An actuary’s perspective.

Joe McMahon, Director of Government Affairs for the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association, said auto dealers are struggling to recover from major pandemic-related losses, just like the rest of small businesses. “Now is the worst possible time to increase taxes on our businesses that are fighting to keep their doors open and their teams employed.”

John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. “Risk is expected by those who choose to run a small business. They choose that life because they assess the risks and decide that the services they can offer their neighbors, and the jobs and revenue they can generate for their communities are well worth it…Politicians should not be allowed to add to those risks by implementing unpredictable tax policy that gives too much power to state lawmakers who cannot control their own spending.”

“Sources say communication between the governor’s office, the IDPH and the IHSA is still lousy. That was a major issue this summer when fall sports plans were debated. Remember, Pritzker blindsided the IHSA with that decision.”

Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe said it’s been frustrating, even though restrictions on what the money can be used for have eased. “So we’ve been in contact with DCEO a lot. One person will say, ‘that’s eligible.’ The other person will say, ‘no it’s not.’”

Seventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow ruled that a Clay County judge had jurisdiction to issue a July 2 order that struck down Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive orders on COVID-19 beyond the initial 30-day period. She said said the governor could challenge the Clay County ruling for other reasons, but not over jurisdiction.

Pritzker’s briefings will typically be held at 2:30 p.m. and they are streamed online.

The statewide positivity rate from October 12-18 came in at 5.4 percent, remaining near levels last seen in early June while the state’s weekly testing average has more than tripled since then. “Every region of the state has started to move in the wrong direction: cases, positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths are rising statewide,” Pritzker said.

Said Loretta Facchini, a retiree who owns one rental property in suburban Vernon Hills. “People’s entire retirements are either going or are gone. Our tenants are both working. We can’t evict them and we are losing money. We had to go into our savings to pay for the property taxes and mortgage. We are out about $30,000 since January 2020.”

At no point in the pandemic have hospital beds statewide reached max capacity. The only time there were fewer than 10,000 vacant beds was on May 6.

“COVID-19 is something we need to take seriously,” said state Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo. “My frustration remains that the governor is not looking at hospitalization rates and hospital bed availability, which are the key factors. He is using the positivity rate which is some kind of magic factor, which is not dispositive.”

Trump was across the border from the Land of Lincoln in Wisconsin Saturday where during a rally he criticized Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker: “That guy doesn’t know what’s happened. They’ve gotta open up that state, they’ve got to open up that state.”

‘Fair tax’ backers funded by Gov. J.B. Pritzker created the illusion of bipartisanship by using a former public employee union staffer who collects a generous taxpayer-funded pension due to a loophole in state law.

“He’s modeling bad behavior. He doesn’t wear a mask in public. He has rallies where they don’t encourage people to wear masks in public,” Pritzker told Jake Tapper on CNN Sunday morning. “Truly, this is now rhetoric that people understand, particularly in rural areas in my state, ‘Well, the president doesn’t wear a mask; we don’t need to wear a mask. It’s not that dangerous.’ The truth of the matter is that it is very dangerous.”