Effective only for this November’s election, Quinn dismissed critics who say the bill is aimed at driving Democrat voters to the polls. via Quinn to sign same-day voter registration bill – chicagotribune.com.

Not mentioned here: In the case of Springfield, their intervention consists of unfunded mandates binding on cities, as we explained here and here. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2014/07/01/stateline-city-state-finances/11907133/

The NYT’s take on the possible ‘reversion’ by Walgreens — moving out of the US for tax reasons.

http://ilnews.org/2464/was-quinns-capitol-renovation-veto-a-phony-cut/#.U7Myrah2cy6

Before he was paid more than $146,000 for work on Gov. Pat Quinn’s scandal-plagued anti-violence initiative, Benton Cook III says he spent four years as a “media production director” for political candidates.  His biggest client, as it turns out, was his wife, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, records show. http://openillinois.org/corruption-watch-clerk-dorothy-browns-campaign-paid-her-husband-90000/

More than a million people risk losing their federally insured pensions in just a few years despite recent stock market gains and a strengthening economy, a new government study said on Monday. Comment: This is about a national issue for private company pensions, not public pensions, but it’s a reminder that defined benefit pensions are poison. The PBGC is a federal insurer for private pensions and it, too, faces insolvency under the stress.   http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dealbook/2014/06/30/u-s-pension-insurer-issues-dire-warning-on-pooled-plans/

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140701/news/140709905/

Quinn was patronage chief for convicted former governor Dan Walker, so we shouldn’t be surprised with his response: “Well, I read that in the paper,” Quinn said. “I wasn’t happy to read it. And, ah, things happen. And I wanted to make sure that when I read about that, it was looked into and we’ve acted accordingly.” http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-quinns-idot-chief-resigns-amid-patronage-questions-20140630,0,499249.story?track=rss

How’s the Illinois labor market doing?  For the last six months, it depends on where you look. For the last three years, however, if you average two conflicting measures, Illinois has only recovered about one-fourth of the heavy job losses that arose from 2007 to 2010. http://www.rebootillinois.com/2014/06/30/editors-picks/bbergman/illinois-jobs-going-time/19480/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailytip_20140630