Somebody’s always gotta be a downer
Monday, Feb 3, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The BGA fact-checks the governor’s State of the State address…
Pritzker said “over the past year, Illinois has reduced its unemployment rate more than all of the top 20 most populated states in the nation — and more than our Midwestern peers.”
Federal data back that up. However, the differences between those states’ reductions are minimal, and Illinois’ unemployment rate remains higher than 12 of the states included in that comparison.
We rate his claim Mostly True.
Read the rest for the details if you so desire.
…Adding… University of Illinois…
The U of I Flash Index began the new year with a slight decline in January, falling to 105.4 from its 105.6 reading in December.
The index remains in the narrow range it has occupied the last 18 months. “This reflects the now-familiar story of both the national and Illinois economies continued growth at a moderate, steady rate,” said University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the monthly index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. An index reading above 100 denotes growth.
The recently-released fourth-quarter GDP growth rate shows a return to the near 2 percent level that has seems to be the new norm with 2.1 percent, 2.1 percent, and 2.0 percent registered respectively for the last three quarters. “On a positive note, this is actually good news compared with recession fears raised mid-year in 2019,” Giertz said.
The Illinois employment rate fell to 3.7 percent, the lowest in more than 50 years and only two-tenths of a percentage point above the national level.
Two components of the index, the corporate and individual income tax receipts, declined. Sales tax receipts increased slightly compared with the same month last year after adjusting for inflation. The lower corporate receipts may be a response to strong revenues over the last quarter of 2019.
…Adding… Press release…
State Representatives Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) and Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) issued the following statement today upon the announcement that the Ferrara Candy Company will move into a new 1.6 million-square-foot distribution center in the ChicagoWest Business Center near Interstate 88 by the end of 2020:
“Today’s announcement from Ferrara brings a significant investment of 1,000 new jobs that will boost our local economy in the DeKalb region, with 500 new jobs in the first phase alone. We have both said that creating jobs is one of our top priorities. As part of the bipartisan state budget and capital bill approved by the General Assembly last year, we were able to enact pro-business reforms that will lay the groundwork for thousands of new jobs for years to come. Specifically, these reforms included the creation of the Blue Collar Jobs Act to attract large-scale construction; reinstatement of the Manufacturer’s Purchase Credit to encourage further investments in manufacturing in Illinois; and elimination of the Franchise Tax. Passage of these pro-business reforms made it possible for DeKalb to land Ferrara to the ChicagoWest Business Center, and the capital bill secured the funding necessary to prepare the site for such a large investment.
- Frank Manzo IV - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 9:58 am:
According to the U of I Flash Index, the Illinois economy has expanded for 95 straight months since March 2012.
The record during the Index’s run is 99 straight months between December 1992 and February 2001.
Can we have a celebration if in 5 months we hit 100?
- Precinct Captain - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:00 am:
Maybe the BGA fact checkers should listen to David Greising when he’s opining on talk shows?
- Norseman - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:01 am:
=== We rate his claim Mostly True. ===
In today’s post truth environment, this is a momentous accomplishment.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:07 am:
It should be noted Mr. Demmer for a whole General Assembly continually and purposely voted to hurt Illinois, be it higher education or social services, to force organized labor to capitulate or Democrats to agree to hurt organized labor.
To think Mr. Demmer someone who cares about business or growth in Illinois now, without acknowledging his own wholly complicit way *he* chose to hurt this state and it’s climate to keep or attract business is embarrassing for him, and quite self-serving to ignore that history.
Ferrara Candy Company, after the four years forced destruction, has chosen to move and stay, according to this self-serving release by Mr. Demmer, because leadership realized 60, 30, signature is governing business will see as working.
The glomming on here by Mr. Demmer, and ignoring his own vote damaging history is another example of Raunerites wanting to gloss over their own complicity by realizing what they fought against is moving the state forward today.
