-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday said he was disappointed. “We have so much work to do in Springfield, there’s no doubt. With regard to the budget in particular, we have major efforts underway that will require the legislatures engagement.”
A total of $0 has gone out as small business relief. Perhaps most surprising is that there is no application available to apply for the funds.
Former 3rd District Appellate Court Justice Kent Slater, a former Republican legislator from Macomb, said Carter had been Kilbride’s choice to hold an appointed seat on the appellate for several years.
Jim Dey: “‘We are going to do what it takes here to balance our budget and to begin the journey here of fixing the structural problems of the state,’ Pritzker has vowed. But what does that mean? The word ‘balanced budget’ doesn’t mean much in Illinois.”
According to WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notices issued Oct. 31, these include more than 80 additional layoffs at companies previously hit by job cuts. Most of the cuts involve Chicago-area restaurants.
Christophe Gsell sent his daughter to a local grade school and said so far, the school’s plan to keep kids in class and safe has worked for them. “They implemented all of the procedures. We check the kids every morning before they go to school, and if they are safe to go we send them to school, and they have limited number of kids in the bus as well, so it feels safe for now.”
Any changes to the decertification process would require legislative action. “Not every police chief or sheriff will have the same appetite to regulate conduct becoming unbecoming of an officer, and so that’s why it’s critical to have a mechanism at the state level,” Raoul said.
The Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, a group of more than 30 doctors and health care workers in the state, directed Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take “immediate action” to flatten the curve and help slow what the group said is a “dangerous trend” statewide.
Sydney Roberts, chief administrator of the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, said, “One of the things that we’re most pleased about is the department has recently revised some of their policy regarding their response to mass arrests. And several of our concerns have already been addressed,”
By far the largest potential savings — as much as $151.4 million — would be achieved by reining in the city’s $450 million in annual health care costs.
Local officials argued the delay in implementing the full mitigations would give businesses a “lifeline”. But it drew criticism from Pritzker and others, who said it would contribute to the ongoing surge.
Specifically, they point to language in the proposed standards that call on educators to, “Embrace and encourage progressive viewpoints and perspectives that leverage asset thinking toward traditionally marginalized populations.”
Pritzker has said cuts will be needed, but he has been largely silent on the possibility of pushing for tax increases. Illinois is among 11 states the group Multistate considers at “significant risk” for increased business taxes.
The incidents do not appear to be connected.
“But you know who else is hurting? Landlords, many of whom own only a few properties and depend on rental payments to cover their own bills. Pritzker’s orders treat them as a public resource to be tapped at will, without much regard for their own needs.”
“First and foremost, I would like people to avoid travel at this time if at all possible,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said.
Most of those cases, though, involved adults, and most of the cases were isolated.
Many others in office are still against him. Said state Rep. Mike Marron, R-Fithian, “I fail to understand how a man who has been a state rep for 50 years can be in touch with the priorities of the modern-day Democratic Party. In fact, in recent years there have been some pretty high profile examples of things that have happened in the speaker’s office that suggest he’s radically out of step with the priorities of my Democratic colleagues.”
The Illinois Supreme Court announced Tuesday it unanimously picked Justice Robert L. Carter of the 3rd District Appellate Court to join the bench next month. Kilbride did not take part in the vote.
New Illinois Department of Public Health data reveals that suburban Cook County is reaching the smallest percentage of COVID-19 cases statewide –only 9% of positive cases were interviewed by contact tracers between August 1 and October 24. Successful case contact varies widely across the Chicago area from Will County at 53%, McHenry at 67%, Lake at 74%, and Kane at 73%.
“In the not-so-distance past, it would have been unthinkable that Madigan’s power was in question. A freshman legislator made news two years ago when she voted “present” — that is, not for, but also not against — another term for Madigan as speaker.”
When the statewide eviction moratorium is lifted, city officials expect to be grappling with another wave of homelessness. One alderman said the city needs to marshal “additional resources” to tackle the problem.
Animal Control Exec. Mamadou Diakhate also gave aldermen an update on Nunu, the horse that was injured after the “Dreadhead Cowboy” rode the horse on the Dan Ryan Expressway in September. “Nunu is improving, [and] doing better.” The horse faces “no risk” of being euthanized at this time.
An analysis last year showed a substantial decrease in pollution inspections at the Chicago office of the EPA, a regional hub that handles pollution issues in Illinois and five other Midwest states. Under Trump, EPA also pushed off some pollution enforcement to states. Finally, the agency often relies on polluters’ “self audits.”
A city analysis assumed that any new round of federal relief would be similar to the CARES Act earlier this year. In that scenario, total city revenues were $440 million higher over the course of the recovery, which for now is expected to take two to three years, according to the city’s Department of Finance.
A lesson in how lacking the data and analyses are that health officials have provided to the public on COVID-19.
Thanks to Kerry Lutz for having Mark Glennon on to discuss the potentially historic flight from big cities to smaller communities.
Treasury and the IRS have previously issued guidance to block a different type of state workaround to the SALT deduction cap that was aimed at converting state and local taxes to charitable contributions.
The survey, conducted in late October and paid for by the teachers union, found 72% of 500 “likely 2023 municipal voters” agreed that public schools should not reopen for in-person learning.
The district had started hybrid learning in October. But three days after the return to the classroom, it halted hybrid learning due to cases in the county.
Kaylin Risvold, President and CEO of the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, says that the pandemic is hitting virtually every business in the area hard. “Honestly it’s all a gut punch. Retailers, restaurants, hospitals. This is hard on all of us.”
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