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Thursday, November 15, 2018
At budget time, Illinois towns consider large tax hikes as pension costs mount
Budgets--Local
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Local Government (60)
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Pensions (70)
Municipal leaders across Illinois face cutting services or hiking taxes to pay for growing police and fire retirement contributions as pension costs continue to increase. The Carterville City Council voted Tuesday to approve a 30 percent property ta...
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Thursday, November 15, 2018
Illinoisans share tax concerns with lawmakers
Budget--State (8)
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Taxes, Graduated/Progressive
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Taxes, income (86)
Taxpayers gathered at the Illinois capitol Wednesday to share concerns about the state's high taxes. Connie Cane came to Springfield from Gilberts, Illinois. She said her chief concern is property taxes, and not being able to sell her home if she were to leave the state. She also opposes the idea of a progressive tax. “I am worried about the types of legislation that could p...
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Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Judge finds Illinois prisons failing to meet the needs of mentally ill inmates
Budget--State (8)
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Corrections (74)
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Prisons (74)
A federal judge said the Illinois Department of Corrections has failed to meet the needs of mentally ill prison inmates. The finding comes two years after the state reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed by former inmates. That 2016 settlement established 25 provisions for the IDOC to meet. A court-appointed monitor said the department did not comply with 18 of those. ...
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Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Tax experts say Illinois millionaires could try to flout progressive tax
Governor (44)
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Revenue
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Taxes, income (86)
J.B. Pritzker, Illinois' next governor, promised higher taxes on the wealthy would provide for new state revenue to spend on everything from roads to schools, but some tax experts say other states have sometimes had trouble collecting from wealthier residents who own property and businesses elsewhere. Pritzker, along with other Democratic lawmakers, have proposed changing Illinois’ ...
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Wednesday, November 14, 2018
We know you’re not happy, but shut up about it!
Tort Reform (27)
If your lawyers negotiated a $20 million settlement for you, you’d be happy as a lark, wouldn’t you? You certainly wouldn’t complain about a jackpot like that. Only a colossal ingrate would act as if he’d been cheated by a settlement of that size. | |
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Governor Jim Edgar
Edgar, Jim (45)
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Governor (44)
Governor Jim Edgar talks about joining Governor Elect J.B. Pritzker's transition team
http://www.sportsradio1450.com/podcast-am-springfield/
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Spin: Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker says he'll live in Springfield but his children will go to school in Chicago
Good afternoon on this Veterans Day. There are three months and change until Chicago’s mayoral election, but only a few hours ’til quitting time. A word later about your revamped Spin newsletter, but first a look at what’s happening in the world of state and local politics. Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker is short o...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Advocates: CPS, ISBE still failing to ensure special ed kids getting services
Chicago--Schools (18)
Chicago Public Schools officials still aren’t providing all special education students with the services they need and are entitled to — and the state monitor tasked six months ago with overseeing CPS isn’t doing enough either, disabilities rights advocates said Monday. The coalition that prompted state officials to look into widespread special ed proble...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Momentum is growing for fairly drawn legislative maps
Redistricting (78)
There’s been a lot of attention nationwide about whether our elections would be fair and accessible to everyone qualified to vote. In Illinois, elections, retirements and other developments mean we’ll have a new governor and at least 40 fairly new lawmakers taking office in January. What can they and their veteran colleagues do to ensure we have fairer elections? &nb...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
No time to waste on legalizing pot, sports betting to shore up Illinois finances
Legalize marijuana. Legalize sports betting. And do it in the name of education. Illinois needs money. We owe billions of dollars to contractors the state hired but failed to pay. We owe hundreds of billions to pension funds. We need billions of dollars to fund our public schools because we have maxed out property taxes to fund education. < read more >
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
What I learned from a leaked post of a Pritzker campaign aide in a charcoal mask
I am that former Pritzker campaign staffer who posted an Instagram video in October of a colleague wearing a charcoal face mask and pink nail polish after a long day at the office. I posted the video to my private Instagram account late on a Saturday night after a 14-hour workday. Five days later, at the precise moment when it would inflict the most harm on the Pritzker campaign...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Amazon didn't choose Chicago for HQ2. Now what?
