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.
Hey, Northworstern University, we’ll can the fat jokes if can we do something about the improper use of yoga pants outside of yoga class. Some women simply should not wear them in public. Most, actually.
If you Northworsternites could solve that problem, we normal people will end the direct assault on the optic nerves of sun-baked septuagenarians walking beaches in a banana hammock.
“You’d think Northwestern administrators would focus on weightier issues.”
Is that a fat joke?
Northwestern’s administrators are a bunch of flyweights! That’s why they don’t focus on weightier issues.
Did Jaybee have anything to do with this?
Can we put men wearing cargo shorts on the list?
Hey. That’s my downvote. What’s next, tucking my shirt into them?
What about thongs?
Thanks for the visual. So much for breakfast.
How about an office-tanned JB the Hutt shuffling around North Avenue Beach in a banana hammock?
I’ll get you a bucket.