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.
They’re starting to see the writing on the wall. When you have to lock thousands of protesters out of meetings to prevent them from sharing their opinion, maybe it’s time to rethink your position.
They may see the writing on the wall. But that doesn’t mean they can read it.
Did the 1,000,000 Pink P***y Hats stop Trump? No, no they did not. I’m not being pedantic here but they did not. The office confers the power and the holder of the office does as they wish. Sure, some politicians fold with a little public pressure (the typical RINO). But the progressive has shown otherwise and rarely, if ever folds to public opposition. The progressive knows their public policy positions aren’t popular. They know only a handful of people agree with them. But they aren’t trying to win popularity contests. They put themselves in office to make revolution, not pander… Read more »
This is DOA
JB himself has said this whole thing has been a failure.
It took centuries for the Catholic Church to admit the earth orbited the sun. Do you think the Church of Progress will collapse so easily, over a few thousand migrants?
Chicago’s sanctuary policy first started with Harold Washington in the 1980’s and has only strengthened since then.