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A report on the five state pensions from Illinois’ Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
Comment: Setting his politics entirely aside, I can tell you he’s a helluva nice guy. He’s done wonders to make Chicago’s tech community what it is, and he and his family have been exceptionally philanthropic.
Newly elected Chicago aldermen and citywide elected officials will have to serve longer to achieve the maximum 80 percent city pension under a surprise change tied to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to save the city’s largest pension fund.
The Illinois Labor Relations Board unanimously ruled Tuesday that an impasse exits in contract talks between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. The ruling opens the door to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration imposing its contract terms on the union.
The former chief executive of Chicago’s first red-light camera vendor was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in federal prison and over $2 million in restitution for paying bribes to a city official to help procure the contracts.
Our article on the GrubHub affair is cited in this WSJ article. Our shameless self-promotion here.
Recent newspaper headline: How Data Failed Us in Calling an Election. Here’s a flash – it wasn’t the data’s fault. It was the media’s mess.
Scary: “We want to figure out new ways to leverage our dominant position in the Chicago marketplace,” they say. They do some things well. Their real estate section is excellent. But their coverage of government is abysmal and biased.
IQ test: Based on that headline, is this story about voting or budgets?
That’ll fix ’em.
The city of Chicago is violating constitutional rights, hurting communities, and punishing responsible home owners with its new rules for Airbnb and other short term rental services. Those are just a few of the arguments made in a sweeping lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Over the past two years, violence in developing and more affluent areas close to the Loop has also spiked, giving more well-heeled Chicagoans a taste of the danger and fear that people in the city’s poor neighborhoods have experienced for decades.
A nearly two-years-in-the-making labor dispute between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration and the largest state worker union is set to come to a head Tuesday when the Illinois Labor Relations Board meets to weigh in on the issue.
“The proposed changes to Medicaid are perhaps the most worrisome for state and local budgets because aid from the feds makes up approximately 15 percent of total state expenditures.”
“Quick message for the Brogressives: back off and let women grieve…. When you inflict your analysis on a woman who is devastated that Americans just elected a man who considers her subhuman, you are being sexist. Plain and simple.” Comment: Got that, bros? Don’t muscle in on her grief fest or else you’re a sexist. And if you’re not grieving, of course, you’re that and much worse.
Our media slavishly continues to bow to credit rating companies as authorities. This despite their miserable failures leading to the financial crisis of 2007-2009, and significant financial research suggesting that credit ratings follow, rather than lead, changes in credit quality reflected in market prices (and interest rates). One could have relied on accounting results alone to gauge the deterioration in CPS’ financial condition.
Starting next July, the four-for-$10 deal will cost you $15.76 in Cook County. That’s the price after applying Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s new penny-an-ounce beverage tax. It doesn’t include sales taxes.
Onetime powerhouse Chicago alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak, who went to prison after pleading guilty to a high-profile financial scam in 2008, has been indicted on charges of impeding the IRS and income tax evasion.
IRS data reveal what happens when politicians choose short-term tax revenue gains over long-term stability. The short-term increase in tax revenue gained from higher tax rates is offset by the long-term loss of substantial portions of Illinois’ tax base. Comment: Folks, we are in a death spiral. The tax increase that’s likely coming will only speed up the flight of the tax base.
“I’m concerned about a possible ‘grand bargain’ or ‘grand compromise’ that will create a massive tax increase.”
The state of Illinois saw 5,500 employees leave its workforce this fall, prompting another decline for the fifth consecutive month in September.
Chicagoans who bought a home in 2010 have reaped less than one-third the financial reward that putting the same money into the stock market would have given them, according to a new Redfin report, linked here.
About one of every four Chicago Public Schools teachers misses more than 10 days of school a year. Similar rates of absenteeism occur at schools elsewhere in the state.
Comment: Check out the part about the Amish: “Our deal was they would get the wood for free if they removed it themselves. Instead of fighting the prevailing wage issue, we just decided to hire union laborers to do the job. All of that took time.”
The junk-rated district, which would have headed into the market with another downgrade fresh on investor minds, struggled with lackluster interest in its last public market bond sale in February.
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