-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The full-time Statehouse press corps has been slashed to about one fourth of what it was in 1991/1992, according to a list from Rick Millard, assistant Statehouse press room secretary. Comment: Little value in most who are there. They report a fictional version of what’s going on.
The Illinois Senate has adjourned without pushing its stalled budget compromise further. But a Senate Democrat filed legislation Thursday spelling out services that could be subject to the state sales tax to battle a budget deficit. Olympia Fields Democratic Sen. Toi Hutchinson’s legislation would extend the 6.25 percent sales tax to rented storage space, landscaping, pest control, body piercing and more.
With student-loan debt now approaching $1.3 trillion, Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, is pushing a bipartisan solution he says could ease the burden and help the economy.
“Look in your backyard and you’re bound to find unfair spending.”
Comment: Serious effort will indeed be made to rekindle the horrible package with a vote possible next week, our sources say.
Federal law enforcement officials searched three facilities of heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar Inc on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney Office for the Central District of Illinois said, prompting a sharp selloff in the company’s stock.
By Ted Dabrowsky from Illinois Policy Inst.
Voters across Illinois finalized April’s mayoral races this week. But there’s a lot more than a few city hall races on the ballot next month. The April election will be chock full of tax questions.
By: Mark Glennon* Base revenues for the State of Illinois fell again in February (compared to last Feburary) according to today’s report from COGFA, the Commission on Governmental Forecasting and Accountability. “Like a broken record,” COGFA says, monthly declines reflected weaker income taxes along with poor federal sources. For the fiscal year-to-date, base receipts are off $1.453 billion, or 7.5%, compared to the same period last year. “Weakness is widespread, and has resulted in year over year losses in key areas such as income taxes and federal sources,” says COGFA COGFA has scheduled a meeting for March 7 to discuss
“The union needs to signal it understands Illinois is beyond broke.”
State Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, said Rauner is right to find options to keep the government running if there’s a strike. McCarter hopes there isn’t a strike, but if there is he said workers in his area are capable of filling positions vacated by striking workers.
The same scenarios are being played out along the state’s borders with Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa. Instead, Illinois touts a few hundred Fortune 500 headquarter jobs settling in Chicago as economic development. If the battle plan in Pleasant Prairie, WI is any indication, we’re not only losing the economic development battle, we’re being massacred.
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