* Tribune editorial…
With Congress debating another relief package to protect the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, state governments likely will receive federal money to offset revenue losses, Illinois included.
Please, Washington: Don’t turn this fifth go-round in COVID-19 aid into a bailout of poorly managed states like ours.
Any money flowing to Illinois should come with strings attached to ensure federal money is reserved strictly for the purpose of addressing virus-related losses. Insist that funds coming here are commensurate with those going to other states. Demand transparency for every dime spent. Don’t let federal aid for a global health pandemic expand into a rescue effort of Illinois for its decades of reckless state government spending.
Why the training wheels for Illinois? Senate President Don Harmon put it in writing. In April, he wrote to members of Illinois’ congressional delegation asking for $41.6 billion in coronavirus aid, including $10 billion for Illinois pensions. It was an outrageous request following decades of overspending. Illinois’ credit rating is among the nation’s worst. That “ask” had little to do with public health and everything to do with the irresponsible habits of Illinois politicians. Don’t be fooled.
* Sen. Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago)…
For the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board to say our federal aid request had “little to do with public health” is disingenuous at best and a flat out lie at worst.
That request specifically asked for the single largest public health investment in Illinois minority communities in modern history.
It is an overdue investment.
It comes at a time when people in Black and Brown communities are being infected, hospitalized and dying at rates exceeding any other community.
It comes as a time when there is growing recognition of these communities’ economic, social and human needs being ignored decade after decade.
That’s why we sought $1 billion in public health investment targeted to these underserved, disproportionately impacted neighborhoods. We also requested hardship pay for the heroes working on the front lines against this virus in health care facilities.
The Tribune Editorial Board skipped all that.
Those are especially hard items to overlook given they were included in Tribune news coverage. Perhaps the Editorial Board should read the paper.
The Tribune Editorial Board’s views on federal relief are stunningly tone deaf at a time when millions of Illinoisans are facing unemployment, food insecurity and lingering racial divisions. I could point out the numerous errors in their argument and judgement, but that’s another letter for another time.
The Editorial Board may score political points in some circles with its finger wagging refrain. I hope it satisfies them. The rest of us will remain focused on getting Illinois through this crisis.
* Related…
* Ben Bernanke: I Was Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Save the States.
- Rich Hill - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:04 pm:
If Alden Capital’s goal is to kill the Tribune through reduced subscriptions, the company has to be pleased with the performance of its editorial board.
- Morty - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:08 pm:
The Trib ship cannot be saved.
Man the lifeboats.
Or ye will end up in Davey Jones’s locker
- jimbo - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:10 pm:
Back in April when this whole “bailout dysfunctional states” thing came around from McConnell, Amanda Kass tweeted that Kentucky has lower pension funding levels than IL, and that S.C. is only a bit better off than we are.
- GregN - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:11 pm:
Wow. Reporters are furloughed, shrinking the news hole, but the editorial board can still afford to carry the ghost of McCormick.
Bah humbug.
- Roadrager - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:11 pm:
Three years from now, the Trib’s print edition will be a weekly leaflet with Kass’ column on the front and ads for herbal male supplements and miracle mineral solutions on the back.
- Frank talks - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:13 pm:
3-4 years ago the Trib looked strong and Sun Times was done. My how times have changed?
Wonder if the Trib applied for the PPP to try and stave off the furloughs of their reporters or would that just be too much for their Editorial Board to have to explain the hypocrisy?
- The Dude Abides - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:17 pm:
The Tribune longs for the good old days of Bruce Rauner.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:17 pm:
How does $10 billion towards Illinois pensions help alleviate the suffering of Covid?
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:21 pm:
“Please, Washington: Don’t turn this fifth go-round in COVID-19 aid into a bailout of poorly managed states like ours.”
Silly Illinois, trillion-dollar federal handouts are for corporations and the benefit of the wealthiest.
Have the Trib editorial board, Illinois Exodus pushers, IPI and the rest ever said a peep of protest at federal spending, exploding deficits and debt under Trump and the GOP? We should quickly dispel any notion that the Trib editorial board and others of that thinking support fiscal responsibility.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:21 pm:
The Trib Editorial Board endorsed Gary Johnson for President when they couldn’t endorse Trump, and couldn’t stomach endorsing Hillary Clinton.
Everything since that dismissing of honesty to thought are editorials like this… or still pushing “because Madigan”
To the governing?
The United States as a whole is only as strong as the states that make up this union, and if during a pandemic this country needs to see the health of the states as reflective of the health of our nation, then “bailing out” the necessary needs of states to function as a state are needed, then tough decisions will need to be made.
In a small political way… deciding states need to fail to feel good about a political thought is also thinking a weak America is good as well.
