By: Mark Glennon* I’ve never marched in a protest before, but this one’s important — and personal. A woman in my area has organized a demonstration for Tuesday calling for criminal prosecutions over the program to incite violence to stifle political activity, which was recently exposed in the Project Veritas videos. Lives were put at risk. Homeless and mentally ill people were among those paid to start fights. The primary video is linked here. The video is “absolutely prima facie evidence of criminal activity,” according to Former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova. That seems right to me, yet we’ve heard not

By: Mark Glennon*   Who helped kill the widely popular constitutional amendment to take politics out of how legislative maps are drawn? The assumption all along seems to have been that House Speaker Michael Madigan had just picked up the phone to one of his lawyers to make it happen. The Illinois Supreme Court killed it in August, though supporters had collected over 500,000 signatures to put it on the ballot next month.   Turns out Madigan got some help. Tom Kacich at The News Gazette reported the facts earlier this week, though his article has been overlooked. The opposition

By: Mark Glennon*   It’s an overlooked add-on to our pension crisis, and it’s huge. Like pensions themselves, the problem won’t be solved until we size it correctly and understand it fully. But with OPEBs, that’s more easily said than done.   OPEBs — Other post-retirement employee benefits — are primarily healthcare benefits granted to pension system members. Once promised to state and local workers in Illinois, they are constitutionally guaranteed along with pension benefits themselves, thanks to the 2014 Kanerva decision by the Illinois Supreme Court. Healthcare obligations extend for the lifetime of the pensioner and are mostly unfunded.

  By: Mark Glennon*   The monthly report is now out for September from Illinois’ Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. It shows monthly and year to date revenue collection by the state compared to last year.   Not good. Revenues continue to decline.   For the fiscal year to date (which started July 1), total base revenue is down $145 million. That’s a 2.1% decline from the same period last year. According to the report, “both personal and corporate income taxes have disappointed. At least sales tax receipts have grown, albeit at fairly weak levels.” Sales tax receipts have

  “What we need is to work in moderation, not in the extreme.” -Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan   “Yeah my blood’s so mad feels like coagulating.” -Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction   By: Mark Glennon*   They’re sprouting. Tax protest and revolt groups, long predictable in Illinois, are popping up. Articles today in the Northwest Herald and Illinois News Network describe some of them, perhaps the most notable being Illinois Tax Revolution. Others are under discussion or in formation. I’ve heard from them here.   Most are focused on property taxes, as they should be, because rates in many

  “Financial watchdogs” fretting over a “rainy day fund” that’s almost meaningless, in more ways than one.   By: Mark Glennon*   “Illinois drains state’s savings account due to budget crisis” was the headline on an Associated Press article yesterday. It was widely republished across Illinois today.   Somebody needs to wake up and take a broader look at the money on hand in the Illinois Treasurer’s office. The most recent balance posted by that office (as of the end of July) is $14 billion, up from $12.2 billion just three months ago. Not that it matters, however, because even

By: Mark Glennon* A bankruptcy filing is the ugly inevitability for Chicago, we’ve said, but here’s one interesting, potential sweetener: Bankrupt municipalities have the option of cancelling most contracts and leases they don’t like, and that might include Chicago’s despised deal that privatized parking meters. Regardless, think of this as a lesson in one part of bankruptcy. Arcane bankruptcy topics like this, unfortunately, will be critical to the recovery of dozens of insolvent municipalities across Illinois that face bankruptcy. First, a little background on the deal, which was executed in 2008 and partially amended in 2013.  In exchange for an

Not an option, but a sad necessity. I repeat my challenge that I’ve made repeatedly here: Show us the alternative.

By: Mark Glennon*   Think what you want about whether Britain was wise to exit the European Union, but, now that it’s coming, Illinois should be demanding, as should everybody, that the administration reverse its stated position that the United Kingdom go to “the back of the queue.” The administration is aggravating a manageable, near term disruption and may help blow it into a major crisis.   It matters immensely. Illinois companies export almost $2 billion annually to the UK. Tens of thousands of Illinoisans are employed here by British companies, and vice versa. The Chicago Tribune detailed a host

  Illinois is falling further behind the curve by ignoring the inevitable. It’s priority should be influencing Congress to amend the Bankruptcy Code to make it a fast, efficient, predictable means to a fresh start, with the general public’s interest made paramount. By: Mark Glennon* In the dozens of articles you probably read in the last few months about our fiscal crisis, what’s the universal omission? A solution. No analyst, officeholder or commentator has offered one. No combination of survivable tax increases and spending cuts can solve Illinois’ consolidated state and local fiscal insolvency. There is none — unless debt,

  By: Joe Mathewson*   As the City of Chicago prepares to borrow still more to pay current bills, we taxpayers are constrained to wonder: where’s the plan to reduce the billions of debt for which we’re ultimately responsible? The total is already soaring beyond an impossible, unimaginable $30 billion!   We can learn from a new book, Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back, by Nathan Bomey, who covered the complex 2013-2014 court process for the Detroit Free Press.  Four lessons stand out:   1. Most important, if not entirely new, is Bomey’s granular description of how U.S. Bankruptcy Judge

  By: Mark Glennon*   High fives abounded Thursday in Springfield after both houses of the General Assembly approved spending $700 million on social services. But has anybody really taken a good look at all that’s in it? Not many in Springfield, evidently: It went through House committee in the morning and was called for vote that afternoon, only about an hour after members received a staff analysis.   How many times have we seen this before, both in Springfield and Washington? Cram bill through, find pork and favoritism later. In this case, most of it looks legit, but there’s

  “Gall: Brazen boldness coupled with impudent assurance and insolence.” –  Merriam-Webster Dictionary By: Mark Glennon* IMRF, the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, went on a “statewide informational tour” last week. It was basically a brag fest. Illinois taxpayers should be appalled. IMRF is the second largest pension fund in the state. It covers 100,000 employees and retirees of 3,000 Illinois municipalities who are not policemen, firefighters and those covered by state pensions. Among its boasts is that it will be reducing contributions made by municipal employers from 11.73% of payroll to 11.34%. Also, it’s “well funded,” in its words —

Audio of the interview linked here. The article discussed in the interview is linked here.

