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Jim Dey: "For now, Illinois is OK in the short-term. But in the long-term, it’s still the same old story — look out below. Pension and retiree health care debts exceed $200 billion. The state’s chronic under-funding of its public pensions remains an albatross hanging over the state’s. Even as the state prepares to direct 20% of its annual budgets for the rest of the decades to pension, its pension and retiree health care debts will continue to increase."
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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
24 Comments
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
2 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
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
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.
WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times falsely blame Texas Gov. Abbott for 2020 to 2024 surge in Chicago Latino HIV, AIDS infections – Wirepoints Quickpoint
March 31, 2026
11 Comments
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
Silly rabbits, there is no “pension headache”. It does not matter if the money is in that specific bucket. It is somewhere. Eddie Burkes wife and the rest of the IL Supreme Kangaroo Court will make sure those pensions always get made and paid. And as much as it stinks, until the US Supreme Court rules on it or the law is changed, they should. The pensions are earned and these are the rules as determined by the voters of the state of IL.
Well said.
An interesting assumption, “the money is somewhere”. Because the rules say it is.
We know exactly where the money is. About 40% of it is in pension funds. The remaining is in taxes yet collected from Illinois’ $1 trillion economy, the 5th largest economy in the US. Lots of areas to increase taxes. The :”rule” states that taxes will be raised before any cuts. This is what the voters decided.
Very misleading article. The state funds are not there to maintain the budget shell game Mr Dey crows about.
But Dey’s point was that the state funds are not there to maintain the budget shell game played by Pritzker.
Are you guys going to do a story on Epstein’s records being released, where JBP’s brother is mentioned…?
What is going on is called a “Debt spiral” and it will not end good. The pensions have figured out a way to steal from unborn children of Illinois for generations.
Hmm, millions of unborn children have been aborted in Illinois. I don’t think this is gonna work out…..