I’m not disappointed or angered or even mildly upset.
When on brand, the Tribune Editorial Board is what is what’s bad with trying to see a greater good, and a good for a better tomorrow.
The leadership of that Editorial Board wrote the destruction of a city, lives lost, is a good way to reset.
So you can see why this editorial isn’t raising my dander.
- John Deere Greeen - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:27 pm:
==Insist that funds coming here are commensurate with those going to other states.==
Which other states, pray tell? Mooch states like Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama, which already get more federal money back than they contribute? https://rockinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1-7-19b-Balance-of-Payments.pdf
Why shouldn’t Illinois get more federal money when it’s already forking over more than it receives? Wouldn’t it be nice if the sanctimonious mopes on the Tribune’s ed board actually rallied for their own state instead of constantly denigrating it? But they won’t. Not when, in its infinite wisdom, the board chooses to include in its ranks a self-proclaimed “statehouse chick” (ever actually been to the Statehouse?) who wanted Chicago to be wiped out in a hurricane-like disaster because, I dunno, tough love? Hopeless.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:30 pm:
Asking for pension help as part of Covid relief is akin to a homeless person asking for food money, and then demanding help to pay down his credit card bill, as well.
- Moe Berg - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:32 pm:
The Trib ed board and its “stars” McQueary and Kass offer sublimated racism in the guise of fiscal responsibility.
They are saying, don’t help in a time of crisis. Let the covid hurricane rage. And, who will suffer the consequences most? People and communities of color.
A paper that hates its home city and state with such relish. Quite a business model.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:35 pm:
===…and then demanding help to pay down his credit card bill, as well.===
If they’re homeless, where is the credit card bill going?
I dunno if this makes any sense… at all
- Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:38 pm:
“I dunno if this makes any sense”
Just liking asking for pension money for Covid relief. LOL
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:44 pm:
John Deere Greene you are absolutely right about moocher states but I think we should go one step further. Send Illinois the money it deserves then keep it in Cook and the collar counties. After all that is what funds are he state and the Eastern Block. Let them live free or die
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:45 pm:
=== Just liking asking for pension money for Covid relief.===
Revenues are down, like businesses where revenues are down getting PPP
Please keep up.
Unless you feel businesses don’t need PPP
- 1st Ward - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 3:46 pm:
“Which other states, pray tell? Mooch states like Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama, which already get more federal money back than they contribute”
How do you think goods get to Illinois? Federal highways. Have to spend the same in these states as you do in Illinos to maintain I-57, 55, 80 etc even though their populations are smaller
Where are the majority of defense bases located? Red states.
When Illinoians retire and collect SS or Medicare in Arizona and Florida are these states moochers?
When Illinoans exports the 2nd most college students in the country are those other states moochers for needing to set-up and maintain infrastructure to educate?
Look at the states that get the biggest benefit for tax free muni bonds (Cali, NJ, NY, Illinois)…..
- Been There - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:01 pm:
=== Perhaps the Editorial Board should read the paper.===
Heh. That’s a great line and I have always wondered the same thing. I wouldn’t even read that rag if it wasn’t for their dwindling number of reporters.
And 1st Ward if those states you listed saving interest on their bond rates could keep some more tax money in their state instead of sending it to DC then maybe they wouldn’t owe so much.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:03 pm:
“Revenues are down, like businesses where revenues are down getting PPP. Please keep up.”
Illinois’ total pensions payments in 2019 were $10 billion. So we expect the federal government to fund a full year’s pension benefit, as part of Covid relief?
PPP money certainly doesn’t provide a full year of relief. Or as you like to say, “Please keep up”.
- Northsider - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:09 pm:
I’m increasingly hard-pressed to rationalize why I shouldn’t drop the Tribune for the Sun-Times and/or Block Club Chicago.
- Nick - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:09 pm:
There’s no state or city in the country whose budget is whole after this mess, and if we force states to make cuts we’ll ruin any chance of having a economic recovery.
The only reason you’d be opposed to helping state or local budgets is ideology, pure and simple.
- ajjacksson - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:09 pm:
“When people in Black and Brown communities are being infected, hospitalized, and dying at rates exceeding any other community.”
This is a sad fact, and I don’t think there’s enough attention to it.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:11 pm:
=== Illinois’ total pensions payments in 2019 were $10 billion. So we expect the federal government to fund a full year’s pension benefit, as part of Covid relief?===
I never said that. Can you read?
I said “revenues” are down. Think Rich had the number ~$1.4 billion.
Argue like an adult.
=== PPP money certainly doesn’t provide a full year of relief===
The relief could be revenue driven.
