Imprisoned former Ald. Edward M. Burke’s Burnham Committee gave the money to a fund for Justice Joy V. Cunningham days after her November election victory. She won’t say why her campaign took the money despite the former Chicago City Council member’s corruption conviction. 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
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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.
The more important question is where did that money go after it was transferred from Burke to Cunningham. That wasn’t just a donation. Surely it way something more, not sure what. Maybe later this year when her disclosures are made we’ll see where that $40k in donations were spent…
Supreme Court of Illinois accepting payments from a criminal. Enough said right there.
How about the pritzger funded justices if you call out one call them all out. The whole state is currupt from the lowest form of government to the highest
Justice Joy obviously needed the money to defeat her opponent in the General Election.
The corruption circle jerk didn’t stop with Burke going to jail. It won’t stop when Madigan reports for prison either. This is what gerrymandering and one-party rule gets you.