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 city needs more money and the mayor is not willing to kick the pension can down the road just to avoid increasing taxes. Scoop up those TIF funds and raise those property taxes. A world class city like Chicago needs more money and it’s about time the voters pay their fair share.
Or, get a bunch of limo libs from, say, Oswego to dig deep into their pockets and donate to the city that is always crying for more. OT, any word on your neighbor that snuck the gun into the White Sox game ?
Don’t forget Johnson seems to have millions salted away in some sort of “Development Fund” that I read about here the other day. By the way was thinking the other day that I haven’t seen you post in a while and glad to see you are ok and still with us all