“I’ve witnessed enough landlords who are having serious problems to know that it’s a huge issue,” said Paul Arena of the Rockford Apartment Association. “If the tenant can’t prove a COVID-related financial hardship, the landlords just out in the cold.”

“There is, of course, a method to what appears to be madness of waiting until the last minute and then doing almost everything at once. It’s more difficult to keep track of what’s happening that way, and what the public doesn’t know won’t hurt our legislative elite.”

Rockford Mayor Thomas P. McNamara: “When Illinois cuts our LGDF funding and increases our income taxes, they rub salt in the wound by creating a property tax reduction task force. A better idea? Stop reducing our share of LGDF funding. Stop creating more unfunded mandates — more than 300 were proposed this year alone — which place more burdens on local governments and often forces them to raise property taxes to maintain services.”

State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer doesn’t expect any action on a legislative fix for the backlog of Firearm Owner Identification Cards before the end of the month. “The only way the state of Illinois takes action on something like this is if the courts step in and say we have to do it.”

“Of course, no one knows Chapa LaVia’s side of the story, and it deserves a thorough airing. She refused to speak with the inspector general’s investigators, but she ought to be called before the committee, subpoenaed if necessary. It would be interesting to know what type of political debt Pritzker was repaying when he put Chapa LaVia in what proved to be an especially sensitive position. But unfortunately, it’s unclear whether legislators really want all the answers.”

Sheila Weinberg, of Truth in Accounting: “Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is touting a huge decrease in the state’s backlog of unpaid bills as a ‘remarkable’ achievement, citing her office’s ‘daily diligent management’ of cash flow. This would be like me bragging about reducing my credit-card debt after I took out loans to pay down my balances and received an unexpected bonus.”

Jaime di Paulo, president and CEO of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says that restaurants have to start thinking of new ways to reward employees. “I’ve seen restaurants paying up to $25 an hour for a line cook and that’s, like, way out of the box. If it’s a safe, good place to work, there shouldn’t be a problem attracting good employees.”

Amtrak has stations in 30 Illinois communities, and served over 1 million riders per year before the coronavirus pandemic.

In a news release Friday night, Democrats said they used American Community Survey’s 5-year estimate for 2019, “in addition to robust public input.” They acknowledge “The ACS estimate varies by just 0.3 percent from the state’s official population count released by the U.S. Census Bureau in April.”

Unfortunately for those Illinoisans still out of work, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pursuing nine new taxes worth nearly $1 billion, including ones that would hurt job creation efforts.

Automatic ticket regimes have turbocharged many politicians’ lifestyles. Bribery scandals have enveloped automated ticketing regimes in Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, and elsewhere. The former top salesman for Redflex, one of the largest providers of red light cameras, testified that his company had “sent gifts and bribes to officials in at least 14 states.” (Redflex denied the allegation.) Last year, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza condemned red light ticket regimes as “a program that’s broken and morally corrupt” and recommended ending them across the state.

“It’s hard to imagine the NSSEO idea getting so far along if either District 59 or NSSEO had to kick in for the added retirement income that 170-day job would afford Fessler for the rest of his life. But the state Teachers’ Retirement System, not the local districts, handles benefits for retiring educators.”