  By: Mark Glennon* What sense is there letting $11.5 to $14 billion of state money sit around indefinitely, unused, invested mostly short term and earning little? The Illinois Treasurer’s holdings are an important part of the state’s overall situation, so the question should have an obvious answer. It doesn’t. In fact, digging into the question exposes a subject so nontransparent that the general public, and probably most legislators, can’t be expected to assess it. Here’s what we know: As of the end of last month, the Treasurer held $12.2 billion of state money, called the State Portfolio. It’s invested

  By: Mark Glennon*   Hey, that’s not our our question or our headline, so chill.   It is, though, for a rather serious article yesterday in the right-leaning publication, The Federalist. The left’s response came fast with two pieces in The New Republic, linked here and here, and they added pictures, like the one on the right.   I won’t touch this with a pole, so you read the articles and decide for yourself. The fate of the nation may turn on this.   I have been wondering, however, when pundits will start analyzing voter response to the background

  “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” – Ben Franklin   By Mark Glennon*   Unbelieveable. State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), a major lietenant of House Speaker Michael Madigan, today proposed a graduated income tax under which 99% of Illinois taxpayers would get a cut. One-percenters would see rates increase gradually up to 9.75%. More specifically, according to the Chicago Tribune:   Under Lang’s proposal, taxpayers who are married and filing a joint return or a head of a household would pay 3.5 percent for income of $200,000

  By: Mark Glennon*   It’s a lesson I first learned over thirty years ago as a law clerk one summer in the State Department’s Office of Trade, and it’s been reinforced ever since:  If you intend to get seriously educated on foreign trade agreements, beware, because you probably won’t succeed on your own. Few topics are this complex and few are so endlessly subject to deceitful arguments — straw man simplifications, ivory tower theory, cherry-picked numbers and self-interested distortions. All sides are often guilty — corporations, labor, our trade negotiators and free trade supporters (of which I am one).

By: Mark Glennon* I was at the Illinois GOP event at the Palmer House in Chicago Friday night, which was the other target of protesters along with Donald Trump’s cancelled event at UIC. Before going, I read an email from my U.S. Congresswoman, Jan Schakowky, calling for protests at both events. It read: Donald Trump, Bruce Rauner, and Ted Cruz are going to descend on Chicago to spread their message of intolerance, racism, and hate. We need to stand up to their disgusting rhetoric and remind them that Chicago won’t tolerate the garbage they are spewing. I saw plenty of

  By: Mark Glennon*   Did you know Catholic Charities is Illinois’ largest social service provider and gets 70% of its funding from the state? I didn’t. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Illinois’ financial crisis is the depth of its impact on social services commonly thought to be privately funded or otherwise not heavily reliant on state money. Same, to some extent, for higher education.   Was the plight most of them face today foreseeable? Definitely. Avoidable? Not so clear.   Major cutbacks loom for groups like Catholic Charities, or have been made already. Catholic Charities, with a budget

  By: Joe Mathewson*   Chicago Public Schools’ desperate and very costly quest for buyers of its recent $725-million bond issue (cut from $875 million) is a harbinger of peril ahead, not only for CPS but for the City of Chicago and other Illinois local governments and special districts relying fatuously on borrowing to pay current expenses.   If the Illinois legislature finally passes a pending bill permitting municipalities and special districts to seek relief in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, there might be a parade of them knocking on that door. They’d be well received, for Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy

  By: Mark Glennon*   The Civic Federation had a long, proud history providing an important check on state and local financial management. It sounded the alarm loudly long ago about Illinois’ problems: “Doomsday is here,” said its President, Laurence Msall, six years ago.   No more. A noticeable change occurred about three or four years ago. Since then, the alarms have softened. Critical issues are overlooked or given lip service. Limp pension reform proposals dominate. Dire implications of its own research pass without comment.   Now, it has worsened. The Civic Federation has become part of the problem. Last

  By: Mark Glennon*   “Politicians, do your jobs.” “Compromise.” “Can’t we all get along?” In the endless repetition of calls like that, the underlying thought is that “passing a budget” means spending cuts now painfully felt will go away.   They won’t. They can’t. It doesn’t matter whether one or the other side caves completely or they split the difference — for a number of years, that is, until longer term solutions hopefully can pass and take hold.   As Comptroller Leslie Munger recently pointed out, if we tried to cover current operations from an income tax increase, the

Behold the Chicago Cubs. By: Mark Glennon* The inevitable is here. The real importance of Governor Rauner’s proposal to authorize optional bankruptcy for Chicago Public Schools and the city is putting bankruptcy into the mainstream narrative. That’s good, and years overdue, but it also means we’ll be doubling down on the confusion, ignorance and political distortion that has plagued the debate about our fiscal crisis. On this site we will focus hard on ensuring that all good articles about municipal bankruptcy for Illinois get posted, and we’ll try to cut through the fog.  It’s not an easy topic, as I

  “There is no history, only biography.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson   Don’t look just at the trees as you read the articles grading Bruce Rauner on this first inauguration anniversary — whether his specific and tangible changes were enough given the legislature he had. That’s important, but there’s more.   See the forest. Consider the entirely of what changed since he arrived.   It’s an entirely new paradigm in Springfield. Once forbidden topics are now debated. Major directional change finally is at least on the table. Most importantly, a redirected and reinvigorated Republican party is setting a course for restoration

“Carthage must be destroyed.” – Cato the Elder, Roman Senator By: Mark Glennon* The core identity of moral and fiscal bankruptcy in Illinois government cannot be denied. It controls the Illinois General Assembly, Chicago and Cook County.  “The machine” isn’t often used to describe it any longer, but the “Chicago way” now universally communicates its infamy. It has defied its end as persistently as did Carthage before Cato. Carthage was a mortal threat to the Roman Republic in the second century BC and had rebuilt itself time and again after earlier Roman invasions. Its total destruction was Rome’s only option,

  By: Mark Glennon*   These stories got the most page views on this site over the past year. This is perhaps a bit distorted towards more recent ones because our readership is increasing rapidly, but property taxes and pensions clearly are the biggest issues for readers here. Rightly so:   #1  Suicidal Property Tax Rates and the Collapse of Chicago’s South Suburbs   #2  Reality Shock: The Highest Property Tax Rates in Cook and Its Collar Counties   #3  New Workers Subsidizing Illinois’ Surging $100,000/year Pension Club   #4  Open mic delivers priceless audio sample of Chicago area government

