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.
How can this be if the residents all voted Democratic and pay high taxes?
Bucktown residents, I’ve got some bad news for you. Your state lawmakers have deigned you “involuntary reparations contributors.”
Long term, you could start voting Republican and your situation may improve several generations from now.
It’s a damn shame they paid big money for all their fancy Bucktown homes and have to make it home before sunset when all the thugs come out.
I would suggest they watch the Omega Man with Charlton Heston to see their future.
Smells like astroturf. That meeting should have been packed.