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.
60% chance the project is abandoned when the developer or contractor goes bankrupt. Developers borrow money to get these jobs done, they aren’t sitting on massive amounts of cash, and they repay the high interest loans when the project is complete.
They should blow the building up for a movie just like I believe the Brach’s candy factory or office building was for the Batman movie. That was a great scene with the Joker just walking away and Blamo!!. I think a 30 megaton hydrogen bomb should suffice. Maybe just a little collateral damage. LOL