-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
"The sooner everybody accepts the reality that we’re in a hole that’s too deep to climb out of, the sooner we may find a way to lessen the pain, and there’s going to be pain. That means coming to the table with more than just demands that can’t be met. ... If our public employees are serious about fixing the problem, I’m willing to talk, because the Fair Retirement and Recruitment Act is not the answer."
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WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES
Audio and summary Why the Holdup Using Artificial Intelligence to Cut Illinois Government Costs? – Wirepoints
May 19, 2026
10 Comments
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
May 6, 2026
4 Comments
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer – Chicago’s struggling commercial real estate and more
April 22, 2026
5 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Put the pensions up for a constitutional amendment and the voters decide. The votes will be “too big to rig.” Residents who are paying for, yet don’t have access to the same high level of benefits cannot sustain this taxing burden. However it proceeds, the unions and JB have been warned that concessions now are better than the elimination of benefits later in a forced reorganization – whether it comes from market investors, businesses threatening to leave the state or the federal government.
“Fair” may not be the right word to use for this act.
The only way out is to end all pensions ASAP.
Put everyone on a 401K style with limits. It will take 35 years or better to fix but will be fixed in the long run. The other choice is to destroy the quality of living for the average working family forever.
The private sector does not offer pensions because they are unaffordable.
Change from retiring at 67 (like the people paying for this) back to full pay at 55.
Tier II is still probably better then 90% of non-public employee’s.
If IL passes this we go from digging the hole with heavy machinery, way past the shovels, to an atomic blast.
Illinois will soon need congress authorize bankruptcy for a state, it’s over.
This is first time I’ve heard the Tier II “fix as Fair Retirement and Recruitment Act, its the Kifowits/Martwick HB5909 that essentially changes TIER II to TIER I and goes way beyond simply minor adjustments for “safe harbor” requirement in the rare case that violation may ever occur. The current TIER II is way better deal than anything you could dream of under SS. Once again, I believe the estimates of $30 bil in Crains article or $60 bil “fix” in this Rep Reick article just apply to TIER II pension benefit changes to date and not future pension cost?… Read more »