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.
Democrats in IL support sanctuary cities (and a sanctuary state). Democrats in DC import millions of illegal aliens, without vetting them. Two (or more) illegals assault a security guard performing his duties. When he shoots one of the illegals, the officer is charged with aggravated battery with discharge of a deadly weapon.
Do you see anything wrong with this picture?
Why before you know it and with some help from the Pritzker administration these individuals will no longer have to call out “work, work” and instead will be able to sit home in an orderly fashion awaiting their welfare checks presented to them for voting. Illinois, where you can vote for a living rather than work for a living.
“It points to a structural failure,” Rivera said. Indeed.
Hmm…..this doesn’t seem like the cultural enrichment we were promised.
Is anyone really surprised with this sort of behavior? Nothing is civilized…many of these illegals come from countries that behave this way all the time. They do not want to assimilate into the society and culture of the United States…they want…what they want. Their is little interest in adding to the society of the United States…many just want to take from the society. This will only get worse. Gosh, its a good thing that our moron of a governor, absent president and loony vice president don’t have to EVER go to a place like Home Depot to experience that sort… Read more »