- Lucky Pierre - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:11 am:
It should also be noted that the General Assembly, under the leadership of Speaker Mike Madigan, purposely refused to bring any pro business legilsaltion to the floor for the entire Rauner term.
it is quite self serving to ignore the history OW
- MG85 - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:12 am:
==However, the differences between those states’ reductions are minimal==
I guess the BGA doesn’t live by the Ricky Bobby mantra of “if you’re not first you’re last.”
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:13 am:
“As part of the bipartisan state budget and capital bill approved by the General Assembly last year, we were able to enact pro-business reforms that will lay the groundwork for thousands of new jobs for years to come.”
Love reading stuff like this and kudos, once again, to folks on both sides of the aisle who made it happen. The bipartisan pro-business reforms prove without a doubt that it was the former governor who sabotaged the budget, not Madigan, who did his part to help the pro-business reforms pass.
The quoted statement above also indicates that we absolutely need no part of red state economics: RTWFL and lower incomes.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:28 am:
===… purposely refused to bring any pro business legislation…===
Narrator: There was never 60 votes for any Rauner proposal.
- Lucky Pierre -
Q: Why did Raunerites hold Illinois hostage?
A: Raunerites couldn’t find 60 and 30
The quitter, the failed quitter Rauner, couldn’t get 60 to force any votes, but got those like Ken Dunkin, Franks, and Drury to hurt Illinois.
You know all this, Mr. Demmer knows all this… and why I wrote the following;
===… because leadership realized 60, 30, signature is governing business will see as working.===
Rauner knew he’d be humiliated by not seeking 60 and 30, asked four people to run in his place, and still no one agreed to do it.
We are not going to rewrite the history of the purposeful damage those like Mr. Demmer did, even as those like Mr. Demmer want others to forget it, as 60 and 30 now means governing.
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:51 am:
Willy - it is a new year, get a new schtick. You are like a record that is stuck and plays the same song over and over and over.
What is the statute of limitations on you whining about Demmer? 5 more years? 10?
Even those of us who agree with your premise and lived it beg you to put it in the rear view mirror.
For all that is good and holy, and as an early Valentine gift to all . . . . . . move on. We get it, can regurgitate it verbatim in our sleep, and agree that all that is Raunerism was an exercise in amateurism.
Breathe.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 10:59 am:
- wow -
LOL
“Let’s move on. K? Please? Pretty please?”
=== What is the statute of limitations on you whining about Demmer?===
Once Mr. Demmer admits…
“I’m frustrated too but taking steps to reform Illinois is more important than a short term budget stalemate”
… he was wrong in his complicit actions to hurting Illinois, purposely, then he and the others can move forward.
I get it. I do.
You want Mr. Denver’s phony ways of caring to matter *now*, but, please forget all that non-caring stuff.
It’s who Mr. Demmer is now, and until those like Mr. Demmer realize it won’t be forgotten until a mea culpa… it will be noted, each time Mr. Demmer decides to be the phony he thinks is fooling folks.
I have the receipts.
You want quotes next time too?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:01 am:
- wow -
LOL
“Let’s move on. K? Please? Pretty please?”
=== What is the statute of limitations on you whining about Demmer?===
Once Mr. Demmer admits…
“I’m frustrated too but taking steps to reform Illinois is more important than a short term budget stalemate”
… he was wrong in his complicit actions to hurting Illinois, purposely, then he and the others can move forward.
I get it. I do.
You want Mr. Demmer’s phony ways of caring to matter *now*, but, please forget all that non-caring stuff.
It’s who Mr. Demmer is now, and until those like Mr. Demmer realize it won’t be forgotten until a mea culpa… it will be noted, each time Mr. Demmer decides to be the phony he thinks is fooling folks.
I have the receipts.
You want quotes next time too?
=== . . . . . move on.===
That’s how phonies try to evade their own culpability.
Mr. Demmer can renounce his own complicity at any time.
Why don’t you ask him to do that?
Says more about you than me.
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:05 am:
LOL - we will take that as a “no”, a new shtick isn’t arriving soon.
You will never be the Super Bowl halftime performer with only one hit Willy.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:10 am:
- wow -
44, 19, 0
Still you won’t hold the phonies accountable?
