“The increased tax burden yields underfunded pensions, not better government service…Chicago recently ranked 141 out of 150 cities for municipal service quality. That’s no surprise: over the past decade, pension spending in Chicago increased 239 percent, while spending for city services increased only 18 percent.”
“The Arlington Heights mayor is kind of hedging his bets,” Lightfoot said during a radio interview. “Look, of course he’s interested in embracing the idea of the Bears moving there. But what will the Arlington taxpayers say? And are they able to, on their dime, raise billions — and that’s billions with a B and plural — that it’s going to take to put up a (stadium)? I’m dubious.”
Preckwinkle’s office allocated an initial $40 million in 2021 to help promote equity and an additional $10 million this year. Future funding is expected to come from Cook County’s reserve fund and the cannabis
“There is no more important priority than providing the Chicago Police Department with the resources needed to keep violent and habitual criminals off the street. Of equal importance, the city should proactively stem the emergence of new offenders and rehabilitate existing ones by reintegrating them into the economy. There are no financial obstacles to accomplishing both.”
Dan McConchie said, in part, “What is most unfortunate about the Democrats’ budget plan is we have an opportunity right now to provide permanent tax relief for the people of Illinois…Evidently, they think they know how to better spend your money better than you do.”
“My administration has always supported every constitutional action to address our pension structures while honoring promises made to retirees. This session alone, we are set to invest $500 million beyond the state’s required pension payment, reducing unfunded liabilities by $1.8 billion for taxpayers,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.
“In a year when Pritzker and his legislative colleagues trumpet budget-making moderation, the move recalls a darker fiscal period in the early 2000s when feuding Democrats Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan cobbled together state spending with ‘fund sweeps,’ taking what appeared to be large unspent balances in special funds to shore up the operating budget.”
Gov. Pritzker said there will be tax relief in the form of the earned income tax credit, property tax and income tax rebates, and a freeze of the 1% grocery tax. “On groceries, a full year. On gas, again, six months up to Jan. 1, and then we’ll revisit and see where we are in regard to oil prices and the world market and how that affects our gas prices.”
“We have filed HR824 calling on the Illinois Auditor General to audit DCFS and examine the following: Changes the department has made thus far to prevent further deaths, to prevent unnecessary psychiatric stays and better serve the interests of system-involved youths,” state Rep. Tom Weber said.
Most of the funding for the plan, an estimated $515 million, would come from an increased bed tax the state levies on nursing facilities to generate money that is then used to draw down additional federal Medicaid matching funds.
Of the 1,761 journalists who report from state capitols, 20% work for nonprofit news organizations, up from just 6% in 2014. In 10 states, there are more statehouse journalists working for nonprofits than any other kind of outlet.
“Under the guidance of nearly 90 community partners, this historic Cook County document highlights the Equity Fund’s goals, vision and purpose, outlines and memorializes the County’s financial equity commitments, and includes the Cook County Equity Fund Taskforce’s recommendations on actions Cook County government should take to address structural barriers that prevent the meaningful advancement of equity across Cook County.”
“Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is preparing to spend more than $12 million of taxpayer funds on a scheme to ‘offset’ spiking gas prices rather than seek a longer-lasting, fairer solution like lowering the city’s gas tax.”
“…(I)f the Mayor moves forward and reinstalls the Columbus statue, it seems to me that she is making that decision unilaterally, yet our names as a committee will inevitably be attached to that decision,” Northwestern University art professor Michael Rakowitz wrote. “While I have not been present for the conversations with communities, I cannot imagine that this is what we would have decided as a committee. In my view, this is not OK in terms of process and reduces our ‘report’ to a symbolic illusion of process.”
80% of the Carpentersville firefighters were in favor of separating, but the Illinois Labor Relations Board prevented them from voting based on allegations from SEIU. Union officials attempted to delay the vote by claiming Carpentersville officials violated bargaining procedures.
And the Democrats’ summary of the budget is linked here.
Illinois taxpayers still don’t have the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30 2021, more than 281 days ago. Illinois is consistently among the tardiest states in issuing annual comprehensive financial reports with the audit of FY2020 taking 408 days, according to Truth In Accounting.
Jim Dey: “The crime debate coincides with a movement to reduce prison populations. Corrections Department records reveal the numbers have fallen sharply over the last eight years. In February 2013, Illinois’ prison population was 49,401. By 2021, it was 27,413. Given the propensity of released inmates to re-offend, it should be no surprise that releasing nearly 22,000 convicted felons has gone hand in hand with rising crime rates.”
Edie Moore, of Chicago NORML, says everyone who has won a license, and paid thousands for the opportunity to get involved in pot in Illinois, is stuck in some kind of red tape right now. “They’re discouraged. They’re going broke. Teams are falling apart. It’s hard to find capital, because they’re going to other states like New Jersey and New York.”
“So, a couple things happened in 2021,” CPD Supt. David Brown said. “What happened is that we really thought that this would be an ongoing challenge in the impact of what many called, ‘Generation resignation’…not just policing, but in other professions.” He added that the difficulty to hire employees over the past 24 months “impacted us, as well. Not just us here in Chicago, but across the law enforcement profession.”
According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2022 Facts and Figures report the number of Illinois residents with Alzheimer’s is expected to increase 13 percent by 2025.
At Leslie Trejo’s home in Little Village, that means taking 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon to practice memorizing words such as “of,” “to,” and “was” — all while asking her third grade daughter to play nearby. The lesson: Fun comes after flashcards. When COVID-19 forced schooling into the home, Chicago families found themselves suddenly on the front lines: watching, coaxing, teaching, and sometimes, throwing up their hands in frustration as their children tried to learn the basic building blocks of reading.
After a pregnant woman was carjacked and a mob attacked a man on the Red Line, both downtown, in the past 24 hours, Chicago Police said they will “ensure appropriate staffing for areas experiencing an increase in activity and crime patterns.”
With input from Republicans, a provision was added to create a study group on foreign interference in state elections. State Rep. Tim Butler wants to prevent a repeat of the 2016 Russian hack into the Illinois State Board of Elections. “We have 108 election authorities in the state of Illinois that do great work around the state, but they have foreign actors all the time trying to get into their systems.”
“Overdraft fees disproportionately affect people of color and vulnerable families by burdening them with additional debts they cannot afford,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said. “I urge JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo to eliminate these unfair and inequitable fees, and act to protect consumers.”
“During his Wednesday address, Obama self-righteously claimed that ‘You have to fight to provide people [with] the information they need to be free and self-governing.’ The catch is, who gets to decide which information is good and which information is bad?”
Two separate reports show that it’s easier to afford a home now than it has been historically, although with interest rates going up that could change quickly.
What will this cost taxpayers? We are aware of no analysis or whether cost was even considered. Whatever. More free stuff is good, right?
Ted Dabrowski joined the Shaun Thompson Show this week to talk about the why pension obligation bonds are bad news for taxpayers, why there are two classes of workers in Illinois and how close Illinois came to being the nation’s fiscal bum before the federal bailouts were doled out.
Two boards that deal with the politically charged issues of crime and law enforcement — the Prisoner Review Board and the Illinois State Police Merit Board — are facing vacancy problems. Republicans argue Pritzker and his Senate Democratic allies are trying to avoid holding public hearings for the vacancies because they could create unflattering headlines before the June primary and November general elections.
One passenger said, “People are acting reckless.”
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