  By: Mark Glennon*   Steel yourself. Don’t expect many laughs. This site is about economics, “the dismal science,” and something more dismal, Illinois government. Here are the most notable quotes for 2015:   Truer words never spoken: “Nobody here really gives a fuck. Everybody here is sleeping. The engineers, everyone that’s here on midnights. They are all fucking sleeping somewhere.”  A security officer at a the water reclamation plant in southwest suburban Stickney.  He accidentally left the microphone open on his radio as he showed the ropes to a new employee, and the conversation was recorded. It’s a perfect

  By: Mark Glennon*   We told you early this year that right-to-work would likely come to Illinois but it would have nothing to do with what Governor Rauner or the General Assembly do in Springfield, and it would come locally. That’s what happened last night in Lincolnshire, where the village board, by a five to one vote, made the town a right to work zone. This was not like other votes taken earlier this year by other towns, which were nonbinding expressions of policy. Lincolnshire actually enacted right-to-work, and it potentially sets a huge precedent.   You may recall

  By: Mark Glennon*   Late yesterday the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) filed a lawsuit against Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleging she is refusing to discharge her duty to properly defend the state against certain workers compensation claims.   The complaint, styled Tyrell v. Madigan, is linked here. The lawsuit was brought in the name of Tom Tyrell in his capacity as Director of CMS. It pertains to home care workers called “personal assistants.” According to the complaint, there are about 30,000 personal assistants in Illinois who have filed hundreds of workers compensation claims against the

  By: Mark Glennon*   If you haven’t followed Puerto Rico’s financial crisis, serious debate now focuses on authorizing it to file a “Super Chapter 9” municipal bankruptcy. As a territory, Puerto Rico currently cannot file under the Bankruptcy Code. That can be changed easily by Congress with the President’s signature, however. They can also change Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code to make it a faster, firmer and more predictable route to a robust recovery.   And the Bankruptcy Code, it’s widely accepted, trumps state limitations on impairing pension obligations. Federal power to make and change bankruptcy law is

  By: Mark Glennon* If Mayor Emanuel was intent on halting Chicago’s downward spiral and if we had a General Assembly in Springfield willing to authorize him to do it, his budget address would have included things like this: Upon completion of this speech I am ordering implementation, as rapidly as law allows, of the emergency financial measures I will describe. Each of these measures can and will be accomplished either through voluntary agreement, legislation or bankruptcy. It is important to understand the role of bankruptcy as an option. We have prepared a full reorganization plan that incorporates these measures,

  By: Mark Glennon*   An article today in Russia’s Pravda lectures us: “If you’ve studied cost accounting at a graduate level, did cost accounting work and you look at publicly available financial data from these cities, it’s like looking at nightmare on main street parts I, II, III and IV about to happen.”   “Chicago or LA, which one is more likely to collapse first? Chicago,” they say.   And, “Kankakee County IL or Perry County KY? Kankakee County is more likely to go belly up first.”   Yes, they ridiculed fiscal profligacy across America, but Chicago and Kankakee

  By: Mark Glennon*   Man, what a screw up. Mayor Rahm Emanuel yesterday gave Chicago’s annual budget address. The one he gave must have been meant for a different city. All we know for sure is it had nothing to do with Chicago.   I’m thinking maybe it was for Pflugerville, Texas. Don’t laugh. I’ve been to Pflugerville. They have their act together. They even have their own song. Maybe some speechwriter stuck the budget address for another city into Rahm’s teleprompter.   Let’s go through the speech he gave and try to fill in what he no doubt

  By: Mark Glennon*   The Silo Effect is a new book by the Financial Times’ U.S. Managing Editor, Gillian Tett. Read it thinking about Illinois and its municipalities and you’ll cringe, even though it’s not expressly about that. The silo effect permeates Illinois government as well as coverage of our financial crisis by ratings agencies, municipal bond analysts and the press.   “The silo effect” is Tett’s term for an old problem at which she takes a modern look: In large organizations and on complex topics, fragmentation and specialization undermine cooperation and make it nearly impossible to get an

  By: Mark Glennon*   Suppose we agree that something locally produced — anything, widgets let’s say  — is unaffordable for many people. And suppose we want to make those widgets more affordable. How does this solution sound? Pass a law ordering local widget makers to sell 10% of their widgets at a lower price. If they don’t, make them pay a fee and give the fee to the government to make widgets.   Put it that way to an average 12-year-old and I think we could guess at some answers: Widget makers would just go somewhere else. It’s not

  By: Mark Glennon*   It would take the equivalent of loading over 500 trains to ship all of Illinois’ illegal aliens out. Nationally, it would take over 30,000 trains using Donald Trump’s number of illegals here.   More than seven times the number of Albanians who Serbs tried to force out of Kosova in 1999 would be forcibly removed from the United States if Trump had his way. Not since World War II has so large an ethnic cleansing as Donald Trump wants been attempted.   The depravity of separating or removing millions of families would be matched by

  By: Mark Glennon*   Last week, a union leader and Mayor Emanuel teamed up to dump on Governor Rauner for repeatedly saying our business climate is bad. “I think now that the election is over, the governor needs to switch from a detractor-in-chief to a cheerleader-in-chief,” said Jorge Ramirez, Chicago AFL-CIO. “Having your agenda should not come at the expense of running down either the city or the state you’re out there promoting,” Emanuel added.   Cheerleading before candor, in other words. It’s not new. Before Rauner showed up, Illinois’ political establishment had others to blame for the same

  “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland   By: Mark Glennon*   Is some form of madness behind the response of Chicago and Cook County to the death spiral they are in? Let’s first look at the headlines from just this past week because, like Alice, you may quickly find six crazy things you’ll have to accept:   – Two weeks after raising Cook County’s sales tax to the highest in the country, it’s now considering a pay increase of $130 million over five years. – Chicago may

By: Mark Glennon*   July is another record month for our online traffic, which continues to surge.   Special thanks to some particularly well-informed readers who give us feedback both online and by email, especially you in the actuarial and muni bond industries.  Suggestions and criticisms are welcome. You can take our online, anonymous survey by clicking here.   And thanks to the growing list of media that have been quoting, linking or republishing us, which included The New York Times this month. We send tens of thousands of readers to other publishers through our links to their best stories,

  By: Mark Glennon*   Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan went to court yesterday to stop state worker paychecks during the government shutdown or to allow payment of no more $7.25 an hour — the minimum wage. That action, together with the background story behind it — use of the courts to deliberately sabotage an agreement both workers and the state want — comprise one of the most sordid chapters of Illinois politics in recent memory.   First, that background. As the July 1 deadline for a state budge approached, Democrats in the General Assembly sought to pressure Governor Rauner

