* The economic news isn’t getting any better…
A new U.S. Census Bureau study reports that 785,000 Cook County residents do not have health insurance. That’s 17 percent of the overall population. Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D) actually suspects the figure, based off a 2005 census report, is low.
* Percentage-wise, the highest numbers of uninsured are centered mostly in southern Illinois, a high poverty area that is almost always overlooked…
PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION UNINSURED
Cass County 21.8 percent
Calhoun County 21.4 percent
Jackson County 20.6 percent
McDonough County 20.2 percent
DeKalb County 20.1 percent
Stark County 20.1 percent
Jo Daviess County 20.0 percent
Henderson County 19.9 percent
Cumberland County 19.2 percent
Scott County 18.9 percent
* But if you look at population numbers, there are tons of uninsured in suburbia…
NUMBERS OF PEOPLE UNINSURED
Cook County 784,930
Du Page County 106,015
Lake County 101,020
Will County 82,311
Kane County 75,606
McHenry County 40,432
Winnebago County 38,202
Madison County 34,874
Champaign County 30,031
St. Clair County 26,629
The full list of all Illinois counties can be found at this link.
* The lack of adequate health insurance often results in financial devastation…
Facing debilitating health problems, Goldner refinanced his Highland Park home repeatedly only to wind up with a $729,000 mortgage on a house that eventually sold for $450,000.
* More horrible news…
On the brink of the cold-weather months, more than 56,000 natural-gas customers in the Chicago area remain disconnected for lack of payment. That’s up 36% from last year, putting pressure on utilities and local officials to get disconnected households back online before winter begins in earnest.
Peoples Gas and Nicor Inc. are offering new programs to help customers who are behind on their bills. In a pilot that began last month, Peoples has stopped shutting off customers as long as they pay 60% of their monthly bill. For two weeks last month, Nicor offered to reconnect customers who paid half of their outstanding debt and agreed to a payment plan for the rest. Some 1,400 took advantage of the offer.
With the souring economy making it increasingly difficult for people to pay their bills, consumer advocates say the programs are not enough. While federal heating assistance to low-income households in Illinois is up 59% from last year to $237 million, natural-gas prices are also up. For the November-to-March period, Peoples forecasts the gas bill for a typical Chicago household will rise 11%, to $1,183.
* And state and local governments are feeling the economic pinch…
Local governments are bracing for deeper budget shortfalls as the financial crisis hammers everything from sales tax revenue to pension funds.
The state’s cash on hand in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, ended Sept. 30, plunged 75% to a record low $188 million amid slowing tax revenue, state Comptroller Dan Hynes says. Its unpaid bills ballooned 31% to $1.8 billion, also a record. That could further delay already tardy payments to vendors and crimp access to people who rely on state services such as Medicaid.
“We expect this to get worse,” Mr. Hynes says. “We expect to unfortunately continue on the path of breaking these dubious records going forward.”
Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Friday asked the federal government to provide financial assistance to Illinois and other states to defray budget deficits.
* Mayor Daley claims the economic crisis is behind his bid to raise taxes yet again…
Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday blamed the economy for his new proposals to raise taxes on downtown parking and sports tickets to balance the city budget.
“Everyplace is being affected; this is a very tough economy and it’s going to be here about three or four years. It’s not going to go away,” he said. “I’m not happy with [the economy], no way—nobody can be happy with the economy. These are minor things we are looking at.”
* But there still seems to be plenty of tax money for the mayor’s friends and family…
City Hall has another multimillion-dollar deal in the works for Mayor Daley’s nephew and his business partners.
* And the budget woes aren’t having an impact on hizzoner’s PR budget…
At a time when Daley is cutting more than 1,000 workers to plug a $469 million deficit, he is also spending millions to promote the city’s image and manage the message coming from City Hall.
The city employs more than 50 representatives across various departments in the Daley administration, at a cost this year of $4.7 million. In addition to that in-house army, the city has funneled millions more to private spin doctors.
* Related…
* Sen. Dick Durbin says it will be two weeks before the government will spend a penny of the $700 billion in the bailout plan, adding the turnaround won’t happen overnight.
* In bailout, Chicago asks: Where’s mine?
* Democratic committeemen with Cook County jobs
* Board Wants Delay On Transit Fair Hikes
* Illinois Attorney General Backs Sheriff’s Eviction Moratorium
* Foreclosure workouts not working, AGs tell banks
* Accredited Sues Illinois Sheriff Over Eviction Standstill
* Sheriff’s eviction policy saves little guys from unfair suffering
* Trend of Medicaid pay increases is expected to end as states struggle
* Daley considering increased taxes on parking, ballgame tickets
* City budget shortfall gets worse
* Mayor’s Warning: Economy Will Get Worse (Video)
* Daley Announces Parts of Budget Plan
* Tower trumps slowdown
* AT&T Planning to Boost Wireless Service
* Machinists union confirms start of Boeing talks to end strike
LIVE session coverage...