It’s quite embarrassing you won’t hold Mr. Demmer under the same accountability. Very telling too.
Mr. Demmer wants to tout “cooperation”… yet was wholly complicit in ensuring no cooperation happened.
Be well. How sad.
- Been There - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:10 am:
===Ferrara Candy Company will move into a new 1.6 million-square-foot ====
Wow that’s a big building. For fund with numbers its 10 times the size of the Amazon one proposed on the south side. And a million more square feet than the one Amazon is moving into in Maywood Park
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:14 am:
Willy - we are laughing at you, not with you at this juncture.
But please, can you regurgitate it one more time like the old singer who now talks it through with background vocalists.
One more time . . . . .please?
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:17 am:
=== We rate his claim Mostly True. ===
Pritzker says 4 times 1.03 = 4.12.
We checked, and 4 * 1.03 does equal 4.12.
But 4.12 is less than 5, so we rate his claim Mostly True.
As pointed out last week, the BGA is a racket.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:18 am:
- wow -
LOL
Troll someone else.
Can’t unring that Mr. Demmer is a phony, and his record won’t change his damage.
I appreciate you reading.
:)
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:20 am:
Willy - LOL. Just won fifty bucks as I told a friend that you would recite it at least three times and then go back to your sanctimonious corner. Thanks.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:22 am:
- wow -
Gambling is legal in Illinois now, so there’s that.
If you’re laughing at me, why should you care what I say?
I fed ya. If you’d like quotes from Mr. Demmer or how he voted with Ken Dunkin…
Move on. You have nothing.
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:30 am:
LOL. Thanks again. I feel as though I have just witnessed and old, fat Elvis complete An American Trilogy. Look away, look away, look away Dixieland.
Perfect.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:32 am:
- wow -
Are you going to add to the discussion or not?
If not, move on. Thanks.
- Pick a Name - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:36 am:
The Trump economy has been quite remarkable.
- Charlie Brown - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:40 am:
The internet graveyard is full of those who have trolled Oswego Willy and failed. It’s like watching André the Giant in WrestleMania II Battle Royale with five people hanging off of him.
Match is over, can we move on?
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:42 am:
=== The Trump economy has been remarkable. ===
Narrator: “According to the U of I Flash Index, the Illinois economy has expanded for 95 straight months since March 2012.“
- City Zen - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:44 am:
As long as we don’t go back to 2013 when our unemployment rate was nearly 2 percentage points higher than the national average.
- ChicagoBars - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 11:51 am:
Anyone know where the Ferrara operations in that press release are being relocated from? Guess might be huge expansion too? Interesting history for a huge company I was only vaguely aware of.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrara_Candy_Company
- The long and winding road - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 12:18 pm:
=Charlie Brown=
Cute of you to defend Willy - king of trolls. How Trumpian of you.
It is over as Wow slapped him around pretty good this morning. Thoroughly enjoyed by many, I assure you.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 12:22 pm:
(Sigh)
- Charlie Brown -, thanks. Be well.
As shown above, the trolling is concerned, lol, no facts.
Projecting Trump? C’mon.
Either add to the discussion or don’t.
- Charlie Brown - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 1:00 pm:
=== It is over as Wow slapped him around pretty good this morning. Thoroughly enjoyed by many, I assure you. ===
People who think it is over and they actually won don’t write stuff like that.
Andre the Giant never had to tweet “I threw that guy out of the ring, so I am the winner./ Biggest crowds ever./“
Trumpian indeed.
- The long and winding road - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 2:12 pm:
=Charlie Brown=
You suggested it was over in your original post. I simply concurred that it was in fact over. TKO from my perspective.
We disagree in that - I think Ricky Gervais is very humorous and you are offended by him kind of way. It happens.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 2:15 pm:
=== We disagree in that - I think Ricky Gervais is very humorous and you are offended by him kind of way. It happens.===
No one refuted;
=== It should be noted Mr. Demmer for a whole General Assembly continually and purposely voted to hurt Illinois, be it higher education or social services, to force organized labor to capitulate or Democrats to agree to hurt organized labor.