  By: Mark Glennon*   Chicagoans and bond investors are now demanding to hear solutions that are adequate, quantified, verifiable, long term and politically viable. Mayor Emanuel held a press conference today specifically addressing Chicago Public Schools, but he offered none of those elements, nor even an indication that they are considered important. Sentiment, therefore, will erode further. And the mysterious loan from the Chicago teachers’ pension to CPS was ignored, adding to its mystery.   Here’s what Rahm said:   – It’s morally disgraceful that students are being victimized.   – It’s all Springfield’s fault, due to years of

By: Mark Glennon* For the Chicago Public School system, it’s not just the near term cash crunch or the $634 million payment to its pension scheduled for the end of this month. CPS is a financial basket case — structurally and fundamentally insolvent. A dose of reality was administered recently by a financial report prepared by Ernst & Young, which has been widely discussed. Among it’s conclusions: CPS has effectively been running a deficit for the past four years of about $500 million annually, which has been mitigated by non-recurring revenue and deferral of pension payments…. Even with a UAAL

  Múineann gá seift. (Need teaches a plan.) -Gailic proverb   By: Mark Glennon*   A strange sense of  familiarity often strikes visitors to Ireland from Chicago, and no doubt from much of America. That’s no surprise given the ethnic background of so many of us, but spend some time looking at the technology startup community here and you’ll find it goes a wee bit furter. (They need to learn to pronounce th properly, as we do in Chicago — d.)   Illinois’ startup sector indeed has much in common with Ireland’s. The sector has over-performed in both despite sub-par

    He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” -Chinese Proverb   By: Mark Glennon*   Sorry to single you out, Pekin, Illinois, but we will use you as an example of the pension crisis now facing Illinois municipalities. Actually, we have noticed you because at least some of your city officials are asking good questions, which your local paper has reported. On that count you are ahead — most towns like you are keeping heads firmly implanted in the sand.   But answers have been elusive, which

 Updated 6/14/15 where indicated in italics. By: Mark Glennon*   HB298,  a bill to authorize Illinois municipalities (cities, towns, school districts, counties, etc.) to file under Chapter 9 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code, was introduced in the Illinois House earlier this year by Ron Sandack (R-Downers Grove). The bill was assigned to the Rules Committee, often a procedural purgatory, though prospects seem to be brightening a bit.   When introduced, it was typically shrugged off by most of the General Assembly’s controlling Democrats, but today they at least seem to be taking it seriously. Last week I heard Illinois Senator

By: Mark Glennon*   “Prepare to get sick,” we wrote, and “stop this now,” we put in bold face. That was on Thanksgiving Eve last year when we wrote here about a $224 million, clearly questionable spending binge quietly announced that afternoon by then lame duck Governor Pat Quinn. Many of the handouts, all with borrowed money, appeared to be pay off for political friendships or wasteful. Nobody else wrote about it.   Well, this week the Sun-Times wrote in detail about the full extent of that lame duck spending spree. It’s indeed sickening. Quinn’s administration raced to dole out

By: Mark Glennon*   The Civic Federation of Chicago has a long, proud history as a watchdog for fiscal responsibility, particularly on pensions, providing an almost indispensable voice for the business community. They slipped in recent years, however, which raises some bigger questions about our whole business community. We will come back to that later, but first a bit of good news.   Yesterday, The Civic Federation published a piece on the funding changes for Chicago police and fire pensions recently passed by the General Assembly, which has not yet been sent to Gov. Rauner for signature. The Civic Federation

By: Mark Glennon*   Moody’s says Chicago’s credit is junk bond equivalent, but Fitch and S&P say ‘no.’   Take your pick, but the market now says its junk. One way to look at it is comparison to the two largest corporate junk bond exchange traded funds, HYG and JNK. Both of them are trading with yields under 6%. To make an apples-to-apples comparison, you can skim through current yields on Chicago’s taxable general obligation bonds here at the EMMA site, now usually on their most actively traded list. Most prices have traded down to yields now over 7%. Chicago

By: Mark Glennon*   S&P yesterday downgraded Chicago’s general obligation bonds to A- from A+, which the agency said was three notches above “junk” level. That’s comparatively mild since, on Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday pushed Chicago’s credit rating into its “junk” category.   Chicago plans to price offerings of $201 million and $182 million on May 19, as reported yesterday by Bloomberg.   And guess who is one of the two agencies slated to rate the new offering, hired by the city? S&P.   You take it from here. What a system.   We’ve been saying that, when

By: Mark Glennon* “Wait a minute,” I said to an Illinois House member at a recent forum, and repeated the question to be sure I had her answer right: “You’re a leading sponsor of a massive rewrite of our energy policy that may cost billions of dollars, but you’re telling me you have no idea how much it costs? “Yes,” she answered. She is not alone and that was no isolated incident about one bill. Cost to consumers for sustainable energy is rarely measured and made available to voters, in contrast to other states. Nobody in Illinois seems to care.

  By: Mark Glennon*   Despite the rollback in personal income tax rates from 5% to 3.75% in January, which also shrank withholding rates paid over to the state each month, April personal income tax receipts actually increased compared to April last year by 3.8%, or $96 million. Total tax receipts of all sources for the state also increased slightly, by 0.3%. That’s according to the monthly report released by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.   According to COGFA’s executive director,   March was a little bit stronger than expected but it wasn’t until April came along that

  By: Nancy Mathieson*   When a group of local mayors met at Congressman Bob Dold’s (IL-10) recent roundtable discussion, it didn’t take long for them to realize they already had a consensus about their most worrisome issue. (Hint: it’s not rising property taxes.)   What keeps these mayors up at night is the proliferation of unfunded mandates: new regulations that require local governments to perform certain actions with no additional funding. According to the Illinois Municipal League, state lawmakers have introduced a total of 59 unfunded mandates during the 2015 legislative session (see study). The mandates fall into the

  By: Mark Glennon*   You might think Illinois would value the presence of venture capital funds, hedge funds, real estate funds and private equity, which is one of its major assets.   A bill has been introduced in Springfield to slap a special 3% annual tax on the managers of those and any other investment vehicles that have their principal places of business in Illinois and have at least $10 billion under management.  It’s sponsored by Rep. Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago) and is in the form of an amendment to a bill (HB0670) sponsored by House Speaker Michael Madigan. The

