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Said West Side Ald. Jason Ervin, who chairs the City Council Black Caucus. “It’s about trying to make sure we aren’t dissuading people from public service. Under the rules as they now stand, a person couldn’t lobby while serving on a Local School Council. I don’t think we meant to do that.”
“They don’t even have a handle on their own website. Now they expect us to take what they say and hold a great import to it when they can’t make their own website look right,” St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said. “It’s really discouraging.
Jim Dey: “But hope springs eternal in the GOP as to the malign influence of the Chicago Democrat (Madigan) on state government in Illinois, and they’re again beating the speaker like a drum all over Illinois. But that’s particularly so in a usually low-profile Illinois Supreme Court retention race in the state’s Third Circuit.”
Mark Konkol: “If you, like me, worry that using the same public checkbook to prevent a conflict of interest seems like a conflict of interest — when we’re most certainly talking about a tangent of the FBI’s epic public corruption investigation in Illinois — school officials say there’s no need to fret.”
“I strongly believe that the speaker should take any opportunity — and this is one — to present answers to the questions that I think all of us have,” the Democratic governor said.
“A vaccine in 2021 is going to come far too late for some hotels and restaurants that are now piling up tons of debt and falling further and further behind with their creditors,” said Bob Habeeb, CEO of Maverick Hotels and Restaurants in Chicago.
State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said the positivity rate shouldn’t be the trigger. “It makes no sense. These are bureaucrats making bureaucratic decisions.” Syverson said limiting bars and restaurants will bring thousands of layoffs and businesses have a right to sue the state.
The hearing was the latest in the Black Caucus’ agenda-building series of hearings focusing on education, criminal justice and health care.
The complaint said the IHSA constitution and bylaws, which govern the organization, require such bylaw amendments to be processed and enacted through a prescribed “legislative process.” That process involves a screening by an IHSA member commission, before being put to the IHSA membership for a vote.
State health officials have found that Region 6 with Champaign County included was seeing a 7-day rolling positivity rate of 2% as of Wednesday. When calculated excluding Champaign County, that figure increases to 7.2% – putting the region much closer to automatically triggering additional restrictions.
Company attorney David Glockner identified specific subcontracts ComEd had with Madigan allies for whom no work product could be identified, including Madigan operative Raymond Nice, former Chicago Ald. Michael Zalewski and Frank Olivo. All were paid through the lobbying firm once owned by former ComEd lobbyist and City Club of Chicago head Jay Doherty.
The guidelines include the 3 W’s- wash your hands, watch your distance, wear your mask.
Such legislation passed through the state Senate in 2019. The measure did not make to either chamber for a vote in the truncated session this spring.
Known as a “Class 6b” tax incentive, Hilco only has to pay real estate taxes on 10 percent of its overall property tax assessment for 10 years. Years 11 and 12 are also deeply discounted, saving the Northbrook-based company–or new owners if the property is sold– $19.7 million over the life of the agreement.
“There are things we can learn from them. They seem to have done a really good job keeping their school community safe,” Lightfoot said. “They are in many of the same neighborhoods where CPS schools are.”
Taxes would go up by as much as 47% on more than 100,000 small businesses in the state. In fact, small businesses could face an income tax hike nearly five times larger than that for large businesses. Yet small businesses are responsible for nearly 60% of the net job creation in Illinois since the Great Recession and are the businesses most at risk from the economic fallout of COVID-19.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot was quick to take President Trump to task. “.@realDonaldTrump, keep “Chicago” out of your lying mouth,” the mayor tweeted. Subsequently, the mayor issued a thread of tweets denouncing President Trump and praising former Vice President Biden.
The progressive tax question facing voters Nov. 3 contains no limits on the number of taxes the legislature can impose on income. It doesn’t limit the rates that can be applied to different levels of income. It doesn’t protect against local income taxes. It didn’t start out that way.
“ComEd has acknowledged repeatedly through the agreement that it believed or intended to influence the speaker through its conduct. Whether it in fact … influenced the speaker, whether the speaker was aware of its intent to influence – those are questions that I’m not in a position to comment on,” ComEd Executive Vice President of Compliance and Audit David Glockner said.
State Sens. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, and Brian Stewart, R-Freeport, criticized the new restrictions in a statement: “We cannot afford to once again allow for our businesses to be negatively impacted and our workforce to take another hit just because the Governor has decided to enforce these arbitrary rules based on methodology that lacks much transparency”
Last October, the tenant agreed in court to pay the thousands of dollars she owed and stop missing payments. But she still owed thousands going into the pandemic, and the landlord said the number is growing by the month: “We can’t do anything about it. The government, the courts is not letting us evict them. There’s nothing I can do.”
Police said approximately 750 officers on the citywide Community Safety Team and Summer Mobile Patrol, which has been expanded into November, are designed to supplement police who need more support in any district at a given time.
Illinois hotels and companies that support them have already laid off 67,588 employees during the pandemic. “Some of our downtown Chicago hotels pay over $30,000-a-day in property taxes. They have to sell over 200 rooms to break even each day, just on property taxes. Without further help, the consequences will not only be dire. Many of the losses will be permanent,” the CEO of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association said.
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