- Cassandra - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 10:35 am:
As long as Chicagoans continue to meekly accept increases in taxes (although it’s hard to get too excited about parking fees and sports tickets–and parking fees can be eliminated by taking public transport) they are going to get fleeced by
the City.
It seems likely that if you take away all the featherbedding and other forms of city government waste, the city has the money it needs to do what is important and necessary for its citizens. Unfortunately, there are not enough investigative
reporters out there to find and publicize the waste and citizens certainly don’t have the time or the skills to do this, for the most part.
They can, however, make it very clear to their aldermen/women that they have to back off on taxing middle class citizens while this financial
disaster is working itself out, which likely could take several years. In fact, city government should be giving rebates.
Politicians really do respond to clear messages.
Phone calls, letters, visits to the office. But
I one shouldn’t underestimate how clear that message needs to be.
Wonder what happened to those Streets and San supervisors who weren’t supervising their workers by the way. Nothing seems like a distinct possibility. But perhaps a good place to start would be to cut within the vast acres of Chicago city middle management, many of whom are likely eligible for early retirement with great pensions and free health care. Taxpayers can’t afford them now and to the extent that they are necessary, those jobs need to go to younger workers.
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 11:03 am:
There is always enough money for the government insiders. This also includes consultants, and professionals contracted to do work for the public bodies.
The general public is focused on their own jobs and families. The most common time they look to government is to look and see if there is a program which will benefit them. Otherwise they complain about the taxes they pay and reelect the same old politicians.
There is no incentive for the politicians to run things more efficiently. Therefore we have the free spending policies that are practiced at all levels of government.
- Carl Nyberg - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 11:22 am:
Follow-up question about people without health insurance.
What percentage of citizens who are neither seniors nor government employee have health insurance?
BTW, if you want Americans to save more money, may I suggest passing single-payer health care?
There’s no point saving money if the medical-industrial complex can wipe-out your savings if a member of your family gets sick. You’re better off not having savings and forcing the government or the health care provider to eat the cost.
- Go Union - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 11:26 am:
Cassandra,
Judging by how light the blogging is today, I would suggest that most Cap Fax enthusiasts are off of work for the holiday, which probably means they work for some government agency or another. I wonder how many of these folks are being paid by the taxpayers while they spend hours blogging about the lazy city garbage men.
Maybe middle managers should start checking who is sitting on their can and blogging all day instead of picking on the folks that have to hall away trash all day.
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 11:36 am:
Go Union, I think maybe you’re misreading our resident public employee basher. She does that to everyone, not just garbage men.
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 12:23 pm:
I suspect the Cook County percentage of uninsured is higher. For instance, are they taking into consideration at all undocumented workers or people who no longer participate in the workforce?
- JohnR - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 12:35 pm:
Rich, did you know that there are 1.4 million uninsured adults in Illinois?
- JohnR, impersonating Lou Lang, impersonating Rod Blagojevich
- Mr. Wizard - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 12:38 pm:
“I suspect the Cook County percentage of uninsured is higher. For instance, are they taking into consideration at all undocumented workers or people who no longer participate in the workforce?”
After stumbling around their website, I can find no answer to your question or any other about the actual definition of “uninsured”. In fact, the study appears to be a series of estimates based on prior year(s) data. If I am wrong, someone please correct.
- Cassandra - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 1:31 pm:
Actually, you didn’t read my post. My post was about the failure of middle management to adequately supervise their staff (according to the inspector general’s own report on the city garbagemen) thus
resulting in sounds like a lot of poor performance
And I don’t bash government employees per se, never have. I bash city and state systems which hire thousands of patronage employees, require minimal accountability, overstaff at the middle management level, and pay above-market compensation packages regardless of credentials or performance. This type of system is no longer cheap but we can’t afford it at any cost.
Actually, this is a good example of how we pay
for poor management in government service. Exposes like this one make it harder for the government
to make the case for resources needed to invest in a higher quality of life for everyone—not just the rich and politically connected.
If Rich can follow my IP address, he can attest that I most certainly don’t work for state government. My time is my own—every day, all day.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 1:35 pm:
At first I thought Cassandra was Rod Blagojevich, but I don’t think so any longer. lol
- The Doc - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 2:24 pm:
Daley needs to be taken to the woodshed, presuming there’s an iota of truth to any of it. Politically connected spin doctors and family members get gold-plated city contracts while the mayor raises tax rates to even more unconscionable levels.
- steve schnorf - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 2:46 pm:
Remember, uninsured data from college communities is frequently skewed by the large number of healthy young adults in the community.
- Bubs - Monday, Oct 13, 08 @ 6:36 pm:
Voters, sweetheart deals and bloated government in Daleyland is like the weather. Everyone complains, but no one does anything about it.
In fact, Chicago voters even be worse. One man actually did do something about the weather. His name was Carrier, and he invented air conditioning.
We lose 1-0.