By: Mark Glennon* Since the ‘B’ word is now being spoken in Chicago and other Illinois cities, here are some key things to keep in mind as the debate about bankruptcy for Illinois municipalities emerges: • First, Springfield has not yet authorized its towns, cities, counties and other local units to file bankruptcy, though a bill has been introduced to do that by Reps. Sandack and Ives. Only municipalities in states that have authorized bankruptcy can file under the Federal Bankruptcy Code. Chapter 9 of the Code is for those municipalities. (Our primer on that from two years ago is

  By: Mark Glennon*   There’s no point in sugarcoating this. The financial crisis at the Chicago Public School District may come to a head this week, and the impact will extend beyond the school system. A CPS bond sale is scheduled for Tuesday, which is widely seen by financial markets as a test of whether it has a pulse. Here is a summary of key points from various sources:   • CPS is just about out of cash, and its cash could be entirely wiped out on 48-hour notice, according to the Sun-Times. Specifically, the banks owed on $228

  “Bliss just isn’t worth the price.” -Rich Miller   By: Mark Glennon*   Dangerous talk of Chicago schools bankruptcy, — that’s the headline description today in a Crain’s story by Greg Hinz about Governor Rauner’s comments on the Chicago Public School system. Rauner is “pushing CPS or other governmental units into bankruptcy,” Hinz goes on to claim.   Really? Here’s what Rauner actually said:   I’m concerned that the Chicago Public Schools could end up needing to go bankrupt. That’s very possible. We have a mess. They would just have to restructure its debts and its contracts.   Earlier,

  “Nobody here really gives a fuck.”   By: Mark Glennon*   If you’re not from around Chicago, get ready for a perfect audio lesson on what we’re dealing with here, tough language and all. You locals will laugh and cry at what’s too familiar.   Denis Lawlor is a security officer at a the water reclamation plant in southwest suburban Stickney.  He accidentally left the microphone open on his radio as he showed the ropes to a new employee, and the conversation was recorded. It’s a perfect depiction of the cultural problem at the root of what’s wrong in

By: Mark Glennon*   Rahm Emmanuel will become Bruce Rauner on steroids — a relentlessly creative and radical turnaround artist — or he and Chicago are finished.   The jig is up. The national press has tuned in. They are starting to say outright that Chicago is heading towards bankruptcy, as Bloomberg did today, even if most of our local media and Chicago voters remain far behind the curve. Denial, delay, extend and pretend won’t fly anymore. The arithmetic of budgets and pensions for Chicago and its overlapping layers of government is now as indisputable as it is terrifying.  

By: Mark Glennon*   Think what you want of the merits of Indiana’s new religious freedom law — that’s your business.  And never mind that 19 other states, including Illinois, have laws arguably similar. This much is looking very clear: Illinois just got an early Easter egg.   Illinois wins from Indiana’s new law because the business community is gushing scorn on it, fairly or not, with some businesses threatening boycotts. Stories about that are popping up so fast as I write this that there’s no need to offer examples.   Indiana recently dropped its “Illinoyed” campaign to lure Illinois

  By: Mark Glennon*   Here’s a flat-out prediction: Home rule units of government in Illinois will begin enacting right-to-work locally, and it doesn’t matter what Springfield does or does not do.   Over 200 cities and towns in Illinois have home rule status. Never mind the other aspects of what that means, and never mind what you think about right-to-work on the merits. Some or many home rule cities and towns will embrace right-to-work and their prospects for legally prevailing are high. The attraction will be especially strong in depressed areas on the edge of Illinois because we are

Aaron Lawler, Lake County Board Chairman since 2012, is setting an agenda to remove unnecessary mandates that cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year.

Serious as next year’s problem is, the statement contains a much starker warning for the longer term. It quantifies just how far off Chicago is from addressing its pension crisis.

By: Mark Glennon*   We’ve added the option of receiving a free daily email of all major stories we post. Just hit the green button on the right or on our home page and enter your email address. You’ll receive a confirmation email and the daily digest each morning.   Our readership continues to grow rapidly. We thank our readers for that, and for the growing volume of facts and tips you send. We cannot answer or write about all of them, but we do read each. We make no money from WirePoints and we receive no outside financial support.

By: Mark Glennon*   The January report from the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability shows further deterioration in total state revenues. Decreased revenues from expiration of the tax increase are now kicking in, contributing to a 9.8% drop in total state revenue for January 2015 compared to January 2014. Total revenues were declining slightly before the tax cut, however. Total revenue for the fiscal year to date (the last seven months) is down 3.9% compared to the previous year. A drop in reimbursements from the Federal government contributed to the deterioration, though state tax revenue has also declined

By: Nancy Mathieson and Mark Glennon*   Country Club Hills, a suburb of Chicago, seems intent on making itself the poster child for poor financial reporting. A reader recently alerted us to its plight, which indeed looks bad, but just how bad is hidden by the shoddiest municipal financial reporting we have seen.   The city appears to be living day-to-day, short of cash, because its City Council minutes from last month say it’s issuing payment vouchers, just as it did last year at this time. That sets off an alarm, but if you look for data similar to what

By: Mark Glennon*   It’s a lesson you learn fast doing insolvency work: The first step towards recovery is admission of  exactly how bad things are. It’s hard, as I learned doing that work as a lawyer. Emotions, outdated facts and ego get in the way. That’s why control of insolvent companies is usually taken away from those responsible and banks with bad loans usually take the initial loan officer off the account.   Illinois, at long last, may be accepting reality.   Help came last week from the Apocalypse Now report from the Institute of Government and Public Affairs

  By: Mark Glennon*   The Illinois Commission on Governmental Forecasting and Accountability released its December report. As has been the trend, state revenues are not increasing materially, and in aggregate are down for the year.   Comparing December 2014 to December 2013, state tax and fee receipts increased by $103 million or 3.2%. However, transfers to the state from the Federal government declined by $20 million, or about 7.9%. In total, including various refunds, state receipts increased by $72 million or 2.2% compared to December 2013.   For the entire 2015 fiscal year to date (July through December 2014),

