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Dan McConchie: "Illinois state pension systems are the worst funded in the nation...And the legislator pension system is the worst funded of them all. Typically, a pension system is considered healthy when it is funded at 90% of its total obligations. The legislator pension system is funded at a shockingly low 15.9%."
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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.
A legislator’s pension contributions should be based on salary, benefits, kickbacks and bribes
And eventually getting a nice cushy lobbyist or consulting job to boot.
Sociologist Diane Vaughn coined the term ‘normalization of deviance’ to describe a cultural drift in which circumstances classified as “not okay” are slowly reclassified as “okay.” In my opinion, Vaughn’s premise is applicable to the Illiinois legislatures cognitive dissonance. Social normalization of deviance means that people within the organization become so much accustomed to a deviant behavior that they don’t consider it as deviant, despite the fact that they far exceed their own rules for their’s and others elementary safety. It is a complex process with some kind of organizational acceptance. The people outside see the situation as deviant whereas… Read more »