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.
Increase contributions or cut benefits. Failing one of those, kick the can. Fee for this consult, $100K.
OR, in six months or less, taxpayers could pay the actuaries and lawyers for the City and the unions and for whomever else has unworkable ideas about the issue. Those fees will run into the millions — especially if they hire Mckinsey or another consultant to do a 200 page analysis detailing the obvious.
100k to provide advice that violates the law? No thanks. Increase taxes or cut other services to fund pensions. Beg for more tax dollars from the state. Pensioners won’t be increasing their contributions nor taking a cut.
Easiest way to solve the pensions crisis for the taxpayer is to MOVE ASAP.