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
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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.
Unions are modern day medieval guilds, that restrict membership into the trades, artificially inflate wages, and produce subpar value. Break up the unions!
That’s good news. Some unions are wising up to the fact that the Dems they supported in the past are all about importing workers to take their jobs. The unions that don’t are going to have a tough time getting dues from an overwhelming number of members that never had to and won’t pay dues. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot. “ And the union people crawled away..” Billy Joel- “Allentown “.