PicoBlog

I heard this name Wirepoints when the Chicago Teachers Union cited a reason to censor me. They say this right-wing think tank takes my stories to trash our union.

Wirepoints is propaganda for the rulers, the corporate chieftains who run this city.

And they hire top-notch liars to put out their take on our capitalist society to explain why we need massive cuts in social spending so that corporations can pay less taxes.

But, their anti-people agenda has to have a certain legitimacy when they put out their right-wing research. For example, Wirepoints and the Civic Federation are two of only a very select few who have thoroughly analyzed the Tier Two Pension dilemma.

When I started to write about how the Tier Two Law was passed in 2011 without any actuarial study to how it would solve the pension funding crisis, Wirepoints Mark Glennon commented that he has been writing about this for years.

They have correctly written that Tier 2 is unfair to new teachers and all state workers hired after 2011 by forcing them to work til the age of 67 before receiving retirement, not to mention that it does nothing to solve the pension funding crisis. All it did was deny future workers retirement benefits.

Their solution for retired workers in this state? No more pension!

They propose a 401(k) defined contribution rather than a defined benefit pension. In other words, make the workers and people pay and give up their retirement in order to protect the corporations and rich people.

I noticed that Wirepoints Founder Mark Glennon is a subscriber to Second City Teachers. So I wrote him the following letter:

“I see that you write about the Tier 2 pension analysis and your conclusion is for state workers to get 401(k)s, essentially no pension because of the funding crisis.

“I believe there are three ways to solve the pension funding crisis -

1 - Get more revenue (taxes, etc.).

2 - Cut the benefits (401k, etc).

3 - Better manage the pension money.

“Why don’t you honestly write about the third option? You read my stuff, but stay silent on this last point that doesn’t just cruelly take away someone’s pension. Is it because you are tied to the private equity industry that charges outrageous high and secret fees?

“Your thoughts would be appreciated!”

I’m still waiting for his reply.

When it comes to public relations and how you play the media game, one tactic is to ignore the enemy. That’s why I do not agree with our side giving any of these rightwing jerks the time of day.

The Illinois Policy Institute is anti-union, anti-worker, anti-people. They love to amplify any critical progressive voices like ours so that they can tear down any opposition to their uber wealthy billionaire sponsors.

Mark Glennon has a Linked-In profile that boasts his connection to private equity and preserving the wealth of the very rich.

He is the founder and editor of Wirepoints, a research, commentary and news organization. He boasts in his profile how connected he is to Wall Street and not the people.

“Mark previously worked in venture capital. From 2010 through 2015 he provided financial consulting services for high growth, emerging companies. From 2001 to 2010 Mark sourced and managed venture capital investments for Leo Capital Holdings. Board of directorship service included GrubHub, Shoutlet and FunMobility. He was awarded the Fellows Medal awarded by the Illinois Venture Capital Association for outstanding contributions to the venture capital and private equity profession. He got his B.A. in Economics and Political Science at Northwestern University and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law school where he won the Deinard Award for top law review contribution. He earlier served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas Law School in Austin.

Wirepoints writes correctly how Tier 2 pension benefits will fall short of the retirement minimum established under the federal Social Security law. Glennon on behalf of big business writes that he is concerned about the cost to the taxpayer, but that is total bullshit. The Tier 2 law caps annual pension increases at 3 percent or one-half the consumer price index, which is less than Social Security, taking it out of the ‘safe harbor’.

We as teachers under the Two-Tiered system would agree with what he writes here:

“The looming cost of bringing Tier 2 into compliance with federal rules is a topic Illinois leadership has consistently hidden. Even bond offering documents, which supposedly inform bond buyers of the fiscal health of the issuer, duck the issue. (SB 1690) would leave the biggest Tier 2 problems in place, problems we’ve written about often. They face a later retirement age and, most importantly, a brutally unfair ten-year vesting requirement. That vesting requirement means that if you leave an Illinois government job with less than ten years of service before age 62, all you get is a refund of money you contributed yourself plus interest of 3%. You get no benefit from any employer contribution and no Social Security based on those years of service.”

“Consider teachers, for example. Only 18.5 percent of Tier 2 teachers will reach the age requirement for vesting, according to research by Bellwether Education Partners. Meanwhile, Illinois frets about its new teacher shortage. The unfairness of Tier 2 vesting requirements makes the problem far worse. Generally speaking, teacher compensation including pension benefits in Illinois and nationally is too heavily slanted against younger teachers in favor of older ones. That should be reversed, not amplified.

“The same issues apply to most of Illinois’ state and local pensions, not just teachers or Cook County workers.

“Tier 2s got that bum deal because it was rammed through by Democratic leadership with no debate and support of senior union leadership who were themselves Tier 1s and, obviously, there weren’t any Tier 2s around to object.

“That’s devastating for retirement planning. No rational young person should sign up for that.”

A teacher recently wrote on FB about the Tier 2 problem.

“It also contributes to the teacher shortage too, as does Tier 2 … my daughter is studying education but she and her friends all say they won’t stay in education to work until they’re 67, they are saying they’ll quit teaching long before … these are crazy policies if we hope to keep people working.”

But remember - the enemy of my enemy is not my friend.

Wirepoints states that Tier 2 is a mess and fixing it could well blow up Illinois state and local unfunded liabilities, which already are the worst in the nation which makes it uncompetitive with other states. Proceeding with legislation despite no understanding of cost is pure malfeasance. The entire Tier 2 pension law was bulldozed through in 2010 in just 12 hours with no actuarial analysis on its impact.

Wirepoints then boast a three step final solution for IL workers: 

1) move workers to 401(k) style accounts;  2) Suspend COLA or automatic 3 percent raises (doesn’t say cost of living adjustments to keep up with inflation);  3) retirees pay fair share for health care, at least 50 percent of costs until pensions are fully funded.

What a guy! This open agent of capital should sell his plan in a nursing home, telling people who worked all their lives to earn a decent retirement that they no longer need that pension. If they suggest to tar and feather the bespeckled number cruncher, I wouldn’t be surprised.

And how about this whopper. In addition to writing how giving up your pension on behalf of corporate bottom lines and extravagant CEO salaries is a good thing, Glennon and Wirepoints writes that the recent (sic) average teacher pension salary in Illinois is $79,400! 

According to ziprecruiter.com, the average Illinois teacher state pension is $42,960. 

I asked Mark about his claim of teacher pensioners making more in retirement than the average teacher, and he didn’t even know what I was talking about.

“I have’t written about that in some time, but what are you referring to,” he wrote a few days later. “Average full career teacher retiring today? We are happy to document any numbers we have written about.”

Wirepoints is a cruel, heartless, anti-people and anti-pension corporate rag. Their lies are used to push the business agenda in our mainstream media. They should be denounced completely, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from them and use it to fight the ugly power they represent.

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