-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Comment: This actually isn’t a budget issue. It’s that our economic model is fundamentally broken. We simply aren’t generating the growth and jobs we need to pay for the government we have and the promises it has made. Budget issues are just the inevitable consequence. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/29/usa-illinois-budget-idUSL1N0OF24Q20140529
Na, Na, Indiana, your on it. But we’re not on the list of the ten smartest, either. via The 10 Dumbest States in America | SpeedDesk News | Print Financial & Investing Articles | TheStreet.
http://www.bettergov.org/cashing_in_on_congressional_connections/
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/CTU-Leader-Karen-Lewis–261149781.html
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25843305/minnesota-unsession-dumps-1-175-obsolete-silly-laws
The job-killers aren’t as numerous as they pretend to be. http://energyindepth.org/illinois/the-35000-comment-illinois-fracking-ruse/
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-willis-tower-sky-deck-ledge-crack-261079001.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_CHBrand
In a nutshell, the “reform” plan is for the county to throw lots more into the pension — 50% more in four years. But not a word about where that money would come from. Cook County’s pension reform flop
Illinois House voted to expand Medicaid despite Republican concerns about how to pay for it. Lawmakers voted to restore funding for adult dental and podiatry services. Dem. Rep. Greg Harris says the 2012 cuts didn’t save the state money because people wound up in the emergency room, where care is more expensive. http://politics.suntimes.com/article/springfield/house-backs-medicaid-expansion-legislation-despite-gop-opposition/wed-05282014#bmb=1
Concerned about blind spending on the Kumbaya spirit behind renewable energy, opponents have pushed to roll back incentives and mandates in state after state. Ohio lawmakers voted to freeze the phasing-in of power that utilities must buy from renewable energy sources. Comment: Not in Illinois. We spend billions to cool the planet on mandates like Ohio’s, but nobody here bothers to measure just how many billions or the cost-effectiveness of how we spend it, as we wrote here earlier. via A Pushback on Green Power – NYTimes.com.
Chicago City Council approved an ordinance that will require ride-sharing drivers to pass a city-conducted drug test and background check, as well as require some drivers to obtain a chauffeur’s license. http://abc7chicago.com/news/chicago-city-council-passes-ride-share-ordinance/82279/
Chicago hits the market today with $784 million of new-money and refunding Midway Airport bonds that will nearly wrap up a restructuring aimed at strengthening its debt portfolio. http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/123_101/chicago-prepping-midway-airport-bonds-1062811-1.html
The Chicago Board of Education is being asked to approve $6 million in startup funds for alternative school programs. The bulk of the money, about $4 million, will go to for-profit companies that just began working in the district last year. http://www.wbez.org/news/new-alternative-schools-some-run-profit-companies-come-hefty-price-tag-110239
The Emanuel administration has outlined a plan to impose strict regulations on gun shops that open within city limits, including a requirement to record every sale on video. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/27/plan-for-city-gun-shops-would-limit-sites-require-sales-be-taped/
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No wonder downstate thinks about secession. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-lawmakers-approve-money-for-cps-pensions-uptown-theatre-20140528,0,3396290.story
She pulls in more than Rahm -$220k/year. http://dropoutnation.net/2014/05/30/karen-lewis-plutocrat/
“How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” ― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises By: Mark Glennon* How will rating agencies, bond investors, and Illinois employers react when the legislative session ends this Saturday? Here’s what they will be seeing, by all indications to date: -A slopped-together state budget that even supporters admit is full of borrowing, accounting gimmicks and can-kicking. -A Cook County pension bill that provides no clue how the county will meet financial commitments it contains, and no indication that it would help much. -Nothing on the rapidly approaching train wreck
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