-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
“We appreciate everything, but that’s not saving us. None of it is going to cut it. The answer is to allow people the choice to go out or not go out,” said Steven Hartenstein of the Broken English Taco Pub in Old Town.
State leaders say since the pandemic hit, IDES continues to get record calls and claims. The most recent United States Department of Labor data pinpoints jobs like wholesale trade, retail trade, health care and social assistance industries as industries seeing layoffs in Illinois.
“These people are squatters with no intention of paying rent,” Horvath said of his tenants in unincorporated Lockport. “None of the rental assistance plans will work with my situation.”
A major concern of many bars and restaurants in the region is serving customers outdoors as the temperatures drop, with fears many will close for good. “This recent move to Tier 2 status will mean the end of many of our small restaurants,” Mayor Tom McNamara and State Rep. Maurice West said.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said the pension buyout program is a distraction and not providing real savings. “They’re even warning ‘yes, the tax hikes might help the bondholders,’ the bondholders would be happy with tax hikes because that’d be more money for them, but that doesn’t help the average Illinoisans.”
“These changes help reduce travel-related exposures but also allow for breaks in the semester to recharge,” the provost wrote in a letter to students, staff and faculty.
When asked Thursday about the Whitmer threat, Lightfoot said “all roads lead back to Donald Trump,” saying every time the president or his spokespeople attack Chicago and called out Lightfoot by name, she’s inundated by threats and hateful comments. “I know this is the experience of other mayors and other elected officials across the country.”
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, Thursday demanded Gov. J.B. Pritzker push Madigan to testify to a House panel about ComEd admitting it paid bribes over nine years to Madigan associates to influence the speaker. “Demand answers from the speaker or demand his resignation.”
The rating agency also warned because of rising debt and continued unbalanced budgets, “Illinois could exhibit further characteristics of a non-investment-grade issuer.” In other words, the state of Illinois is at risk of becoming the first “junk”-rated state in U.S. history.
“We’ve just had no resources to draw on. We’ve kind of been drowning,” Hancock County Economic Development Executive Director Belynda Allen said at a roundtable with local legislators. the venue, the Legacy Theater in Carthage, offered a stark reminder of what the county stands to lose – and already has lost due to COVID-19. “The Legacy Theater hasn’t been able to have a show all year. Tourism is devastated. Ag is taking a huge hit.”
Just one in three Black children and one in five Latinx children in the city are considered “ready” for kindergarten based on the most recent state Kindergarten Individual Development Survey, Lightfoot’s office said.
Officials hope the ideas can help restaurants and bars stay afloat this winter. The winners will each get $5,000 and will see their ideas put to the test at local restaurants during a pilot program. The Illinois Restaurant Association will choose which restaurants get to try the prototypes.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford likened the history currently being taught in Illinois schools to poisoning students: “We would not want our kids to drink lead water because we know it would harm them, therefore we should not allow our students whether they are Black, white or brown to be learning history that is not inclusive and is biased.”
Small businesses are responsible for 60% of the net job creation in Illinois and are the businesses most at risk from the economic fallout of COVID-19. Changing to a progressive income tax in Illinois could mean a massive tax hike for these businesses.
The report’s final warning shouldn’t be ignored: “Were the proposed graduated-rate income tax adopted, Illinois would trail its peers in just about every aspect of its tax code. If businesses and individuals are leaving the state now, these policies can only make the problem worse.”
Wisconsin is undergoing a true surge in COVID-19 but the reasons are unclear.
Governor JB Pritzker and Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton announced on Tuesday Illinois’ “Healing Illinois Initiative to Advance Racial Healing.”
“Wisconsin is what happens when you politicize public health,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “The fact that in October a state is now having to open a field hospital because of the stress on the health care system, because of the explosion in cases requiring hospitalization, is a disgrace. And it solely ties back to the actions of a partisan state Legislature and a partisan supreme court.
An email from Chief Talent Officer Matt Lyons sent late Tuesday told clerks, clerk assistants and technology coordinators that the expectations have not changed. The Chicago Teachers Union is interpreting the email as a threat of discipline and an attempt “to strongarm workers into schools in defiance of the ruling.” The union also claims CPS is stalling on bargaining over remedies.
Pritzker on Wednesday, while isolating in his home after a staffer tested positive for COVID-19 last week, pleaded for federal funds to plug shortfalls in the state’s budget, which relies on billions of dollars in borrowing. “And even though the president has apparently thrown the talks into disarray now that he’s on a cocktail of steroids coming out of the hospital, we are going to need this kind of support,” Pritzker said.
Sen. Kimberly Lightford said it was natural for Chicago Public Schools to make those efforts because it has the largest Black population in the state. “Once you leave Chicago, you leave Cook County, the rest of the state, Black people struggle even more. Percentages are always lower for them. They get the last and little bit of the information.”
“If children can wear masks at school, which they are required to at any schools that are open, they can wear masks on the playground. I’m not concerned about [the cost] because we have now learned that you don’t have to clean everything constantly — especially outside,” Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith.
“Call it gangsterism or call it Illinois politics, it all comes from the same place and it’s all about force and muscle. It’s another reason taxpayers flee the state in the great Illinois Exodus.”
“How do I expect them to continue on with the work in the future days if they’re not getting paid for the work they’ve already done?” Paris Steele, superintendent of public works, wondered about his staff. “It’s a dark cloud that us employees working have to deal with politics.”
“The only way to get through the pandemic is using transparency,” said Peter Spadafore, deputy executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents & Administrators. By publishing statewide figures, school leaders “can begin to understand what measures were successful in mitigation and stopping outbreaks.”
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