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“Indiana or Texas, they’re much faster at this,” said state Sen. Suzy Glowiak-Hilton. “We are in Illinois. It seems to be really slow, so I’m concerned about our ability to transition quickly.”
Forty-eight court clerk’s office employees “no longer work” there after investigators found they defrauded the federal COVID relief Paycheck Protection Program. Six employees of other county agencies also have been found to have defrauded federal relief programs. At least three supervisors in the Cook County chief judge’s office recently have been forced out after fraud accusations against them were “sustained” by an investigation, and the sheriff’s office reported having found evidence
“Take Chicago’s mayor’s race as an example. The majority of voters did not cast their ballot for either Brandon Johnson or Paul Vallas in the February election. If Chicago voted with RCV, not only would there not have been an expensive runoff election, but it’s also conceivable that neither of these candidates would be mayor today.”
The Illinois Department of Revenue will offer tax relief to affected income, withholding, and sales and use tax filers who live or have businesses in the impacted counties, or to those who have tax records located in the five declared disaster areas.
“Everybody is in agreement, regardless of which side of the issue they’re on, that this is probably going to be a long protracted legal battle,” Dane Harrel said. “It’s already been months, it’ll probably be in the courts for many more months if not years. I don’t even want to speculate what the compliance rate is going to be and that’s going to be up to each individual to decide.”
“It’s highly unlikely that they will be able to gain the proper licensing in time,” said Ray Stout, the executive director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. “People think this is kind of a hoax,” he added. “There’s nothing pointing to it being real.”
The list of those filing arguments before the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, include former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement and his law partner Erin Murphy, who together were on the winning legal team that secured the most recent big win in favor of Second Amendment rights before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attrition continues to be an issue. In 2022, CTA filled 431 full-time employees on the bus operations side but lost more than 500 full-time workers for a net loss of 53 employees. But historical data of workforce levels show that CTA’s staffing was in flux well before the pandemic — with year-over-year reductions in the number of bus drivers.
Federal funding for IDPH is expected to drop by $1 billion in the 2024 fiscal year, shifting the fight against COVID-19 from a state’s public health system to the traditional health care delivery, a spokesman said.
Enrollment in ag classes was up 12% last year, a good sign of demand. But there are not enough teachers.
“The Invest in Kids Act is very important to ensure a well-funded educational system,” said Rabbi Shlomo Soroka. “It provides much-needed scholarships to minority communities and the possibility that it will sunset is a major concern for our community.” Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has said school choice deepens “segregation and inequality.”
First-term Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton added to the environmental effort with a bill that passed the Senate March 31. It would require new buildings more than 5,000 square feet with 100-person occupancy to provide a bottle-filling station with each new water fountain, to promote reusable water bottles.
Ralph Martire, of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability: “During the first four years Johnson is mayor, Chicago’s pension payments were set to increase by an average of $47 million per year. But that was before the city’s pension systems suffered a 12% investment loss in 2022 — which Chicago estimates will increase all remaining pension payments by an average of $100 million per year.”
Illinois and almost all other states beat their revenue estimates because they underestimated the massive federal pandemic stimulus and its impact. With that stimulus now ending, don’t be shocked if they get the same surprise in reverse.
Ted joined Cat Petersen to discuss Chicago’s crime facts: that Chicago has led the nation in total homicides for 11 years in a row, that the city’s 2022 arrest rate was an abysmal 5%, that the city’s policies make it hard for police to do their job, that Brandon Johnson’s policies will only make things worse, and more.
“What you have going on in Chicago is slow motion civilizational suicide.”
A little-noticed bill teed up for action in Springfield would sweeten pension benefits for thousands of current and future Cook County retirees — an action the sponsor says is needed to repair a legal defect but one that, if taken statewide, could cost taxpayers “billions.”
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