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.
LEO’s and firefighters are more important than the CTU, and politicians. They should be on the top of the list.
Forget bankruptcy! That would give IL/Chicago a fresh start for more terrible policies. The US deserves to see where these IL/Chicago voter supported ideas lead, don’t they? Chicago where low-mid income people are squeezed from their properties. And still vote blue. Where those with means are isolated from terrible policy. The city can erect a statue of JB Pritzker and BLM Brandon to replace Columbus. Maybe they’ll tear down Trump tower and move city center to the Obama monument. Just don’t socialize all IL/Chicago debt onto the rest of the nation.
I’m with the Bankruptcy vote, been agreeing with it for several years after Nobel Prize winners in economics have said the same.
Yes, but only without Federal Bailout. The frugal residents of Red States will never pay for the evil corrupt Democrat AKA Communist Party and Public Sector Union parasite criminal collusion. In fact the honest taxpayers of Illinois don’t owe one cent to this cabal of thieves either.
Thanks Capt. Obvious…
The numbers just do not work. Bankruptcy is the only way out for the city, leaving the state is the only way out for the taxpayer. Stay and pay (big time) or run for sun and fun. Not easy to move, but it is worth it.
Wild spending of other people’s money is what democrats do best. Spend it on stupid projects that ended with zero results. Spend it supporting illegal aliens and then cry “We’re broke, more taxes”. Spend it and then give yourself a raise because you deserve it and could care less about the average citizen whose taxes go up and up and up. Spend it because its not yours.
Did Pritzker intentionally push insolvency into Johnson’s lap? Sure looks that way?
No Pritzker is simply a public sector union suck up stooge and is afraid [deleted]
Just another day of TPG spreading baseless lies. Keep up the libelous statements TPG. Maybe Martwick or JB will sue you into the poor house. I’ll throw you a couple of nickels when I step over you in the gutter. lol
I’m surprised that WP allowed such libel to be posted even though they moderate this site. They are at least protected by Section 230. TPG? Not so much.
Tom, please provide hard evidence of the claim you made that we deleted or don’t post such claims here.