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.
What’s tuition a Northwestern 60K, 70K, 80K year? Spoiled rich kids who adore the participation trophy they received in kindergarten for finishing last in a spelling contest trying to feel important. Proud moms and dads who have coddled them into adulthood and who do not have the slightest idea of the world is about.
If the University does not aggressively find out who did this, expel them, and issue a crystal clear apology, then NU is guilty of aiding and abetting these horrible activities. And how about starting with a strong and unequivocal denunciation of this travesty while the investigation begins.