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Friday, Sep 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Have a great one, people, and try to stay outta trouble. Trombone Shorty will play us out…

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Friday, Sep 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

Under new legislation proposed by state Rep. Jack Franks, taxes could not go up at all — not a penny — in any year in which the gross value of property in a taxing district decreases. The only exception is if voters approve a hike by referendum.

“Home values have plummeted in recent years, but the tax burden on those properties continues to rise,” said Mr. Franks, a McHenry County Democrat. “It is unconscionable that property taxes have increased as more and more homeowners are under water with their mortgages.”

Under current law, taxes can go up by the rate of consumer inflation or 5%, whichever is lower.

Mr. Franks has several co-sponsors, most of them Republicans.

The bill is here.

* The Question: Should local property taxes be frozen (except via referendum) in years when overall property values decrease? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.

Online Surveys & Market Research

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Government, manufacturing lead latest job losses

Friday, Sep 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Oy…

llinois’ unemployment rate shot up almost half a percentage point in August to 9.9 percent. It was a fourth straight month of diminishing job prospects that state officials blame on weak consumer confidence and the struggles of the national economy.

Even the state’s manufacturing sector, which had been a bright spot even as other types of employers shed jobs the past few months, cut employment in August.

Illinois’ unemployment rate surged up from 9.5 percent in July but has been increasing since it was at 8.7 percent in May, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The national jobless rate held steady in August at 9.1 percent.

The biggest job losses last month were in government, mostly local government, at 2,400. Manufacturing was a distant second with losses of 1,000, but manufacturing had been increasing over the past several months, so that’s a big disappointment. “Information” jobs and educational/health jobs were down 200. Everything else was up, led by “Professional and Business Services” at 2,200 and “Financial Activities” at 1,500.

* We’re not doing well in comparison to other states, either…

Seven states experienced statistically significant over-the- month unemployment rate increases in August. Illinois and Pennsylvania reported the largest of these (+0.4 percentage point each), followed by North Carolina (+0.3 point); Maryland, North Dakota, and Virginia (+0.2 point each); and Georgia (+0.1 point). The District of Columbia also posted a significant over- the-month rate increase (+0.3 percentage point). The remaining 43 states recorded jobless rates that were not measurably different from those of a month earlier, though some had changes that were at least as large numerically as the significant changes.

* And if Democrats are hoping that Republicans will share the blame on the national economy, well, they may be outta luck, according to the latest Gallup poll…

When voters were asked if the Republicans or Democrats would be better suited to deal with the economy, 44 percent said the Republicans are better equipped, while 37 percent chose the Democrats.

Gallup noted that the seven-point Republican lead on this survey question—which has been asked periodically by pollsters since 1965—is the highest since January 1995, when the GOP had a 10-point lead over the Democrats.

If Obama is able to gain a consensus in Congress and pass the sweeping jobs package, it will likely be a key factor for whether he is re-elected.

Another poll, this time conducted by Bloomberg, released on Wednesday found that the majority of Americans don’t think Obama’s jobs package will help lower the unemployment rate, which has consistently stayed above 9 percent since the recession began in 2007.

* Related…

* Don’t leave us out, insurance agents tell legislators

* Will County gives state an ultimatum on airport - Officials say they won’t support any more state purchases of land at the site until an airport authority is created

* The 25 Most Economically Powerful Cities in the World: #4 - Chicago

* Caterpillar East Peoria plant to undergo $200 million upgrade

* Why the smart grid is stuck in first gear: The bulk of utilities in the U.S. aren’t regulated in a way that creates an incentive to invest in energy-saving technologies, according to many GridWeek speakers.

* Glib Talk on New Jobs Can’t Hide Grim Reality: Since Emanuel arrived at City Hall, Crain’s Chicago Business has reported on planned layoffs at a diverse array of Chicago companies: Harpo Studios (250 people), Emmis Radio (78), Ryerson, Inc. (67), the Sun-Times (456), Schofield Media Group (107), Swissport Cargo Services (146) and Morse Calipers Services (161), among others.

* Mark Denzler: State needs jobs, but not at any cost

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There’s more than one side to reform stories

Friday, Sep 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A Champaign News-Gazette editorial rails today against a recent change to state law on candidate petitions…

Our legislators have front-loaded the process to ensure that a public galvanized by events can’t take quick action to seek change at the polls. Candidates for public office recently started distributing nominating petitions - the filing period is Nov. 28 through Dec. 5 (an earlier version had the wrong filing date information) - for a general election that won’t be held until November 2012.