By: Mark Glennon*   Governor-elect Rauner today announced he will appoint Leslie Munger of Lincolnshire to replace Judy Topinka as Illinois Comptroller.   Munger, new to politics, recently lost her race to incumbent Democrat Carol Sente for the Illinois House.   She is an exceptionally fine choice. We first noticed her early in her race against Sente. She struck us as a superstar in waiting, and we asked her to write this guest piece for us about the Illinois economy. As we wrote, she is “accomplished, articulate, smart, energetic, and fed up with Springfield.” She is socially moderate and fiscally

  By: Mark Glennon*   Don’t expect many laughs in this because less-than-entertaining topics like pensions and budgets dominate in Illinois, but here are some of the notable quotes for the year about our economy and government:   Women can tell, so don’t bother lying: “When it comes to pension promises made, for years Illinois politicians have been like the guy who tells you, ‘I’ll call you in the morning.’ Neither is going to come through on their promise.” – Suzanne Devane, GOP 49th Ward Chicago Committeewoman.   Scary: “The call to action for these floundering entities will be, ‘Screw

  By: Mark Glennon*   One raison d’être for WirePoints is the Illinois media’s poor understanding of our fiscal and economic problems, which contributes to public ignorance about them. 2014 was more of the same.   Something’s wrong when a few of us writing on nights and weekends see these stories while they go otherwise unreported. Here are a ten of them, which, all humility aside, we emphasized. Many of these relate to public pensions, which is appropriate because they account for the lion’s share of Illinois’ crisis:   Suicidal property tax rates dooming some Illinois communities. When real, effective,

  By: Nancy Mathieson*   Dan Cronin, DuPage County Board Chairman, thinks consolidating and streamlining special purpose taxing bodies doesn’t have to do with the county absorbing their duties. The real issue he says is, “who really wants to take them on?”   DuPage is the second largest county in the state, and Cronin’s well-known streamlining efforts cover 900 employees in 24 agencies with budgets totaling $300 million. “Everyone wants the best in their towns,” he said in a recent interview. “The goal is to put aside individual wants, take initiative and collaborate.” A major motive behind DuPage’s efforts is

By: Mark Glennon* Was the “Welcome Home Illinois” Loan Program a noble effort to help first time home buyers or a vote buying scheme premised on bad policy?  Here are the facts. Decide for yourself. Governor Quinn announced the program in April 2014. It provided $7,500 to first time buyers to help cover the down payment, secured by a second mortgage on the home, and was administered by the IHDA — the Illinois Housing Development Authority. About $80 million was disbursed under the program to over 10,000 home buyers, according to the Tribune. Credit requirements were relaxed compared to conventional

By: Mark Glennon* Prepare to get sick. Late today, in nine separate press releases, Governor Pat Quinn announced spending totaling $223.7 million from the infamous “Jobs Now” program passed in 2009 that was justified as stimulus for the Illinois economy at the depth of the recession. Today’s press releases are linked here. While most of the spending under the program has been for legitimate capital projects, Jobs Now has been highly controversial from the start. It was not used as stimulus during the recession, and much of it was spent on projects widely regarded as pork. Earlier spending has included

By: Mark Glennon*   Do Chicago journalists need to make stuff up to do a juicy story about political criminality, greed, and conflicts of interest? At NBC-5, apparently so.   Let’s start with a few whoppers by its reporter, Mark Anderson, in an article last week.  The story was about supposed violations by some investment managers of pay-to-play rules because of campaign contributions allegedly made to Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner:   • Rahm, says Mr. Anderson, “breaks the law by financing his re-election campaign with contributions from firms” doing business with the city.   Fact: Nonsense. There’s nothing in

Don’t try to talk evidence with a champion of the underprivileged capitalizing on the popularity of raising the minimum wage.

By: Nancy Mathieson*   Illinois is #1 on another list, this time comparing number of units of government to all other U.S. states. 6,963 is our number published by federal census records, which is actually lower than data provided by our own state records. Illinois Dept. of Revenue shows the state has 7,409 units of government and our own state Comptroller shows we have a whopping 8,466. How did we get here?   Illinois government units are either General Purpose, such as cities and counties, or Special Purpose which perform a specific function, such as school districts, parks, and sanitary

  “Copy the Delaware General Corporation Law into Illinois law. Just copy it.”   By: Mark Glennon*   If you’ve ever worked as an accountant, lawyer or paralegal doing corporate work, you already know this: Companies in Illinois and other states send a fortune to Delaware every year in filing fees, registered agent costs and related expenses.   It needn’t be so. Illinois can keep its money here and money from other states could just as well be coming to Illinois instead of Delaware.   The numbers are huge. Delaware is far and away the state of choice in which

  By: Mark Glennon*   My daughter and friend with a hot chocolate stand outside polling place.   Expecting swat team from Quinn’s regulators to arrive any minute to shut them down.   Somehow, the Quinn signs seem to have blown over. What a shame.   *Mark Glennon is founder of WirePoints    

By: Mark Glennon*   Such a strange and scary feeling in Illinois tonight. I’ve certainly never felt something like this before an election. It’s a sense of foreboding. As if a final assault from an enemy will come tomorrow over the walls protecting the village.  A warm breeze is blowing from the southwest now, but they say it will get harsh and cold again tomorrow.   Maybe it’s my perspective and who I’ve been talking to. I’m not much of a Republican. I just despise Cook County Democrats and I’m a financial realist. Lots of people I know have, like

By: Mark Glennon*   The State of Illinois on Monday proudly announced it had succeeded in bringing Cronus Chemical Company into the state to build a new fertilizer plant.   Cronus will get $52 million in various incentives from the state, according to the Associated Press and other sources.   When operational, the plant will employ 175 full-time people at the plant, and another 25 full-time office jobs will come to Chicago. Construction of the plant also will employ about 1,000, but those jobs are temporary and matter much less.   That’s $52 million for 200 permanent jobs comes to

By: Mark Glennon*   Not just another day in Illinois. The election is coming up, so open your wallets to fund the pork. Here’s what we got today:   Cronus will build a fertilizer plant downstate employing 175, and 25 jobs will be created in Chicago. Cost: $52 million for just 200 permanent jobs!   Coyote Logistic will supposedly add 500 jobs in Chicago. Cost: $2.5 million to taxpayers.   Amazon: 1,000 jobs. Cost: Not known yet, but likely huge. According to the Tribune, “Without knowing where Amazon intends to build in Illinois, it is impossible to tally the millions

By: Mark Glennon*   If there’s a phrase synonymous with the University of Chicago, it’s surely “free to choose.” That’s the title of an exceptionally influential book and television series from 1980 by Milton Friedman, the former U of C Nobel economist.   But don’t ask if our kids were free to choose whether they should help pay for U of C’s new incubator for entrepreneurs, the Chicago Innovation Exchange. Earlier this month, the State of Illinois announced a $1 million grant to it out of the infamous 2009 Jobs Now program, funded by bonds that we and our kids

How could the treasurer of an Illinois town with an annual budget of $6 million to $8 million steal over $50 million in two decades? Dixon embezzlement provides the toolkit, or the perfect storm, for fraud.

