-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The data released Thursday reflected overall growth trends and demographic shifts for the Chicago region that have been reflected in census estimates the past few years — stagnant growth overall with little or no growth for white and Black residents, while the numbers of Latinos and Asians increase at much faster rates.
If the city fails to reach structural balance on the timetable set by the Lightfoot administration, it could cause Wall Street ratings agencies to drop the city’s credit rating. And that would significantly complicate the city’s plan to refinance $1 billion in debt to generate $250 million in 2021 – the bulk of the $275 million the city would owe to the 11,000 rank-and-file members of the Chicago Police Department under the terms of a tentative agreement that has yet to be approved by officers or the Chicago City Council.
In February 2020, approximately 2,400 Cook County individuals were on electronic monitoring. As of last week, there are more than 3,400 individuals on the program, roughly 72% of whom are facing trial for violent crimes or gun-related offenses and 2.8% are awaiting trial for murder, the sheriff’s office said.
“That means weaning the city off of its dangerous dependence on borrowing to survive short-term crises. And it means committing to a push for leaner, more efficient city departments — and stripping out needless bureaucracy.That won’t be easy, in part because Lightfoot faces a progressive bloc in the City Council bent on devil-may-care spending.”
“If her pediatrician and our doctors tell her she shouldn’t wear a mask, that’s who I’m going to listen to,” parent Sheri Urlacher said. “I’m never going to take health advice from any school, administrator, school district or even our Governor.”
“Every single metric we measure in terms of hotel performance continues to lag, and even now, with some level of recovery, Illinois hotel revenue is still lagging only at about a 50 to 60% recovery,” said Matt Murphy, who represents Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association. Illinois hotels lost $3.5 billion in 2020.
The Legislature sent the governor more than 650 bills they passed both chambers in the spring.
A major driver for people moving, Northern Illinois University’s Center for Governmental Studies researcher Sherrie Taylor said, is jobs.
Perhaps even more concerning for Illinois’ population in the long-term, is that even the parts of the state that are growing the most are growing far slower than the national average and comparable areas.
The proposal, House Bill 4118, calls for triggering monthly transfers into the Budget Stabilization Fund and the Pension Stabilization Fund when the state’s bill backlog is less than $3 billion. That’s the point in which Mendoza’s office estimates the state is paying bills within a 30-day cycle, which is customary in business.
Mark Perry, economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, explained, “By restricting this mentorship program to Black, Latino, Native American students, while illegally excluding White and Asian students on the basis of race and color, the University is in violation of Title VI.”
The State of Illinois currently has approximately $41.9 billion in outstanding general obligation and Build Illinois revenue debt outstanding.
“The state board can choose to revoke recognition status for our school districts. And if they do that, the districts risk losing some significant portion of their general state aid,” said regional superintendent Mark Jontry. “For all of our districts, it’s a significant amount of money, but it’s a lot more money for some,” adding that liability insurance concerns should convince even reluctant school boards to enforce the mask mandate.
“Gov. Pritzker refuses to take responsibility for anything that happens in Illinois under his watch and particularly tries to distance himself from the chaos in Chicago…He failed to protect the businesses in Chicago during the 2020 riots as business owners suffered $165 million in damages.”
Back in 2009, housing permits had fallen in all three cities to just 10-15 percent of where they were in 2005, before the housing crisis. They have since been recovering, but much faster in Stockton and Detroit than in Chicago.
“The recent Mount Prospect Village Trustee vote to remove the police patch is a disgrace…When will the phenomenon of being offended, victimized and wronged by all manner of common words, symbols and actions cease?”
“There was no official honor guard that night,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. ‘There was — let me choose my words carefully — a well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession, which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue.”
While several bar and restaurant owners said this week they would welcome Chicago following the lead of New York and San Francisco, they are left for now to carve out their own policies.
With companies delaying the return to the office, business travelers have fewer reasons to hit the road. And vacationers, even fully vaccinated ones, are again facing concerns about shifting travel restrictions, particularly for people heading overseas.
“We appreciate the school’s cooperation to protect the health and safety of its students and staff. We intend to reinstate its recognition,” read a prepared statement from the Illinois State Board of Education. The statement went on to say that any future confirmed infractions would result in “immediate revocation of recognition status.”
Under the new policy, all staff will be required to submit proof of full vaccination by Oct. 15, unless they have an approved religious or medical exemption. Those who have not already reported to the district that they are fully vaccinated must be tested once a week at a minimum until Oct. 15 or until proof of vaccination is submitted. Staff with a documented exemption will need to be tested for the remainder of the year.
Some Republicans objected because the bill includes all Illinois schools, including private ones.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, chairman of the Chicago City Council Latino Caucus: “Over the past two decades, Chicago’s Latino population has boomed, with Latinos now projected to become the largest minority group in the city despite an expected census undercount. Nearly half of all Chicago Public Schools students are Latino, one in three babies born here is Latino, and Latino population growth has provided the workforce needed to expand Chicago’s industrial economy.”
The union’s hotel was used for the same purpose for all of last academic year, said Awais Vaid, deputy administrator of the health district. With university housing nearing 100 percent capacity, the health district won’t have the same amount of in-hall spaces for student quarantine and isolation.
There will be no ceremony marking the official transfer, which was not publicly announced. The final legal documents will be electronically signed Friday at 9 p.m., a City Hall official said.
Eighty-seven of Illinois’ 102 counties lost population between 2010 and 2020, according to the latest data release from the Census Bureau. All shrinking counties were in downstate Illinois, while Cook County and the collar counties grew, albeit slowly.
For those interested in really digging into the debate on the science of whether masks are effective, two pieces are probably the best start.
When adjusted in 2016, Cook County residents received 98 cents for every $1 paid in state taxes, while suburban residents received even less – 60 cents. Meanwhile, downstate residents received $1.70 for every $1 paid. In 2016, the largest ratio between taxes generated and state expenses came in southern Illinois, where residents got $2.88 for every $1 paid in taxes.
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