Day: August 18, 2019

Facing massive budget hole, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to give prime-time ‘State of the City’ speech followed by citywide tour on government finances – Chicago Tribune

August 18, 2019 17 Comments

Comment: Good grief! Look at this ridiculous survey, referenced in the article, that the city is asking residents to fill out on what to do with taxes and spending. Just make up a zip code and anybody from anywhere can fill it out. And you can bet CTU and other unions have armies already swarming this.

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It’s time for truth in state and local government finances – SFO Chronicle

August 18, 2019 2 Comments

A must-read by former Sec. of State and Treasury: “Imagine your business could treat borrowings as revenues, avoid cost recognition by not paying expenses and report less debt than actually owed….. Fortunately, accounting for private-sector enterprises doesn’t enable such activities. But accounting for state and local governments does, and with big consequences. For example, Chicago used proceeds from the sale of 75 years of parking meter revenues to plug a single year’s budget shortfall…. Today, state and local governments are using GASB’s permissive rules to report unfunded pension liabilities at just one quarter of the $4 trillion the same

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Grifters, grafters, govs and Blago leave Lincoln crying – Daily Herald

August 18, 2019 No Comments

A new film, “Lincoln Is Crying: The Grifters, Grafters and Governors of Illinois,” combining documentary and comedic fiction, “exposes some of the biggest crooks who pillaged the Prairie State, including felonious aldermen, corrupt state representatives, thieving congressmen, scandalous mayors, larcenous governors and even a couple of cunning comptrollers.”

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