-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Thank you to ZeroHedge for republishing our article.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot told Democratic lawmakers Thursday she has three items on her Springfield agenda: a Chicago casino; renewed authorization for a $5-month-tax on telephone bills; and no cuts to the city’s share of the state sales tax.
The Committee for the Illinois Democracy Amendment is advocating for a constitutional change that would obligate the General Assembly to take roll call votes on bills proposing “stronger ethical standards for Illinois public officials.”
In Chicago and elsewhere, the bail-reform movement is putting the public at risk. Proactively posting bond for Chicago’s violent repeat offenders has resulted in serious and avoidable new crimes.
“That’s over 1 million claims in just the first 9 weeks of this crisis,” Pritzker said Thursday during his daily coronavirus press briefing. “Compare that to the first nine weeks of the Great Recession of 2008, when there were 180,000 claims in Illinois.”
In Madison County, the board of health is set to vote Friday on a phased-in approach to “Return To Normal” amid COVID-19 concerns. State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, said Clark County Board members on Friday are prepared to approve their “Return to Work Recommended Guidelines.” In Winnebago County, attorney Austin Scott Davies believes enforcing the governor’s orders without due process violates the law.
Illinois’ self-employed workers have been unable to receive assistance since the pandemic began. Now the state wants them to apply, be denied, and apply again for help.
“Cook County’s complex property tax system has driven up tax rates in the area. That makes investment unattractive to developers. It also burdens homeowners and causes some businesses to close or leave the area. The tax rate for the property at Vollmer and Harlem in Matteson, for example, is 19.14%, according to Cook County tax records.”
Grappling with the Prairie State’s dire straits, however, will also force federal lawmakers to deal with bigger questions: whether to bail out other similarly underfunded states—including Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R.) own state of Kentucky—and what, if any, policy concessions they can reasonably extract in the process.
From just March until now, they’ve had to postpone or cancel more than 200 events. It is a huge loss ($18 million) for a city that relies heavily on tourism.
If the virus shutdown were to stretch through July 1, the Field Museum alone would likely experience a revenue shortfall of $20 million.
The state’s unemployment rate is nearly 18% – around 50% higher than the worst months of the Great Recession.
“Regardless of one’s opinion of Pritzker’s executive orders, compliance subject to political influence is unacceptable.”
Extension of the plan’s logic would mean that countless activities we routinely engage in despite some level of risk should be banned until the risk is eliminated.
Lightfoot said the data was “no less breathtaking” than the rate of infection in Chicago’s African American community, which prompted the mayor to sound a “public health red alarm” on April 6.
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