25 Comments - NothsideNoMore - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:20 am: Qustion, I hear there is a three plus year rollout on some capital projects? If so anyone know if projects will be announced yearly or all will be put into the que and announced sometime soon. - Colin Robinson - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:22 am: 95 days until September 30. Really hoping to see that backpay before then. Gotta pay Amex. - Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:24 am: Ask JB if any Republicans attending the Capital bill signing have to share seats - @misterjayem - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:28 am: Wordslinger? – MrJM - Steve Rogers - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:29 am: Well, summer heat is finally here. I guess that’s the beginning of the end of my yard looking nice, plush, and green. - Bogey Golfer - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:36 am: @NothsideNoMore - thinking there are a number of projects where studies still need to complete, utilities relocated, contract plans put together, etc. In many cases, funding wasn’t even available for this work. - Looking down the Road - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:39 am: How does this solve anything? ==The outlines of how Mayor Lori Lightfoot would like Springfield to help her balance her new city budget are coming into focus, and it looks like she’ll be making a big, big ask. According to knowledgeable sources in Chicago and Springfield, after weeks of preliminary maneuvering the mayor is pitching nothing less than a state takeover of the city’s cash-short pension funds, which under current law will require upward of $1 billion in new city tax hikes over the next three years to reach a path to full actuarial funding. Her proposal would consolidate city pension money with smaller downstate and suburban pension funds in a new statewide system. In some cases, those non-Chicago funds are even worse off than the city’s. Insiders say Chicago might be willing to forgo some revenue it now gets from the state in exchange for relinquishing responsibility for the funds, which now are about $28 billion short of the assets they’ll eventually need to pay promised benefits. To pay the cost, Lightfoot reportedly supports state legislation to tax retirement income of better-off seniors—taxing income above $100,000 a year would net roughly $1 billion annually, according to the Civic Federation—or extending the sales tax to cover high-end services such as accounting and legal advice.== https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg-hinz-politics/mayor-lightfoots-pension-handoff-proposal#adunit_path=politics-opinion/city-county-government - Pawar Lost - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:44 am: Seeing some pushback from aldercreatures on Lightfoot’s plan to centralize many ward functions. I hate to agree with them but yes, why would City Hall care where an alderman designates the location of a Divvy bicycle station. - Langhorne - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:52 am: Good chance for Rich to invite JB to take a pontoon boat ride on Lake Springfield. - A Jack - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:54 am: I think that Wordslinger challenged OW to a golf game but they got stuck behind Tom Cross and are still waiting for Tom to t-off. - walker - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 10:56 am: Hmm. Wonder if the new Mayor will bring her pension asks to the new Senate pension expert — Martwick. - Seats - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:02 am: Unofficial question of the day. What will Rich’s unrelated topic question for JB be? - Grand Avenue - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:03 am: Martwick is going to have to defend his Senate seat and Arena will be defending the House seat, while both of them and their buddy Robert Murphy will be defending their Committeemen seats. Plus, someone will run against Brad Stephens in the General - likely without DPI backing, but they still might win just by being a Democrat in Chicago running during a Presidential election/ Fun times on the Northwest side. - NothsideNoMore - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:04 am: Pawar=== Urban planning is a real thing and requires coordination throughout the city not on a ward by ward basis. Divy locations should be centrally coordinated for overall convenience not in just one spot. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:17 am: - A Jack - Open golf invites to - Wordslinger - and Tom Cross. Playing golf behind Cross? Pack a lunch, it might take a while? Last time I played golf *with* Tom Cross he threw my sticks in a pond. I’m still not over that. - Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:26 am: Captain Lightfoot thinks that when your ship is sinking you should tie it to a bigger boat, instead of fixing the hole in the ship. So much for the reformer label, this proposal is textbook tax and spend (more than you are taxing) - Anyone Remember - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:30 am: OW - “Last time I played golf *with* Tom Cross” … Was that a first Tuesday after a first Monday in November that was a sunny 55 degree morning? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:47 am: ===Was that a first Tuesday after a first Monday in November that was a sunny 55 degree morning?=== I wish - Anyone Remember -, lol Cross got 9 holes in… at Medinah, while Madigan was at his Ward Office orchestrating *another* HDem victory. Very good memory. Well played. :) - Ron Burgundy - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 11:52 am: On the Divvy bike example above, in addition to centralized planning, the more eyes there are on such decisions hopefully increases the chance that such decisions are based on the community’s interest and not the contents of a well placed envelope. - Grandson of Man - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 12:11 pm: Illinois is about to create a lot of jobs, through the capital bill, marijuana legalization and gaming expansion. It’s so much better than the Rauner/IPI way of race to the bottom—slashing union rights to cater to greedy right wing corporate types and turn us into a lower-wage state. - Amalia - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 1:45 pm: So Martwick got the Senate seat and Arena got the House seat? done deal? - Grand Avenue - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 2:06 pm: They have to meet within the next 30 days to fill the House Seat, but Martwick (38th Ward) and Arena (45th ward) have the majority of the weighted vote between the two of them to appoint Arena - RNUG - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 2:35 pm: == we pick up the tab for the IMRF == Um … No, we don’t. The State directly picks up the tab for SERS, JRS, GARS, SURS & TRS. The individual municipalities each pick up their portion of the IMRF tab … and any separate police and fire funds. All the State does with IMRF, more or less, is make sure the towns contribute; if they don’t, the State can choose to divert any town allocated State funding to pay that town’s IMRF contribution. - Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 2:40 pm: RNUG, as usual, is right. People, do a basic Google search before posting here. - Al - Friday, Jun 28, 19 @ 4:00 pm: This is the second season for independent baseball league team Chicago Dogs playing in Rosemont. Go and have a good safe time. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.