Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer
April 22, 2026
No Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
"There is no mention in the economic report or the press release that the pension report, while the picture is rosy, is going to be shorted by four to five billion dollars a year," said Sheila Weinberg of Truth in Accounting. "If [Pritzker] properly funded those systems, it would be all of the quote 'surpluses' that he's reporting."
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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
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Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
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.
But but but… I was told that Illinois would be broke once federal funding stopped. I’m kidding. I’m sure everyone here is happy about this news. Looks like pension payments as a percent of budget have gone down. That’s great news!
Maybe the ILGOP will try to convince JB to put that surplus into pension payments. Do they just want to complain about statutory vs actuarial contributions and how the budget isn’t truly balanced or do they really want to fix the problem? I think we all know the answer.
There’s no real fixing the pension problem. It’s called math. Maybe we could get the FTX guy involved to do some of the math for us and make it work.
Yes the math requires more funding. Negative amortization loans cause the balance to grow similar to our pension debt. The math requires greater contributions than the statutory requirements. If 4 to 6 billion more per year were funding the state pensions then we would move closer to 100% funding over the next 20 to 30 years. The math is simple but the political calculus is too difficult because it requires being responsible and paying the bills.