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.
I would like to see a housing provider protection act. Some mom-and-pop housing providers got abused during the eviction moratorium. So few want to be in the business. As long as the cost to evict deadbeats and fraudsters goes up, rent will go up. As Chicago piles on anti-landlord laws that favor criminals and squatters, maybe only big corporations with a legal staff can survive. Hope the big corporations keep demanding fees to help pay for property damage and to pay personnel and maintenance and a lawyer. Makes tenants aware they need to take responsibility for their actions and that… Read more »
Is it OK to upvote my own post?
Reese, we’d let you do it on that one if we could. You’re right on.