-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
“The pension system in this state is unsustainable. Taxpayers know it. Mayors across the state know it. Finance managers know it. Politicians know it. Union leaders know it. Those union leaders are simply buying time until they can cash out, leaving insolvency for the next guy.”
An obscure city commission voted Tuesday to approve a $900 million tax increment financing district that will help fund infrastructure upgrades for the proposed $6 billion Lincoln Yards development.
Although there is much more work to be done before a pilot program launch, the idea has the apparent backing of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said during a January 2018 interview with the editorial board of the Daily Herald newspaper in suburban Chicago that he was open to testing out the idea.
A judge on Tuesday gave the green light to a lawsuit filed by a parks-advocacy group that aims to stop for good the delayed construction of former President Barack Obama’s $500 million presidential center in a Chicago park beside Lake Michigan. Some supporters of the project fear the lawsuit filed by Protect Our Parks could force Obama — who launched his political career in Chicago — to build the Obama Presidential Center elsewhere.
Keep in mind this shows rate of population change, not population itself, so everything above zero is growth. Note how Illinois has fallen in the last five years compared to its neighbors, and note Michigan’s nice recovery.
Wirepoints has covered Illinois’ outmigraton problem in detail. To learn more, read:
A reader who asked to stay anonymous sent this image in of a shirt he had made. The joke backfired.
Comment: Never worked a day in her life except as part of The Machine.
Pritzker’s combined Budget and State of the State Address is Wednesday evening.
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