If you’re frustrated with Illinois’ educational results, you may want to follow the money from teachers unions. In the last four years alone, Illinois lawmakers and political candidates have taken nearly $30 million in contributions from teachers unions and their national affiliates.
Lawmakers conveniently ignore the full impact of inflation when it comes to ordinary Illinoisans. Take the personal exemption on the state income tax. For tax year 2023, the exemption will not rise with inflation as it should under current law. And that means a higher tax bill for everyone.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on April 10, 2024 to members of the House Revenue and Finance Committee at the invitation of Rep. Joe Sosnowski. Ted told lawmakers that the state’s property tax burden has become dire for countless Illinoisans.
Ted joined WLS 890’s PM Chicago Show to discuss Chicago’s worsening pension crisis, why the city’s crisis makes it such an outlier nationally, its negative impact on residents, government workers and retirees alike, and what Mayor Brandon Johnson should do about it.
When has any company persisted with a project in the face of stronger local, statewide and national opposition? When have taxpayers subsidized a more harebrained project?
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Most developers consider 1871 a joke. It has all the ‘right’ people onboard – every venture capital firm, every private equity firm, every university entrepreneurship program. And they’re all looking for the next big thing – that they can benefit from (attach their name to, invest in, etc.). It hasn’t happened. True entrepreneurs can easily spot wantabes and parasites.
Couple of things stick out on the 990:
1) Deferred rent = $5.8 million. Is this the rent 1871 owes to JB and other 1871 investors? Seems excessive. When will it get paid, if at all?
2) How does a non-profit with less than $9M in revenue and a $1.2M loss justify paying its CEO over $450,000 per year?
https://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2017/208/411/2017-208411320-0f1eabf6-9.pdf