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.”
Why on earth would Pravda ever focus on Kankakee? Not a bad choice, actually. We’ve had a number of articles on this site about Kankakee’s particularly dire situation. Their police and fire pensions are among the most underfunded in the state and the county has been reported to be running out of cash. Just coincidence probably, but we’ve also had a spike of traffic on this site from Russia lately — over 500 hits in the last 30 days, according to Google Analytics.
In case it’s not coincidence, here’s a message for my comrades at Pravda: Our problems in Illinois don’t stem from things like sending aid to Ukraine, as you wrote. They stem from government that has had a bit too much in common with yours — an autocratic, corrupt, one-party system that has impoverished the workers it claims to protect.
*Mark Glennon is founder of WirePoints. Opinions expressed are his own.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.