Business (10)
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Chicago (16)
Amazon will split its second headquarters between New York’s Long Island City and the northern Virginia city of Arlington, the e-commerce giant said Tuesday, ending Chicago’s hopes of adding a highly coveted corporate name and thousands of high-paying jobs to the city’s burgeoning tech sector. The decision came more than a year after Amazon announced it was searchi...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
In 'urgent appeal,' advocates call for Gov.-elect Pritzker to bolster CPS special education fixes
Chicago--Schools (18)
Ongoing problems and inadequate services still plague special education in Chicago Public Schools, advocates declared Monday, months after a sweeping state probe prompted an outside monitor to supervise city practices for the vulnerable students. Advocates said school district promises to fill vacant special education jobs have gone unmet amid a statewide teacher shortage...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Pritzker: I'm moving to Springfield
Governor (44)
Just shy of a week since his electoral victory, Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker is short on details about the first thing he’ll tackle in office, but he’s firm about this much: He’ll live in Springfield … and Chicago during his four-year term. “I’ll be living at the governor’s mansion in Springfield. Of course, my children are going to s...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Pritzker: I'm moving to Springfield
Governor (44)
Just shy of a week since his electoral victory, Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker is short on details about the first thing he’ll tackle in office, but he’s firm about this much: He’ll live in Springfield … and Chicag...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Veterans Day means a lot to those who served
Veterans (95)
I attended the Veterans Day celebration in Aurora on Sunday, and I wanted to thank all those who worked to make it happen. I was especially heartened to see the high school bands, drill teams and honor guards who participated in the parade. In September 1968, I left Vietnam, and a year later, I was released from active duty in the
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
What to do with a broken Illinois: Dissolve the Land of Lincoln
Illinois is like Venezuela now, a fiscally broken state that has lost its will to live, although for the moment, we still have enough toilet paper. But before we run out of the essentials, let's finally admit that after decade upon decade of taxing and spending and borrowing, Illinois has finally run out of other people's money. Those "other people"...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
When lawmakers return to Springfield, will they rebuke Rauner or save some wins for Pritzker?
Legislature (56)
State lawmakers trek back to Springfield on Tuesday, when they could decide whether to override dozens of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s vetoes before he leaves office or leave the issues for Democrat J.B. Pritzker to deal with when he takes over the office early next year. < read more >
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Pritzker buys $12M Florida horse farm What a way to celebrate a win: The same week he won the governorship, an entity tied to J.B. Pritzker purchased a facility next door to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, according to a report.
Governor (44)
The same week he was elected governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker paid $12.1 million for an equestrian estate in Florida, according to a report. Pritzker and his wife, MK, bought the 6.44-acre ...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Amazon makes it official: Chicago loses HQ2 New York and northern Virginia win, and Nashville will get an Operations Center of Excellence.
Business (10)
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Chicago (16)
Amazon has chosen, and Chicago has lost out. The retail behemoth said this morning that it will put its so-called second headquarters in New York and northern Virginia. Amazon also said it would establish an Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville, Tenn., that would create over 5,000 jobs. “We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Springfield showdown: How will 'car sharers' be regulated?
A cloakroom of top lobbyists has been deployed as a vote nears on overriding Rauner’s veto of a bill to treat Turo and Getaround like Enterprise and Hertz. The latest battle over the sharing economy is escalating in Springfield, with a veto showdown over car rentals. At least a score of top lobbyists and other insiders are scurrying to line up votes before roll call...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Small businesses in Illinois can't find enough workers to fill open positions
Business (10)
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Economy (34)
Small businesses in Illinois and across the country can't find enough workers to fill open positions. That’s the word from a recent national survey from the National Federation of Independent Business in which nearly 90-percent of respondents reported few or no qualified applicants for job openings. The problem is worse in certain sectors, said Mark Grant, Illinois director ...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Some Illinois schools seeing epidemic-level absenteeism
Education--Elementary and Secondary (36)
More than 100 Illinois schools reported half of their students were chronically absent. Statewide, Illinois schools reported slightly more absenteeism than the national average. Some individual schools reported alarming rates of kids missing class. When a child is missing for ten percent of their school days, they’re considered chronically absent. New Illinois s...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Monsanto plaintiffs fuming over pollution settlement netting lawyers more than claimants
Tort Reform (27)
BELLEVILLE – Lawyers who settled 11,256 pollution claims against Monsanto for about $21 million paid most of it to themselves and their experts before doling out the remaind...
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Tuesday, November 13, 2018
SALMAGUNDI: Poking holes through campaign clichés
Coming out of a (redundancy alert) contentious campaign season, there are a few cliches I’d like to see put to rest. Chief among them is accusing people of voting against their own self interest. There’s logic in considering the full ramifications of a given politician’s policies, but wonks who trot out this line tend to overlook the real possibility that some people simply ha...
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