“It is wash, rinse, repeat the cycle on corruption, financial mismanagement and some of the crime issues and the other significant issues facing the state,” said David Greising, president and CEO of the Better Government Association.
“I spent 23 years in the Army, so I recognize a weapon of war when I see one. I know why you’d need to use them, and what they can do to a human body. I understand that the M4 carbine, the M16 rifle and their civilian variants, known as AR-15 rifles, were designed for the battlefield…”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said the city needs the $40 million to $45 million generated by the park and school speed cameras to fund vital programs, including the Chicago Police Department and afterschool programs for children and teens, while at the same time giving lead-footed drivers a financial incentive to slow down.
There have been 24 mass shootings in Chicago this year alone – which have left 12 people dead and 101 injured. If there is any good news to come from these data, it is that for the first time in four years, the number of mass shootings in Chicago is falling. By this time last year, we had seen 32 shootings with four or more people hit by gunfire.
Chicago residents are currently facing record levels of inflation on gas and other items and deal with the state’s second-highest property taxes in the nation. The property tax increase could begin to affect businesses and consumers due to even higher costs at restaurants, stores, bars and elsewhere.
During Pritzker’s full term, about $3.5 billion more in gas taxes will be collected than during Rauner’s term. That is an extra $277 tax burden per Illinois resident, regardless of whether they drive. That means a family of four will pay nearly $1,100 more in state gas tax alone during one term of Pritzker versus Rauner.
“It’s very demoralizing,” Retired CPD Chief of Detectives EugeneRoy said, recalling a situation where a gang member opened fire on another gang member in a public place and was given a signature bond by the office of State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Roy said Foxx’s office told him that a felon in possession of a firearm is classified as a “victimless property crime,” the same as if someone committed insurance fraud.
Restaurant owner and TV host Alpana Singh says safety is a complicated issue that Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office, police, and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office needs to address. “I live and work in the 18th District and the increase in crime is palpable. I sometimes don’t recognize my own neighborhood. It seems the police is outnumbered and the businesses are left to deal with the differential.”
Attorney Sam Royko, son of legendary newspaper columnist Mike Royko, was motivated to run for alderman after the 2021 carjacking of his girlfriend.
“No doubt there would be a hue and cry about taking away funds from the public school system. However, if the current system worked there wouldn’t be a need for changes.”
The measure that advanced Tuesday would prohibit developers from including more than one new space for every two new apartments near transit hubs and require that infrastructure changes required for new construction be designed to protect pedestrians — not speed the flow of traffic.
“Most of the victims of violent crime are racial minorities, so you might think Chicago media would examine this, take a fresh look at progressive Democratic policy that has led to the chaos, from the city’s ban on police chases, to violent criminals often released on low or no bail–or on electronic “home” monitoring–to commit even more violence. But Chicago newspapers are now completely woke. They’re definitely not interested in how left-wing policy drives the surge of violent crime.”
The Chicago Board of Ethics now is empowered to levy fines as high as $20,000 — quadruple the current maximum — “plus the entire amount of the ill-gotten gains.” Conflict-of-interest provisions — unchanged since 1987 — are expanded to prohibit city officials from taking any legislative or administrative action to benefit relatives and domestic partners. And former alderpersons no longer can roam the floor at council meetings, lobbying their former colleagues.
“I think this is an important tool because it changes the evidentiary burden that the police must now make. They’ll be able to take greater action,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
The mayor’s proposal would add a $1 surcharge to taxi fares of up to $20, a $2 surcharge for fares of up to $40, and a $3 surcharge for fares above $40 whenever the AAA’s average monthly price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Chicago rises above $5.
While it would be hard to find an industry that would say this isn’t an issue, the barge industry is being hit particularly hard, according to Illinois Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Maisch. “Really good careers are going unfilled at the rate of 20% in the barge industry. And if you think about supply chain, what it means for inflation, what it means for the fact that we don’t have enough toilet paper on the shelves, you’ve got to take a look at things like barge traffic.”
Ryan Frost, policy analyst for the Reason Foundation, said Illinois’ record pension investment gains from 2021 are about to evaporate. “Just a minus-6% return basically eliminates all the gains they made from last year, and it puts them on the same poor funding track that they were on before last year,” Frost said. The authors’ main conclusion: lawmakers need to address public pension debt.
Pensions are the main driver behind property tax bills in Chicago and across Illinois. The city’s $1.71 billion property tax levy in 2022 is only a fraction of the $218.8 billion in pension debt.
In 23 years with the city, Ald. Anthony Napolitano said he has never seen such a “total disregard for a department and a workforce.” He is pushing an ordinance that would give Chicago cops advance notice of their schedules, empower them to decline excessive overtime and offer a pay bump to those who accept.
“We worry about whether the staff will be able to afford to live nearby, we worry about the costs for people who are thinking about coming to the restaurant to eat,” restaurant owner Michael Nahabedian said. “We worry about the next lease. And we want to see something from the city for these rising costs.”
He really didn’t need to say he has no intention of playing by rules, as he did. The speech showed it.
Ted was on with Dan and Amy to talk about Illinois’ poor economic growth under Gov. Pritzker. The state’s GDP growth is anemic compared to its neighbors and the rest of the states and the unemployment rate is tied for the nation’s 4th-highest.
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