A republication of our Wirepoints article.

“Sensible legislation, which we support, has been introduced in the House and Senate to require a referendum before a public water system can be sold…When something as important as the sale of a public water system is at stake, the process should be open and transparent, with the aggressive engagement of the community. Residents should be able to make well-informed decisions.”

Gov. Pritzker says Plainfield Republican Rep. Mark Batinick made a persuasive argument about imposing a mask mandate. “That may not have been politically advantageous for him to be so public about it, but I think we have all learned the mask mandate is the most important thing that we’ve done and is probably the single thing that has kept the most people healthy and alive.”

The United Center vaccination site is one example of a good plan gone awry. Initially, it was opened to anyone in the state, but then later limited to Chicago residents. So what does Pritzker say to those still scrambling to get vaccinated? “We all need to have some patience.”

He said, in part, “Look, the pandemic continues, and people have lost jobs even over the last several months. So it’s not like something happened a year ago, and we’re still dealing with the thing that happened a year ago. It’s an ongoing challenge for the state.”

According to a report by PIRG, Peoples Gas, which distributes natural gas to most of the Chicago area, had some of the largest surcharges, and 29 percent of the company’s customers were behind on their bills as of January. The 818,289 residential customers of People Gas carried more than $146 million of debt to the utility company as of January 2021, while ComEd’s more than 3.7 million customers had just $120 million in debt.

“I think from where we are now to Phase 5 maybe not just an on/off switch, but maybe a dial,” Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said. “So there may be one more phase before we get to Phase 5. I think the governor is going to release a plan that we have been working on later this week.”

And, it’s not just the news media finding it difficult to get public information. State Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, filed a Freedom of Information Act request when she couldn’t get information from the Pritzker administration about COVID-19 vaccination schedules in the state’s prisons.

Black employment declined by 15.2%, while Hispanic employment declined by 8.4% and white employment declined by 7.3% when compared to February 2020. All told, Illinois payrolls were down by 495,800 workers, or 8.1%.

Progressives want to provide $279 monthly payments by raising to 9.95 percent the Illinois inheritance tax, which applies to estates worth $4 million or more.

Rep. Marcus Evans Jr. said the point of the bill is to start the conversation about why young Chicagoans are committing these crimes in greater numbers. “We have a huge issue here in some cities and some towns with carjackings. Thinking about some of the influences of some young people, potentially, I filed this bill as an idea to get us thinking about ways to curb this terrible, terrible deviant behavior of carjacking.”

What remains to be seen is how state lawmakers will redraw the political maps in about three months when population data will not be available for about six months.

Since Illinois school funding derives from property taxes, rural schools don’t have the property base to provide competitive salaries, said Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools Mark Klaisner. In addition, the state has restructured its debt to weigh heavily on the pension process creating insecurity; Pension insecurity is a big deterrent to prospective teachers, he explained.

It’s not a permanent break or amnesty. It’s a temporary reprieve that impacts only state income tax refunds for 2020. The fines will still have to be paid. And cities like Chicago still have the power to turn outstanding fines over to collection agencies.

CBS2 also examined how Chicago specifically has been impacted. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, 10 percent of the labor force, or nearly 131,000 people, are unemployed. Prior to the pandemic, Chicago had not seen the unemployment rate this high since 2013.

In all, nearly 3.8 million doses have been administered in Illinois. The state continues to lag behind other states in getting people fully vaccinated, ranking 38th in the country.

“But the most remarkable statistics in the report were those contained in the fiscal year-to-date totals for tax revenue. In the eight months ended February 2021, total state tax revenue rose 10% over the same year-earlier period, despite the fact that the year-earlier period ended a month before the arrival of the pandemic.”

Illinois business owner Bob Goray: “What we need is support. But when we turned to our lawmakers for it, we were turned away. Rather than passing laws that would have helped us get back on our feet, Illinois lawmakers have instead tried relentlessly to pass laws that will only hurt us more by piling on additional requirements and costs that we can’t handle.”

“Pritzker’s budget team targeted items they considered to be outdated or unfair. Some would change corporate tax policies the state enacted nearly 70 years ago, while others are a result of federal policy changes made during former President Donald Trump’s term.”