By: Mark Glennon* FURTHER UPDATE 11/4/14: Slime won. UPDATE: 10/24/14 The Chicago Tribune has the same view of Carol Sente in its endorsement today of Leslie Munger. Sente’s campaign is “digusting,” they said, and Munger is “smart as a whip.”   What do you do if you’re an Illinois House Democrat in a tough race and nobody is believing the usual fib that your opponent is a right wing nutjob? Why, you say she supports letting pedophiles work in schools — that’s if you are Carol Sente (D-Vernon Hills).   Ms. Sente recently pushed out a robocall twisting her opponent’s

By: Mark Glennon* To grasp the real scope of the Illinois pension catastrophe, think hard about what the state said about itself in court this month, which has gone all but unreported. The governor and others in Springfield may want to talk to the attorney general to get their story straight. Take the facts asserted by Illinois’ Attorney General in the pension litigation, add a few more facts that aren’t disputed, and it’s clear as day that the entire dialog in Illinois about pension reform is just plain nuts. This is great context to step back and review where the

By: Mark Glennon*   Every month, the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability updates its numbers on how much revenue the state is collecting for its general fund. Its report for September has some good and some bad news.   Compared to September of last year, total tax receipts are up 1.7%, thanks primarily to a 6.5% increase in income tax receipts. Same story for year-to-date totals, which are up 3% compared to last year.   The bad news is that transfers from other funds, particularly the Federal government, are off, more than offsetting the improvement in tax receipts.

By: Mark Glennon*   Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week proposed a splendid idea for modernizing Chicago’s taxi hailing system and putting it on a level playing field with Uber and similar new services. His idea is to put out for bid the creation of a new dispatch system or app that would connect to all taxi fleets serving the city.   It’s such a splendid idea that it’s already built. A company named TripThru has been refining it over the last twelve months and is in the process of launching.   [Full disclosure: I have been doing some work with

By: Mark Glennon*   In private, few Illinoisans of any ideology would disagree that House Speaker Michael Madigan is at the core of most everything rotten in Illinois. Yet voters and the press forget that the Speaker is elected anew by House members after their own elections, which are coming again in November.   Will you vote to re-elect Michael Madigan as Speaker of the House? That question may seem partisan and pointless but it’s not. It’s the first question every House candidate should be asked. Yes or no.   True, all Republicans will answer ‘no’ — House members vote

By: Nancy Mathieson* Among the many reasons Chicago’s police and fire pensions are grossly underfunded are inadequate long-term planning, legislated benefit increases, pension holidays and overall kicking-the-can-down-the-road. Another factor working against Chicago is the imbalance between active and retired public safety officers. The New York City police pension received some unwelcome attention recently because the number of retirees it supports exceeds the number of active police on the streets. Little known fact: Chicago has the same upside-down relationship between its active and retired public safety departments. Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund reports for 2013 show participants in the pension plan

By: Mark Glennon*   A wonderful little story from a former Illinois reporter illustrates so much we should have learned twenty years ago when Pat Quinn was Illinois Treasurer. From Vincent Duffy, now a prominent radio journalist in Michigan:   I was an enthusiastic rookie reporter at an Illinois News Broadcasters Association convention, sitting in a session about making your daily stories even better. I took one bit of advice from that session that I still use today because it often yields great results. That advice: Do the math. Illinois Treasurer Pat Quinn was traveling around the state touting his

By: Mark Glennon*   If Bruce Rauner beats Pat Quinn in November it will be by a small margin — probably less than five percent. That’s been a widely accepted reality for a long time because Illinois is so heavily Democratic and Cook County Democratic turnout work, both legal and illegal, is so effective. That’s especially clear in light of the poll released today showing Quinn with an eleven point lead over Rauner.   And that poll shows Chad Grimm of the Libertarian Party getting five percent, probably all of which comes at Rauner’s expense.   Here’s what we know

In those places at least they are willing to fight for change, however wrongheaded some of them may be on the ends for which they fight and on violence as their means.

By: Mark Glennon*   Each month, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability issues an update on how much revenue the State of Illinois is taking in. The August report, including fiscal year-to-date numbers, came out last week. (The state’s 2015 fiscal year started July 1).   Unfortunately, year-to-date total revenue numbers are actually down by 6% compared to the same period last year. (See page 7 of the full report, linked here.) Much of the decline is attributable to a decline in certain refunds to the state, according to the report, but it still remains troubling. Personal income tax

By: Mark Glennon*   It seems simple enough that we should have figured out how to get it long ago — an economy where people trade services and goods among each other rapidly enough and at high enough value that each individual can live in dignity. Yet, in Illinois and much of the world, that remains elusive, and it’s that central failure that’s key to the downward spiral of the middle class and sustained poverty.   There’s no need to review the facts about unemployment and low wages. Particularly in Illinois, those who claim we are coming back are asking

By: Mark Glennon*   Governor Quinn this week signed HB 4216 that criminalizes hiding or destroying public records by government officials.   Sort of.   It provides that, “Any person who knowingly, without lawful authority and with the intent to defraud any party, public officer, or entity, alters, destroys, defaces, removes, or conceals any public record commits a Class 4 felony.”   Nice idea, but the problem is that proving intent is always very difficult, and intent to “defraud” doesn’t really fit this issue. Fraud is basically deception — trying to trick somebody. Concealing or destroying records is not the

  An escalating pension crisis, a wasted summer, and The March of Folly.   By: Mark Glennon*   The fate of Illinois will not be determined by most of this summer’s headline issues, important as some of them are. It will be determined by how the pension crisis is resolved — or not resolved. Hundreds of billions of dollars owed with very little available for payment have crippled all the myriad levels of government in Illinois, and some 200,000 public pensioners who either need or want their money (depending on their circumstances) will be facing cuts.   And the crisis

  By: Mark Glennon*   The Founders would surely be proud to know how long democracy has survived, but this would no doubt make them shit. (Even Ben Franklin used that word sometimes so don’t get upset.)   Efforts to consolidate Illinois’ ridiculously high number of governmental units, 8,466, are now making some folks nervous.   The nervous ones are those who control most of those units because they provide armies of loyal campaign workers and contributors dependent on their political bosses for their paychecks.   But how will they justify opposing the consolidation that’s so obviously needed? A leading

Different ways of determining whether Pat Quinn stole the 2010 election for governor.

