Chicago treasurer employee alleges political staff pushed office on U.S. bonds boycott – Chicago Tribune/Yahoo
Chicago Weekly Crime Tracker – Wirepoints
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 8/10/25
Growth killer: Chicago’s potential corporate head tax. – Wirepoints
Mayor Brandon Johnson is considering reenacting the city’s corporate head tax. The mayor calls it an “option” as the city deals with multiple years of billion-dollar budget deficits. His constant arguments for more tax hikes is a growth killer for a city that’s already suffering a lack of jobs and growth.
Are Chicagoans about to be hammered by more property tax hikes? – Wirepoints
Property tax hikes are about to pile up on Chicagoans. Everyday Chicagoans and businesses are being taxed out because government officials simply won’t stop spending.
Broken Chicago public safety pension math: Just $6 B in assets for $68 B in payouts – Wirepoints
The city’s public safety pension funds have an obligation to pay $68 billion in pension benefits to police and firemen over the next 30 years. But the funds have just $6 billion in assets today.
Chicago pension sweeteners: Threatening public safety retirement security, soaking future Chicagoans – Wirepoints
In case you missed it, the Illinois General Assembly recently passed a bill full of pension sweeteners for Chicago police and firefighters hired after 2010. It’s a horrible idea that will only worsen the retirement security of Chicago’s police and firefighters and burden future Chicagoans with even more overwhelming tax hikes.
Why Gov. Pritzker Should Veto Chicago Tier 2 Pension Sweeteners – Wirepoints
In the dark of night during the recent state budget negotiations, Illinois’ General Assembly passed legislation to sweeten the Tier 2 pensions of Chicago police and firemen. If Gov. Pritzker signs the bill, it will be another blow to police and firemens’ retirement security. For taxpayers, it will mean even higher property taxes.
What New York City’s near-bankruptcy can teach Chicagoans…attend “Drop Dead City” documentary screening on July 1 – Wirepoints
Chicago is not as bad off as New York was in 1975, you might think, even if Mayor Johnson has proven more incompetent than anyone expected. Can Chicago’s current and future leadership learn anything from the 1975 rescue of New York City?
Chicago’s Mayor Johnson wants the ultra rich to ‘step up.’ They’re more likely to step out. – Wirepoints
If Illinois’ out-migration data tells us anything, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s targeting of the rich to fund his city’s big deficits will be counterproductive. Going after them will only force more to leave.
What’s behind Chicago’s welcome, but belated, drop in crime – Wirepoints
Mayor Brandon Johnson is celebrating a drop in crime in Chicago. Murders are down 22% in 2025 over the same period last year, and so is overall violent crime. The drop can’t be ignored. But can Johnson credibly make the claim that his “investments” in people is the reason why? Or is it that Chicago is just riding the national wave – almost a year late – finally catching up with the rest of the country’s massive drop
What one business owner said to me: Why expand in Illinois when there’s little economic growth? – Wirepoints
Economic growth in Illinois’ metro areas has been sucking wind for a long time. Start with Bloomington, which suffered the worst GDP performance of any metro area in the nation between 2019 and 2023. With a drop of 17% in real economic output, it’s dead last among the 384 metro areas the federal government tracks.
Open borders + sanctuary status + free benefits + Gov. Abbott = Chicago population growth – Wirepoints
The question is, can we say “Chicago finally growing again,” like Crain’s Chicago just did in its coverage of the census numbers? Is that two-year growth a pattern that can be sustained?
The Bally’s ripoff – Wirepoints
While Bally’s explicit racism was clearly unconstitutional, it wasn’t what really bothered us about its securities offering. What really got us was that it was sold by Chicago officials as an opportunity for them to build “generational wealth” and was a “benefit to the black community.” Hogwash. The offering is complex and risky as hell, from everything we can calculate.
They’ve destroyed jobs and opportunity for black Chicagoans – Wirepoints
Politicians have made a mess of opportunities for blacks in Chicago. In preparation for my Chicago Tonight’s Black Voices appearance last week, I pulled together several key facts on how Chicago blacks were fairing vs. the nation’s other big cities. The data, straight from the U.S. Census or the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, is dismal.
2024 data: Not a single child tested proficient in math in 80 Illinois schools. For reading, it was 24 schools. – Wirepoints
It’s time for an update on Illinois’ educational failures with the state’s 2024 Report Card data available. In 2024, there were 80 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 24 where no student tested proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students.
Illinois lawmakers ignore where the real transit savings are – Wirepoints Quickpoint
End work from home? Cut overtime? For government workers? We don’t hear those kinds of demands very often from Illinois politicians. Yet that’s what State Sen. Ram Villivalam and State Rep. Marty Moylan are calling for. But don’t get too excited.
More than $1 billion in market losses is a reminder of how close Chicago pensions are to the brink – Wirepoints
Chicago’s pension plans avoided a reckoning in 2020 after federal covid aid helped the city avoid a fiscal collapse. But reality is back and the financial market’s volatility is a reminder of just how delicate the situation is. The market’s drop this year alone has cost the city an estimated $1 billion-plus in mark-to-market losses, a big deal for a city that already has a $53 billion funding hole.
If they’re on a fiscal cliff, why are CTA and Metra operating like it’s 2019? – Wirepoints
CTA and Metra say they’re on the precipice of a fiscal cliff and yet nobody seems to be asking the obvious question. With ridership still at 60% to 70% of their pre-covid levels, why are they operating their trains and buses as if it were 2019?
About that drop in homicides. Chicago’s rate hasn’t declined like NYC and LA’s – Wirepoints
There’s a narrative out there among politicians and the media that’s promoting Chicago’s recent drop in homicides. Yes, everything else equal, Chicago’s drop in murders since its peak in 2021 is a good thing. But our pols and the media continue ignore the broader context.
New teacher contract: CTU wins, CPS wins…Chicago taxpayers lose – Wirepoints
One of the biggest cons the CTU and CPS continue to pull off is convincing Chicagoans that the two are adversaries. After lots of supposed acrimony, they’ve just agreed to a preliminary teachers contract. The result is a win-win for them. Meanwhile, Chicagoans get stuck with the bill and the city digs a deeper financial hole for itself.
Shutter, roll back, freeze. Three things Chicago Public Schools needs to do. – Wirepoints
Lawmakers won’t pursue the structural reforms needed to fix CPS, so the only real short-term fix is to cut the district’s ballooning costs. Like shuttering the district’s dozens of near-empty schools. Or rolling back the massive increase in non-teacher staff hired during covid. Or holding the line on teacher salaries, which are now among the highest in the country.