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.
… but the IL gas tax is at the right level
That’s precisely why Governor WIDE-LOAD ripped the toilets out of one of his spare mansions. Because property taxes are too high. No toilets means lower taxes.
JB should be encouraging Chicago or maybe they can just do CPS to file bankruptcy and clean up this union insanity that’s destroying the city (destroying the state too)
Gee, thanks a lot Governor. That’s really helpful to the taxpayers of Chicago. Good idea- let’s just find some “efficiencies”. I am sure there are hundreds of millions of dollars worth just laying around for the Mayor’s crack staff to reveal. Any idea for some legislation dealing with closing some schools, holds on state distributions– anything? Nah.