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During the concluding days of the current legislative session, the Democrat majority voted to make state income taxpayers pay 33 percent more than they do now. But they also successfully passed out of the House and Senate some of the nation’s most socially-radical public policy bills, including the following:
Phone calls secretly recorded by federal agents — never before publicly revealed — captured that exchange and other conversations between the influential Democratic donor and the then-governor discussing politics, their futures and the ramifications of Blagojevich’s authority to fill the Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
As his agency faces another crisis, George Sheldon on Wednesday resigned as head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
An Office of Executive Inspector General investigation into Northern Illinois University’s hiring and spending practices has found that President Doug Baker routinely circumvented state laws and regulations to reward friends and associates.
Chicago might be bleeding manufacturing jobs, but city pols are still world-class when it comes to manufacturing a fake reality.
Comment: The report is a ripping indictment of the the city’s collectively bargained labor agreements. The full report is linked here. And closely related, skim through the database of City of Chicago salaries we just posted.
A bill now before lawmakers would require the state to increase Medicaid reimbursement so that caregivers could make $15 an hour. It passed the Senate and was before the House.
Layoffs for Kane County government employees may become a reality for the first time since 2010 as officials scramble to address a midyear budget deficit of $2.8 million.
The assessed value of residential properties in 50 suburban townships increased an average of 11 percent over the past three years. But the rise in assessments varies widely, from 32.7 percent for homes in Kane County’s Plato Township to as little as 1.3 percent in Lake County’s Antioch Township.
He said there is nothing the district can do on its own to escape from impending financial doom driven by rising pension costs.
Comment: This author, Gary Lucido, always has the best and most objective look at the monthly Case-Shiller Index, which is the best available means of tracking home prices.
The nixed deal involved letting Chicago increase its fee per phone from $3.90 to $5. All other cell phone bills in the state would see an increase of $1.50 from 87 cents.
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