To think Mr. Demmer someone who cares about business or growth in Illinois now, without acknowledging his own wholly complicit way *he* chose to hurt this state and it’s climate to keep or attract business is embarrassing for him, and quite self-serving to ignore that history.===
So there’s that.
LOL
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 2:29 pm:
It is special when you quadruple down on the same tired stuff.
It is Durkin/Demmer or the Eastern Bloc nut jobs. Those are the choices on the field. Durkin/Demmer’s voting records are identical. The Magnificent 10 largely left the GA (I applaud them as do you).
Your incessant rehashing of the Rauner years does not change the above stated reality. No matter how many times you say it the choices currently in play remain:
a) Durkin/Demmer
b) Eastern Bloc goofs
In the name of broken records, a rehash of your position that a mea culpa is required is not necessary. Crystal clear on your position.
A or B. Those are the choices.
You are welcome.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 2:38 pm:
- wow -
Didn’t you “win” already?
LOL
They sit at 44 seats.
There is no “A or B”
The Raunerites were wholly complicit. They decided for money to hurt Illinois, vote against their districts, higher education, social services… forcing programs to end, nearly closing EIU.
If you’re “cool” that the Raunerites can pretend they caused purposeful harm, I mean having no conscience, then maybe you have no conscience to begin with, or no real belief undoing right by this state.
Maybe it’s your morals that can be held for $50 million. They had a number, maybe you do too.
“The one thing we learned during the Rauner years is we need to remember what is best for this state, our constituents, those who need leadership.
We made a mistake, as a party, and we will learn to focus on what differences we have with Democrats, and work for a better state, and if we do get power again, by earning the votes of the people of Illinois, we won’t purposely do things to hurt this state, and we will lead not from anger or hatred.
We are turning the page. We heard Illinois. We won’t make those same mistakes again”
Why do you *even care*?
Aren’t you too busy laughing?
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 2:50 pm:
Few are “cool”’with it. Just suggesting that rehashing a perspective on the subject matter, that ironically, we both share, won’t change it. Raunerism is/was an unmitigated disaster.
I understand that you want to punish Durkin/Demmer and want other choices. That is not the reality in play, and the mea culpa isn’t coming. I think you are well aware of that, like it or not.
A) Durkin/Demmer
B) Eastern Bloc
Current IL House GOP choices.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 2:59 pm:
=== Few are “cool”’with it.===
… and yet for money… Mr. Demmer and other continually voted, for a whole General Assembly, two years.., to purposely hurt Illinois.
That makes Mr. Demmer categorically weak, or wholly complicit.
Mr. Demmer can choose his own failing, but a true failing all the same.
=== That is not the reality in play, and the mea culpa isn’t coming. I think you are well aware of that, like it or not.===
Which is why, there’s no way Mr. Demmer and others, aren’t going to face the stark reality of every time they want to gloss over the past, it’s even more critical and important to state.
When it mattered, Mr. Demmer chose to hurt Illinois by either being categorically weak or wholly complicit in Rauner destruction. Ask him which is true.
=== Current IL House GOP choices.===
… which is why voters are voting more Dems to the House, unprecedented number of HDems, even for Madigan.
Thinking about “A or B” without realizing what that 44 means, that’s why you and they fail.
Where’s your laughing now?
=== we both share===
I doubt that.
===…we are laughing at you, not with you at this juncture.===
… are you a fool, or do you laugh at things you agree with often?
- Wow - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 3:00 pm:
Wasn’t part of any “win”‘conversation.
Good night Elvis.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 3:04 pm:
=== Wasn’t part of any “win”‘conversation.===
Supporting those who purposely hurt the state, or trying to gloss over isn’t winning any seats for Raunerites either.
Use that $50 wisely, friend.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 3, 20 @ 3:18 pm:
- wow -
Are you trolling me?
:)
Elvis has left the building, bud.
Enjoy the $50.
You earned it. LOL