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.
Then, the tax bill more than doubled to more than $12,000 a year.
Boo-hoo-hoo Twila, I was paying that eight years ago living in Will County. The new owners of our old home are paying $15K/year. PPF needs his retirement money honey!
Note to ABC7 paid interns Jason Knowles and Maggie Green:
Communities of ALL colors are overtaxed in Illinois. This is what happens when political animals can’t say no to government employees’ expensive demands.
It’s all about the “ folks in the community “. They have suffered like no one else in history, by some people’s estimation.
Preckwinkle needs to stop overtaxing suburbs to fund Chicago.