A travel and tourism adviser to the U.S. Commerce Secretary says global warming is hurting Chicago tourism.

Fewer financing contingencies move properties quickly.

Don’t ask the Quinn administration for the price of its new five-year economic plan for Illinois. They don’t have it.

By: Mark Glennon*   “Please, don’t go to the top of the curve!” That was the warning from a Wharton School professor of finance, Robert Inman, in a recent presentation he made at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, speaking in general about tax rates for states and cities. What did he mean? Are Chicago and Illinois at the top of the curve? Those questions may seem obscure, but they’re key to our future. Voters don’t just need to asks whether more revenue should be raised, they need to ask whether that’s even achievable. And hang in there on this.

Ubi est mea. -The motto Mike Royko assigned to how things work around here (“where’s mine?”) By: Mark Glennon Should Illinois taxpayers fund a grant for expansion of a co-working space for tech entrepreneurs, which was announced today? How about other subsidies to promote tech and entrepreneurship? And if public financing is sensible, shouldn’t we pay for it ourselves instead of borrowing it from our kids through bond sales? What happened to “ask not….”? My opinion, as one who has spent a large part of his adult life promoting that same entrepreneurial community, is that state money for such things

By: Mark Glennon* More “shovel ready” jobs? Governor Quinn announced Saturday $20 million in state grants to 47 museums across the state. Opinions may vary about the virtue of those grants, but here’s the thing: They were authorized in the “Jobs Now” bill Quinn signed five years ago, sold as a way to stimulate the economy at the height of the recession. Hundreds of millions of dollars on other projects have been announced over the last year under the same Jobs Now plan, and they are continuing. You’ll remember all the controversy about funding “shovel ready” jobs and stimulus back

By Nancy Mathieson*   Almost 50% of emergency room doctors polled said they’ve experienced more patients coming through their doors since January 1st, the day coverage took effect for millions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – Obamacare.   But wasn’t keeping people out of hospital E.R.’s one of the selling points of Obamacare? We’re now finding out that healthcare coverage is not the same as access, especially in downstate Illinois where doctors are already in short supply and psychiatric facilities are currently stretched to the max.   Dr. Tom Pliura is an emergency room doctor in central and southern Illinois,

By: Mark Glennon*   Our readership continues to grow nicely here at WirePoints, and you will be noticing the following changes:   Nancy Mathieson joining as Contributing Editor. Nancy has a 30-year career in business, securities regulation and public policy. She was formerly a Director of Market Surveillance at the New York Stock Exchange, where she managed a professional staff in investigating for securities trading violations. Most recently, Nancy was Operations Director at Truth in Accounting, a Chicago non-profit whose mission is to promote transparency in government financial reporting. Nancy was an officer of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)

By: Mark Glennon* Why didn’t you tell us? How could you have done this to us? That’s the kind cry we’ll soon hear from both taxpayers and retirees in many local Illinois police and fire pensions when they finally realize how little of their pensions will be paid. Officials and pensioners’ unions haven’t leveled with them, whether because of cowardice or failure to look at plain math. Just what solution is even conceivable for cities like Springfield, Joliet, Rockford and many others that have only 30% or 40% of their police and fire pensions funded? Chicago at least can pretend

By: Nancy R. Mathieson*   The 2014 enrollment period for Obamacare health insurance was Oct. 1, 2013 to April 19, 2014. Open-enrollment for 2015 begins November 15th. Here’s a recap for Illinois:   Who signed up? The federal government reports more than 217,000 people in Illinois enrolled, with no differentiation made between those who bought and those who bought and paid. Of that total, 104,000 or nearly half enrolled between March 1st and April 19th. A new McKinsey survey reports a large majority of people signing up in the U.S. are now paying for their coverage (83%). The survey also

By: Mark Glennon Can a candidate for governor pick up 32,000 votes by spending $50 million? Easily. Anywhere. That’s over $1,500 per vote. In Chicago, you could get Mrs. O’Leary’s cow elected at that rate.   Pat Quinn won the 2010 election for governor by just 32,000 votes, a margin of less than one percent. He spent $54 million on the “anti’violence” program that’s now subject to multiple investigations and widely accepted to have been little more than a vote buying and voter turnout fund. Was $54 million enough to get those 32,000 votes that made the difference? Of course

By: Mark Glennon A false choice dominates much of the public pension reform debate. Public pensions today are mostly “defined benefit plans.” They promise retirees certain amounts hell or high water (in theory) — irrespective of returns on the pension’s underlying investments or the economy in general. Replacing them with something like the 401(k) plans common in the private sector is widely discussed. With those plans, the employees pick their investments and returns are uncertain.   A far preferable alternative to either is a hybrid plan. Some legislators are starting to talk up hybrids behind the scenes. Getting serious about

  April 16, 2014 By: Mark Glennon* If Springfield lawmakers eventually answer this right, an orderly, fair, though difficult proceeding would be available to desperate Illinois cities, but getting it wrong would be catastrophic: What form of insolvency proceeding will Illinois allow for its broke cities? Some of the folks who matter aren’t just facing up to the ugly financial math but are raising that key question, which ultimately will drive dozens of issues critical to the future of many Illinois cities, perhaps including Chicago. An insolvency proceeding of some kind that modifies debts and contracts will be needed for

Updated March 13, 2013 By: Mark Glennon Illinois, we already knew, pays a penalty rate to borrow money because of its bad credit rating, which taxpayers ultimately bear. What we didn’t know is that, beyond that credit penalty, we pay a still higher rate because of our dirty reputation. An analysis by the Fiscal Futures Project at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs found that even after controlling for different credit ratings and fiscal, economic and financial factors between Illinois and other states that sold  bonds between 2005 and 2010, the yields on Illinois bonds were

    A financial advisor tries to explain what it means to “have no money” to Walter Matthau’s character in A New Leaf  linked here. Should be required viewing in Illinois.