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.
The program is capped at $15 million, they expect to have 14,000 winners in their lottery. That leaves 1 million for the cost to go through claims. One Million Dollars. And they require proof of identity- the very thing they insist voters shouldn’t have to do.
Simple truth is tax more and you get less. Drive along Cicero Ave. anywhere it is the border between Chicago and a suburb. Note the difference in gas price and which stations get more business to confirm this. People act in their own self interest.
How much of this tax relief will go to the suburban homeowners? Or is it only for Chicago?
Bullshit. It will only feed your tax kitty.
100% bullshit. Growing property tax revenue is always, always, always, matched by new ideas for spending the additional revenue and to further fund existing programs. The only way to reduce property taxes is growing tax revenue from true expansion of the tax base from economic vitality while doing public pension reform and cutting non essential spending, neither of which ever happen. The way it was, the way it is, the way it always will be.
Yours is a great comment and especially true for Illinois and Cook County. Their budgets are always bloated and almost always increasing. Mismanagement and responsible stewardship of property taxpayer funds are mutually exclusive.
I will bet that never happens. Lower taxes is a pipe dream at best. I take the bet side that taxes will go higher, and higher every year for generations to come.
What a bunch of horsepucky, all of the solutions
do not stop the rising property taxes.
this program cannot work due to the size of the
pension problems and continuing crime
issue.
this equates to trying to put out a forest fire
with a bottle of water.