-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
A republication of our Wirepoints article.
“That’s the good news. But what’s good for the goose isn’t always what is good for the gander. The improvement in the bottom line in 2019 arrived despite overall expense growth accelerating from 2018. Losses fell simply because tax revenue rose significantly faster than expenses.”
Mark Konkol: “(I)t’s hard to see what’s so fair about a governor leveraging his billions to court votes for a tax increase…Not when nearly 2 million people rely on food assistance programs and community pantries are serving more people than ever before…There’s got to be a better way for our governor to spend $56 million during times like these.”
The pro-police Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund found Foxx’s predecessor Anita Alvarez had a 75% felony conviction rate compared to Foxx’s 65.8% felony conviction rate. Foxx insists this group is manipulating data to fit their political agenda.
More than 27,400 businesses got at least $150,000 through the federal Paycheck Protection Program. The loans were turned into grants if most of the money was used to retain employees.
On Tuesday, in four cities, a group of business-tied organizations – including the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Farm Bureau, National Federation of Independent Business-Illinois and the Technology and Manufacturing Association – called concurrent news conferences in four cities to make their case.
The overall decline in Illinois was greater than the national average of 5 percent but smaller than the average for the Great Lakes region, which was 5.7 percent. Neighboring states Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin all fared better than Illinois, while Indiana and Kentucky fared slightly worse.
On June 26, dozens of state representatives sent a letter to Thomas Chan, acting director of the department, asking the agency to revamp how it handles phone calls and help resolve outstanding cases. “These constituents are left feeling incredibly frustrated, with no confidence in state government’s ability to provide the relief they are entitled to — and despite their best efforts, our staff are unable to help.”
Come on, PNC. Financially smart people will read your release. They know.
“You cannot sit still… During this interview, I’m doing five-pound weights on each leg. I don’t want to be like a lot of 70-year-olds I know who are waiting for something to happen. I’m going to make it happen.”
“We don’t have the resources to keep extending our inability to work because we can’t be attorneys without being licensed,” said Anabel Abarca, a 2020 graduate from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
“While retirement systems have far less than they need to pay pensioners, even the most poorly funded systems like Chicago and New Jersey won’t exhaust their assets in the next five years, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. If funds run dry, state and local governments would have to pay pensions solely with taxpayer dollars.”
“Former California Democratic House Speaker Jesse Unruh once described money as ‘the mother’s milk of politics.’ While that’s true, it’s not always dispositive in terms of laying the groundwork for successful campaigns. Plenty of lavishly funded campaigns and candidates have gone down to defeat.”
Money paid in tolls is used to repair and maintain stretches of highways, including the Tri-State Tollway (I-94/I-294/I-80), the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) and the Veteran’s Memorial Tollway (I-355). The agency will not cut back on road projects, nor lay off employees.
Although illegal in Illinois, the sale of fireworks in Indiana and Wisconsin skyrocketed this year, with one store selling three times as much as in previous years. And fireworks-related calls to 911 in Chicago more than quadrupled — with 19,925 between Jan. 1 through July 5 as compared to 4,612 during the same period last year
Businesses based downtown are suddenly grappling with many employees afraid to use public transportation to commute. The prospect of long waits for office tower elevators could dissuade workers from returning to the city in full force. And in the backdrop, millennials—the talent group companies moved downtown to attract in one of the tightest labor markets on record—appear to be buying suburban homes at a faster pace, some having proven they can be just as productive working remotely as in the office.
“What torpedoed the longest expansion in American history was the new coronavirus and the disruptions it caused. And the virus is not going away. It’s not under control. Uncertainty is the new normal.”
“Even if you get to the processor, it’s sitting in the warehouse someplace, in refrigerators and freezers somewhere, waiting for restaurants and foodservice and schools to open back up,” an industry spokesperson said. “So the forecasted prices are actually really really bad for the fourth quarter of 2020 because again we’re gonna have too much supply and not enough demand.”
The couple got engaged in February and planned to hold a wedding in November. The coronavirus pandemic forced the ceremony to be postponed until May 2021. The mother-of-the-bride’s diagnosis of terminal cancer prompted them to schedule a small ceremony in the backyard of the family home sooner. But her admission Tuesday to the intensive care unit shortened their timetable again.
The shooting was reportedly gang retaliation and the little girl was caught in the fire while playing in her grandmother’s yard.
Organizers of the boycott said the goal is to show the power of minority consumers in America. According to the Brookings Institution, Black people in the U.S. hold about 2.5% of the nation’s wealth.
Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th) said it was not paid for by taxpayers, and said Kates Security took on the mission free of charge. When asked if this is something the alderman would do again in the future, she said she absolutely would, and she wants to do it more often.
First Amendment rights are unclear, but policy is a different matter.
Most of the decline resulted from the drop in revenue from the personal income tax, which was down $947 million, or 4.2%. Corporate income taxes dropped just over 14%, a $430 million decrease. Sales tax collections dropped $206 million.
“What are you doing to breathe back the life into your downtown and we just need to kind of find that new generation of people to do it,” said one Springfield business owner. “And so I think the timing is kind of great for that if we can just find the entrepreneurs to step up.”
Asked if he thinks the mayor of Chicago should take the president up on his Tweeted offer for help, Pastor Corey Brooks said, “I’m for whatever it takes to stop the violence, whatever it takes to save a life. I think sometimes we have to get beyond our pride of feeling inadequate.”
“We submit this petition for the Northalsted Business Alliance to simply follow other LGBTQ neighborhoods across the world by marketing the area based on its location, North Halsted, not the majority gender of those people who sit on its board,” states the petition with more than 400 signatures.
Those statistics offer some good news for Illinoisans, at first blush: We’re far below peak case levels, and not even close to being as bad as the most struggling states. The bad news: Illinois’ big drops of late May and early June are history — and some daily metrics are increasing.
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