Audio: Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon says Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades – Chicago’s Morning Answer
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Illinois lost another 54,000 tax filers and dependents, net, according to the IRS. Since 2000, fleeing taxpayers have taken $94 billion of annual adjusted gross income with them.
The tax payers of Illinois or the rest of the United States shouldn’t be responsible to fund the corruption, waste and greed happening every single day at CPS. CPS has made no attempt to address the real problem of spending, inefficiency and mismanagement. Nothing. Close it. Fire them all. Leave it closed.
FFS, why is it that Mayor Raggedy and the rest of these clowns have no concept of living within your means?
Lay off the 9,000 teachers hired during covid, budget problem solved.
No more money for Chicago until CPS starts actually starts teaching and improving education and student tests scores scores.