But silly arguments about the anger of pensions blind those to reading *actual words*
I know your angry about pensions, otherwise you’d know what the word “revenue” means.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:22 pm:
OW,
The state is asking the federal government for $10 billion for pension relief, or approximately one year of state pension payments….all for Covid relief.
It’s silly and indefensible.
PPP money was not “revenue driven”. It was based on wages, rent and other expenses. It had nothing to do with revenue.
“Please keep up”.
- Curious George - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:26 pm:
Let’s earmark the 3% COLA to housing for the homeless .
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:28 pm:
=== The state is asking the federal government for $10 billion for pension relief, or approximately one year of state pension payments….all for Covid relief.
It’s silly and indefensible.===
Really, cite.
Oh. Your ignorance;
=== Illinois needs more than $40 billion in relief from the federal government because of the coronavirus pandemic — including $10 billion to help bail out its beleaguered pension system, according to a letter the Illinois Senate president sent to members of Congress.
The letter, sent this week by State Senator Don Harmon…===
- New York Times, April 17th
President Harmon is not the state of Illinois. Governor Pritzker, Leaders Durkin and Brady, Speaker Madigan would be interested in that development.
Are you a “low fruit” thinker or “low information” peddler?
=== PPP money was not “revenue driven”. It was based on wages, rent and other expenses. It had nothing to do with revenue.===
How do you pay… wages, rent, and other expense?
With revenue.
Are you trying?
- High Socks - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:31 pm:
Please only fill our part of the pool is a strange argument.
- allknowingmasterofraccoodom - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:31 pm:
Sounds to me like it is the Senator who skipped all the facts? Or am I going nuts? The Trib covered this news, the COVID money that came from the Feds, this editorial was simply pointing out the fact that the clueless Illinois GA asked for money they didn’t have coming, to cover a shortage they personally created, and to have it paid for by the rest of the country. That is the subject and facts of the editorial.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:41 pm:
My bad. Check this out.
“$5.8 billion budget hole to be (mostly) “filled” with borrowed federal money, paid back (hopefully) with federal assistance”
Link.
shorturl.at/muAIX
My apologies, but it’s not… $10 billion of a shortfall necessary, the Harmon letter was Harmon forgetting he’s the Senate President, and not the Governor.
- Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:42 pm:
OW,
Just curious, were you involved in any PPP requests? I was involved in both for-profit and not-for-profit entities that successfully navigated the PPP waters.
PPP allocations were driven by expenses, not revenue. A company could have zero revenue, but if they had verifiable wage expenses, then they were eligible for PPP money.
Please enlighten me on how that is revenue driven?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 4:47 pm:
=== Please enlighten me on how that is revenue driven?===
The government shortfalls are revenue driven.
The shortfall is driven by a loss of revenue.
To your straw man, so you’ll feel good?
If you’re applying for PPP, is it because your business was having a banner year in sales and revenue?
If a business is shut down, what are they missing to pay bills… like the state… they’re missing… revenue.
=== PPP allocations were driven by expenses===
How are expenses *paid* without a pandemic raging?
- MyTwoCents - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 5:18 pm:
Replacing lost revenues has nothing to do with pensions, other than IL potentially skipping pension payments if fed assistance doesn’t come through. But it’s nice how the DC GOP and the Trib so quickly forgot the lessons of 2008. As for the fight over funding, I didn’t realize the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures were partisan organizations:
https://www.ncsl.org/press-room/ncsl-releases-statement-on-the-senate-coronavirus-relief-proposal.aspx
https://www.nga.org/news/press-releases/national-governors-association-leadership-statement-on-congressional-coronavirus-relief-negotiations/
- Lakeside Girl - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 5:18 pm:
At this point, OW, you are embarrassing yourself.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 5:26 pm:
- Lakeside Girl -
… and all you can muster is a drive by?
lol
- 1st Ward - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 5:43 pm:
“Replacing lost revenues has nothing to do with pensions”
Agreed. There should be strings attached similar to the CARES ACT funding to states. Or a formula should be used. 2019 individual, corporate and sales taxes of X less expected 2020 revenues from same sources. There’s the lost revenue and do as you please with it.
- Blue Dog Dem - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 6:30 pm:
when asking. Go big or go home. Soon to be released. Estimated 6000 hotels to shutter permanently. This isn’t going to end well.
- 1st Ward - Wednesday, Jul 29, 20 @ 6:41 pm:
“Estimated 6000 hotels to shutter permanently”
This is what worries me for the city in the medium-term. Hotel taxes were pretty high and a good revenue source given conventions and tourism. In addition, CRE values will decrease which shifts more property tax burden to homeowners/renters. Not a good combo in the middle of a pension ramp. 2020 and 2021 budgets might look bad wait until 2022 and 2023.