Change was possible. But by voting for Brandon Johnson on April 4, Chicagoans chose someone even more extreme and exactly the opposite of what the city needs.
Several of our articles quoting Chicago Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson verbatim are spreading on social media. We are providing this aggregation to help condense them.
Today, Wirepoints added the rest of the state’s 830 school districts to our dedicated webpage, meaning parents across the state now have the data to hold their local districts accountable.
It’s a sorry day for journalism and the country when a paper like the Tribune dismisses constitutionalism as extremism.
The Wall Street Journal journalist Jason L. Riley cited Wirepoints’ Matt Rosenberg in his new piece about the Chicago mayoral election. Matt said that next week’s election may well hinge on Hispanic voters and their opinions on the city’s crime wave.
The CTU’s own description makes clear it was about expanding its vast political goals — through schools.
The Chicago Tribune Guild last week went public with contract demands that the Chicago Tribune’s owner, Alden Capital, agree to more minority hiring.
Ted joined Enrique Rodríguez of Univision to talk about how Illinois’ education system is failing its Hispanic students. Just 18% of Hispanic students can read at grade level in Illinois. Meanwhile, education spending rises, taxes constantly increase and residents’ home values suffer.
There are cracks emerging daily in the firmament of Chicago’s storied and corrosive racial politics. That’s evident now in the final mayoral run-off contest between black progressive Brandon Johnson and white technocrat Paul Vallas.
Ted joined the Steve Cochran Show to discuss what “woke ideology” is, why social promotion hurts CPS students’ education, and how much the CTU may influence Brandon Johnson’s decisions if he wins the mayoral election.