What’s the rush? No rush — it’s just the politics-as-usual crowd writing rules that reinforce the status quo.

Those deadlines are actually for nominating petitions for the March primary, and not the November general.

* The paper is also upset at the new limit on petition signatures…

To get around challenges to their voter petitions, many candidates collect far more signatures than they need. For starters, it’s intended to demonstrate public support. More important, the extra signatures provide a margin for error if some voter signatures are challenged and found wanting.

But for every move, there is a countermove. To prevent the filing of extra signatures, legislators passed a law limiting how many extra signatures a candidate can file.

This is real inside baseball, the kind of thing average voters never think about.

But professional politicians have made a science of this kind of gamesmanship, and they write the rules to give them an advantage. This change in the law has little, if anything, to do with improving the democratic process, But it has much to do with attempting to restrict ballot access by making it easier for one candidate to challenge an opponent’s petitions.

Yes, it will likely be easier to kick a candidate off the ballot with the new limits. No longer can a state House candidate submit thousands of signatures and overwhelm the opposition’s checkers. The law requires a minimum of 500 valid signatures for House races. Now, the law will also include a maximum of 1,500.

…Adding… I should’ve noted that overwhelming the opposition’s checkers with thousands of signatures is what incumbents usually do after staff finds out that the original sigs are insufficient. That doesn’t usually happen so much with challengers. The round-tabling is most often done by amateur challengers, however.

On the other hand, it also means that a candidate can’t stand in front of a mall, supermarket, L station, or whatever and collect thousands of invalid signatures from people who aren’t registered to vote in their district - or round-table a ton of fraudulent sigs. This new law means that candidates will have to focus on going door-to-door to get those signatures. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In the big picture, 500 valid signatures is not that big of a deal. Any legitimate candidate can do this without an extraordinary effort.

* In other news, the Tribune today has a story headlined “Gambling bill would weaken state’s regulatory muscle, critics fear.” From the piece…

With the state’s 10 current casinos, Illinois has one regulator for every 92 gambling positions. If the gaming board finishes an effort to fill current vacancies, that ratio will drop to one for every 61 positions — twice as strong as the next closest state.

With expansion, the gaming board said it needs 292 more regulators, which would increase its budget from $54.6 million to at least $106 million — $43 million more than any other state.

That hiring would keep Illinois’ regulatory staff at one for every 81 gambling positions if the state reaches 39,200 positions. Illinois still would rank No. 1 among the nation’s top gambling states.

If, on the other hand, the state were to add all the casino gambling positions without new hires, it would have one regulator for every 306 positions. Only Nevada would have a weaker ratio.

Not mentioned is that a bunch of these new positions would go to existing casinos. It’s not clear why the Gaming Board would need a huge number of new regulators for those slots.

Also, the Board doesn’t seem to be in any big rush to fill its job vacancies right now, so one might assume that this issue is not its highest priority.

* And the Bloomington Pantagraph has an editorial today about the remap…

If the League of Women Voters of Illinois succeeds in its legal challenge of the legislative district boundaries drawn after the 2010 census, Illinoisans might finally get the non-gerrymandered, non-artisan maps they deserve.

We are not holding our breath.

The league is challenging the map as a violation of the First Amendment, arguing that the partisan way in which the districts are drawn interferes with the public’s constitutional rights to speak, assemble and petition the government. It’s a strong argument, but one that hasn’t won judicial favor — yet.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court, notes that the resolutions concerning the redistricting plans specifically state that the partisan composition of each district is taken into account.

I’ve seen good arguments for and against this idea. We’ve discussed it before, but I’m curious to hear what you think now.

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It’s a good thing, regardless of what you read

Friday, Sep 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Reporters usually know whom to call to give them the answers they want. I’m not necessarily saying this happened today, but check out the Trib story on Gov. Pat Quinn’s trade mission to China…

Eight of the 30 people going to China with Quinn have given him campaign contributions as individuals or work for a company or group that has done so.

Leading the list is John T. Coli, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 25. The union’s various funds gave more than $400,000 to Quinn since he became governor in January 2009.

Also on the trip will be businessman Theodor Spyropoulos, president of T.G.S. National Wholesalers. Spyropoulos has given Quinn more than $72,000, mostly as he ran for governor. Jeff Cooper, of Edwardsville, the founder of Illinois-based Eudora Global and Radix Global, with operations in China, gave $25,000 to Quinn last year.

Republican Sen. Bill Brady, of Bloomington, who lost the governor’s race last year, said Quinn needs to explain why so many political contributors are going to give Illinoisans a “comfort level” with his choice of travel companions.

