Independent research, commentary and news aggregation. We connect the dots between Illinois government, economy and people. #twill

Joined November 2012
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Wirepoints retweeted
Illinois has the most state pension debt in America — by a wide margin. How bad is it? IL Pension Debt: $145.49B The bottom 41 states combined: $145.77B IL population: ~12.7M Bottom 41 states: ~180M And Pritzker and his allies in Springfield are considering pension sweeteners that could add $76B more in costs for Illinois taxpayers. This is not sustainable. This is a crisis.
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Wirepoints retweeted
Downtown Chicago is in a complete economic free fall. Depression level declines. Worse frankly. We need a special session to enact statewide property tax caps to save the city from ruining itself.
Chicago Office Building Sales 401 S. State St ↓94% $4.2M vs $68.1M in 2016 300 W. Adams St ↓92% $4M vs $51M in 2012 55 W. Monroe St ↓90% $25M vs $243.25M in 2014 100 N. Riverside Plaza ↓87% $22M vs $165M in 2005 175 W. Jackson Blvd ↓87% $41M vs $306M in 2018 311 S. Wacker Drive ↓85% $45M vs $302M in 2014 600 W. Chicago Ave ↓83% $89M vs $510M in 2018 111 W. Jackson Blvd ↓81% $25M vs $135M in 2013 70 W. Madison St ↓77% $85M vs $377M in 2014 131 S. Dearborn St ↓76% $137M vs $560M in 2006 250 S. Wacker Drive ↓74% $23.8M vs $90M in 2011 200 S. Wacker Drive ↓68% $68M vs $215M in 2013 161 N. Clark St ↓62% $125M vs $331M in 2013 401 N. Michigan Ave ↓53% $132.5M vs adjusted $281M in 2017. @julie_kelly2 #commercialrealestate
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Wirepoints retweeted
Comptroller Susanna Mendoza has become the first Chicago mayoral candidate to stake out a clearly pro-law enforcement position, telling NewsNation she has full faith and confidence in the Chicago Police Department, that Superintendent Larry Snelling is the best in the nation, and that the problem is a fifth-floor administration that does not believe in holding criminals accountable. @GlennonMarkE, founder of @Wirepoints, joined @DanProft to assess Mendoza’s prospects, the broader mayoral field, and a new piece he wrote examining the constitutional vulnerabilities of the taxes crammed into Illinois’s latest state budget.
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Wirepoints retweeted
A Republican representative in Illinois with brains knows the voters in this state are imbeciles who vote for scumbags

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Wirepoints retweeted
Another Pritzker budget, another plethora of tax increases. Pritzker’s eight new tax increases will take another $800 million from Illinois workers. This brings JB’s total tax and fee increases to 65, amounting to $8.5 billion annually, leaving Illinois residents paying the highest taxes and fees in the country. Effective state and local tax rates totaled nearly 17% for a median Illinois household last year, compared to the national average of just 11.02%. Unbelievably, that is even higher than No. 2-ranked New York at 14.95%. Meanwhile, Illinois property taxes have increased by $11 billion, or 33%. Illinois’ economy has performed so poorly that nearly all revenue growth used to fund the state’s ever-expanding government has come from tax increases rather than economic growth. In fact, since Pritzker took office, almost all employment growth has been in government jobs. Illinois residents—particularly middle- and upper-income earners—are voting with their feet. Since Pritzker took office, Illinois has continued to lose residents, while the state’s population decline has been offset by a surge in migrant arrivals, which some estimates place at more than 500,000 people. Surveys also show that roughly half of remaining residents say they would leave Illinois if they had the means to do so.
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Wirepoints retweeted
Jun 3
Illinois ranks dead last in jobs growth among big states under Pritzker. Even as he touts economic momentum and new investments, only 9,400 private sector jobs have been added since 2019 for 0.75% total growth. Neighbors grew 2.5%. Government added 36,600 jobs with your tax dollars, while professional services lost over 50,000 positions. This is what @JBPritzker calls “success.”
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Wirepoints retweeted
The @chicagotribune editorial board expressed concern this week about the deteriorating relationship between Governor @JBPritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, suggesting that a healthy and productive working relationship between the two would be essential for Chicago to address its formidable fiscal challenges. @GlennonMarkE, founder of @Wirepoints, joined @DanProft to offer a rather different perspective on the value of those two working in harmony.
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Wirepoints retweeted
NEW: Chicago educators dealt a stunning rebuke to Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ push for an $8.5M dues hike. In modern Chicago history, there are no examples of teachers union membership bucking leadership in a referendum of this magnitude. Here's what it means for the city and the union. thelastward.org/p/chicago-te…
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Wirepoints retweeted
The Bears Megaproject bill is the biggest threat to property taxpayers I’ve ever seen. If this bill passes without changes, it will be catastrophic to local taxpayers. If you share taxing bodies with the Megaproject in Arlington Heights your property taxes could go up 60%!
The debate over the @ChicagoBears moving to Arlington Heights is hiding a massive loophole that will increase property taxes regardless of where you live in Illinois. Lawmakers are pushing a bill to keep the team from leaving for Indiana, but if it passes it was set a dangerous precedent for state government accountability. The bill would establish a framework allowing any local government in Illinois to grant massive tax breaks for so-called "mega-projects" (defined simply as any commercial development investing $100 million over 7 to 10 years). Here is the catch: Cities can raise property taxes based on the project's value, but they are legally barred from collecting that increase from the development itself. The financial burden falls entirely on local homeowners.
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...Johnson has destroyed the city and its economy with the help of the unions. jonathanturley.org/2025/09/0… Rather than make the Bears want to stay, they are focusing on burning other deals to the ground. They are literally pushing the Bears into Indiana.
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Wirepoints retweeted
.@GlennonMarkE, founder of @Wirepoints, joined @DanProft to discuss the property tax case in Cook County, regarding alleged property theft, and other Illinois policy developments.
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Wirepoints retweeted
Americans owe @AlexBerenson a debt of gratitude for pursuing this case against the Biden administration's authoritarian and illicit infringements on 1st Amendment rights during COVID and demanding this admission of wrongdoing before he would settle it: "The United States Government. . . has acknowledged and conceded that the Government did in fact violate the First Amendment by exerting substantive coercive pressure on social media companies such as Twitter to suppress disfavored speech like Plaintiff’s."
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Wirepoints retweeted
I am speaking about Rage and the Republic today at the University of Chicago, tinyurl.com/2w8vzbhm, but had a restless night as if something was looming just outside my hotel window...
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Wirepoints retweeted
.@GlennonMarkE, founder of @Wirepoints, took a break from his usual beat of Illinois fiscal policy to travel to western Ukraine and report firsthand on conditions on the ground, joining @DanProft by phone from Poland on his way back. What he found contradicts much of the American media narrative about the state of the war and the disposition of the Ukrainian people.
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