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.
UIC used to be called, not-disparagingly either, UIC as in the University of Indian and Chinese, because of the disproportionate population of Indian and International student populations seeking STEM degrees. Not too long ago UIC’s stated intention was to become the UCLA of the midwest. However, all of this seems to have changed, the largest demo at the school being Latinx. However, since the school went ‘woke’, “[only] 29% of enrolled first-time students at University of Illinois Chicago in 2022 submitted SAT scores with their applications.”
Yikes 37% of first year students come from CPS. UIC was once an ok alternative. Will not be for long.