There’s always going to be this sort of overlap on anything a governor does. Some of the participants might raise some questions, but overall it seems pretty legit. Here’s the complete list…

Martin Beck, managing director, Shandong Heavy Industry Group and MAT Capital; J.D. Bindenagel, DePaul University; Tim Cantwell, director of MidAmerica St. Louis Airport; Troy Clarke, president of Asia-Pacific Operations for Navistar; John Coli, president of Teamsters Joint Council 25; Jeff Cooper, founder of Eudora; Morton Village President Norm Durflinger; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign interim vice president and chancellor Robert Easter; DePaul University Finance Department chairman Ali Fatemi; Guillermo Garcia, incoming chairman of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Illinois Farm Bureau vice president Richard Guebert Jr.; state Sen. Mattie Hunter; Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce president Larry D. Ivory; NAVTEQ president Lawrence Kaplan; St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern; Funk Linko CEO Vicky Linko; Daniel Lynch, managing director for corporate and government affairs for United Airlines; Bank Financial regional president John Manos; Greg Mefford, chief strategy officer for Radix International; Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey; state Sen. Antonio Munoz; David Ragan, vice president for export trading at ADM; state Sen. Kwame Raoul; America’s Food Technologies president Ellen Jordan Reidy; National Pasteurized Eggs CFO Michael Smith; T.G.S. National Wholesalers president Theodore Spyropoulos; Quarles and Brady partner Sanford Stein; Illinois Science and Technology Coalition president Matthew Summy; Loren Taylor, president of the University of Illinois Alumni Association; Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy president Michael Turansick.

* And Republican Sen. Matt Murphy wasn’t so quick to whack the governor in the Sun-Times…

While the group of state officeholders traveling with Quinn is exclusively Democratic, the governor drew praise for his trip from one of his chief GOP critics, state Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine).

“The timing’s not great when you’re talking about laying people off, and the human services issues that have been raised,” Murphy said. “But as the governor, you’re sort of our promoter in chief. You should be out there promoting Illinois, and going to China strikes me as an appropriate thing to do.”

It ain’t easy for a Republican to offer any sort of praise to a Democrat in these hyper-partisan times, so kudos to Murph.

…Adding… Another Murphy quote…

“I don’t have a problem with him doing this. I think it’s appropriate that he is paying for it himself. I think that’s above and beyond the call,” said state Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine. “If you have something to market, if you have something to offer — and in Illinois we do — the governor should be the promoter-in-chief and go around the world where necessary. These are important trips to take. I wish he had better policies to sell.”

* If you listen to the governor’s media availability, you’ll hear reporters asking Quinn over and over again about the $133,000 state cost for the trip…

Click to download

But these dollars are already budgeted and are mostly passed through from a specific tax source…

That funding, they said, would come from a fund dedicated to promoting and marketing the state that is partially funded by the hotel-motel tax.

You can’t use the hotel-motel tax to keep prisons open.

Not to mention that the state is not paying for anybody’s flight and lodging. And, as I pointed out yesterday, more exports equals more state revenues equals less of a budget problem. I’ll be shocked if the state can’t make up that $133K pretty quickly.

* By the way, here’s what Illinois currently exports to China…

Machinery, $544 million

Waste and Scrap, $440 million

Computer and electronic parts, $364 million

Transportation equipment, $360 million

Agriculture, food and kindred products, $347 million

Those ag products will get a big boost on this trip…

As part of the trip, ADM said Quinn would witness the signing of an agreement for ADM to supply 180,000 metric tons of soybeans to a company for the Chinese market.

“Illinois soy farmers are playing an important role in meeting this demand, and we are proud to be able to join Governor Quinn as he continues to work toward connecting our state’s growers with fast-growing global markets,” ADM spokeswoman Jessie McKinney said in a statement.

And since Navistar and others are also going (and Caterpillar will be participating with its folks who are already there), expect machinery to also get a bump up.

* Meanwhile, Rep. Jack Franks just returned from a trip to Cuba with some other legislators. They all paid their own way as well, and Franks says it’s time that the US embargo ends…

Franks says because of the federal embargo, Illinois companies are not allowed to extend credit to Cuba, and Cuban ships may not dock in the U.S. within six months of offloading in Havana. He would like to see these restrictions lifted.

“I think that we’d be over $1 billion in sales within two years if we were able to change just a few minor things,” he said.

Franks says overall, the embargo on trade to Cuba is a Cold War relic, and its removal is long overdue.

He says food would be a good place to start in lifting the embargo.

Discuss.

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Friday, Sep 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

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