-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
What happens when a female union member in Chicago reports sexual harassment in the workplace? If she’s a member of the United Auto Workers, nothing.
Well, that’s not completely accurate.
She’ll get rebuked for tattling on a union brother. She’ll be bullied into tolerating the disgusting as normal. She’ll be belittled for being sickened by graphic images and demeaning comments. She’ll get brainwashed into believing that an attack isn’t harassment if it only happened once. And she’ll realize her cries to her union for protection are meaningless because of the inherent conflict of interest that exists when a union tries
Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin paid $58.5 million for the top four floors of a Gold Coast condo building. It’s the highest-priced home sale ever in the Chicago area, surpassing all other record sales by tens of millions of dollars.
It will have a particularly draconian impact on states with large unfunded liabilities for pension benefits and retiree health care, in particular the residents of Illinois, Kentucky, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
Joe Nation, professor of public policy at Stanford University, said the result is a debt snowball that eventually crowds out services.
“The people who are being hurt the most by this fake math are the poorest people in society,” he said.
According to an estimate from the attorney general, the average gas bill this year is around $1,200 for a residential customer. That could skyrocket to around $2,000 by 2033, and to just under $3,000 by the year 2045.
The unfunded liabilities of local government public safety funds outside Chicago nearly doubled over the last decade, eroding funded ratios to below 60%.
Union officials have announced that the city of Chicago has offered city snowplow, garbage truck and other motor truck drivers a five-year contract, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago startups had more $10 million-plus investments in 2017 than in any of the past five years. There were 39 local deals of $10 million or more, topping the previous best showing, 34 in 2015. 2016 had 31 deals of $10 million or more. The increase in large, later-stage deals is a sign of further traction in the Chicago tech economy, as companies launched several years ago mature into larger organizations, able to attract more capital. In 2012 and 2013, there were just 19 deals of $10 million or more, according to PitchBook.
By Eugene Jones, CEO, Chicago Housing Authority
The Chicago Public Schools watchdog recently reported that thousands of dollars’ worth of gift cards — intended as incentives for students and their families — were pilfered by school officials and employees. The cards, purchased by taxpayers, were used to pay a principal’s personal phone bill and a former CPS employee’s rent, to buy lobster lunches for teachers and party favors for a school clerk’s wedding reception, to pay for car detailing at a BMW dealership and layaway purchases at Kmart.
S&P Global Ratings to shifted its outlook on Cook County, Illinois’ general obligation rating to negative from stable ahead of its plans to refund $100 million next week.
A flood of college graduates has made Chicago one of the best-educated cities in America, but an unequal one as well.
“Close the place up. It doesn’t work.”
To see what a reform-oriented Illinois might look like under different state leadership, just look at the small village of Lakewood, Illinois. Since a new board was elected last year, the village has abolished its TIF, reduced the village’s property tax levy and even returned some tax dollars back to residents located in the terminated TIF.
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