* Interesting that one of the proponents of the regulatory bill is a lobbyist for the developer…
Futuristic technology could give Illinoisans their own personal robots that follow wherever they go, and carry supplies like groceries.
In anticipation of a summer rollout of this technology, the Illinois General Assembly is moving a bill to regulate it. […]
His bill is primarily in response to a particular product, the personal robot gita, in development at Massachusetts-based Piaggio Fast Forward, an affiliate of the Italian company that makes Vespa scooters. […]
Aaron Winters, an Illinois lobbyist who represents Piaggio, said it’s expected to be available by this summer, which is “why it is important for the legislation to pass.”
But the product’s potential raises concerns about pedestrian safety and home rule powers, among other things.
An Illinois toddler died nine years ago after suffering third degree burns from bathwater. The Illinois House last week approved legislation to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The measure would require all new water heaters be equipped with a safety valve.
It was introduced in honor of Mikayla King. Her mother, Jennifer King, recounted the event to lawmakers last month. […]
During the trial, King said, experts testified that 2,000 people suffer severe scald injuries each year, despite the fact that safety technology has been available for more than 30 years.
But the safety feature was only offered on their high-end water heater models.
During a routine 2008 traffic stop in Chicago, LaSheria’s life was permanently changed. After being stopped, she learned that her driver’s license was suspended for parking tickets received in 1999, and that the debt had grown to more than $2,500. After struggling for weeks to support her family without transportation to and from work, she filed bankruptcy, hoping to get her license back. But the bankruptcy plan did not clear her debt, which ballooned to nearly $8,000. Today, LaSheria is still making monthly payments to the City of Chicago because of parking violations made nearly 20 years ago.
Sadly, this is not an isolated case. There is a hidden crisis in Illinois: Each year, nearly 50,000 licenses are suspended because drivers cannot pay tickets, fines or fees, and for other reasons that have nothing to do with driving. These suspensions are not aimed at making our roads safer. Instead, they force people to choose between unemployment and the risk of going to jail for driving on a suspended license.
Eighty percent of Illinoisans drive to work, and many employers require a driver’s license. When a person’s license is suspended, they are at risk of losing their job — one study of drivers in New Jersey showed that happened more than 40 percent of the time. License suspensions also punish families, because people need to drive to get their kids to school, buy food and access health care. When a person must choose between meeting their family’s needs and paying a fine to the government, they prioritize their family. […]
This year, Illinois legislators have a chance to rectify this injustice. The License to Work Act, sponsored by state Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana and state Sen. Omar Aquino of Chicago, would eliminate driver’s license suspensions as a penalty for unpaid tickets and most other non-moving violations. It is crucial that our representatives in Springfield pass this legislation as soon as possible.
* Other bills…
* Proposed law would require Illinois children to start school by age 5, threatening kindergarten redshirting: “This needs to be a parental choice, and the state should not be mandating it,” said Alexandra Eidenberg, founder of the Chicago women’s and children’s rights lobbying organization We Will, and the mother of four children, including 5-year-old twins who attend Romona Elementary School in Wilmette. Eidenberg said members of her group are “extremely” opposed to the bill, which, if passed, would go into effect in the 2020-2021 school year.
* Chicago Public Schools Withholding Millions From Charter Schools In Spending Standoff: At Wednesday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting, members will be asked to approve a resolution that will set out how the school district wants to fund its charter schools. CPS Chief Operating Officer Arnie Rivera said once charter schools agree to have state law changed to align with the resolution, “we will cut the rest of their check.”
* Is Illinois’ Gas Tax Running On Empty?: If Illinois had had a variable rate in place over the last ten years, the per-gallon charge would have increased by 8 cents without any action by the legislature. That’s according to Carl Davis, research director at ITEP.
* Lawmakers Approve Jet Fuel Tax Crackdown: After years of noncompliance, Illinois lawmakers are moving forward with legislation that would require local taxes on jet fuel go to aviation-related projects, not into local coffers.
* Wage-theft bill sparks debate about repeat offenders: The floor debate over House Bill 1653, which passed the chamber by a party-line vote of 69-43 earlier this month, put on display what it means for a party to be in a superminority, conservative lawmakers said.
On April 10th, the Illinois Power Agency held a lottery to award renewable energy credit contracts to community solar, large commercial and industrial projects. Community Solar is for the 75% of Illinoisans who can’t put solar on their roofs. Demand was exceptionally strong, but due to the limited program size, approximately 90% of permitted community solar projects failed to receive contracts. Now those projects and the $222 million in tax revenue they would have generated for their communities over the next two decades is in jeopardy.
* The Dispatch-Argus takes a deep dive into Western Illinois University enrollment, which has declined 35 percent over the past decade…
Ten years ago, WIU had just 515 Hispanic and 887 black undergraduates. In the current academic year, WIU has about 850 Hispanic undergrads and 1,400 black undergrads — an increase of more than 60% for each group. […]
But the diversification of campus has accompanied white flight. While black and Hispanic enrollment has climbed, white enrollment has done the opposite, falling about 50% since fall 2008. […]
A review of data from the 62 Illinois counties deemed “rural” by the federal government shows that rural enrollment at WIU has fallen by 48% over the last decade.
But the rate of rural decline is surpassed by the rate of suburban decline. A large part of WIU’s decrease comes from the five “collar counties” surrounding Chicago, including Kane County west of Chicago (down 51%), north suburban Lake County (down 59%), and Chicago’s western neighbor DuPage County (down 63%).
In 2008, the collar counties sent 2,725 students to WIU. In 2018, that number had dropped to 1,190.
While rural areas experienced a 15 percent decline in high school graduates between 2006 and 2016, the suburbs saw a 7 percent increase.
An Illinois-based public health organization is seeking public funds to battle against anti-vaccination rhetoric that it says has fueled a measles outbreak.
The Illinois Public Health Association is seeking a grant from the state to bring the fight to those who spread misinformation about vaccinations.
Executive Director Tom Hughes said the online presence of the anti-vaccination movement has resurrected the measles virus just as it was about to be officially eradicated from the country. […]
State data shows that most schools have immunization rates of more than 95 percent in Illinois, but only nine percent of the state’s private and public schools are at 100 percent. That means there are about 40,000 students enrolled in Illinois schools who have not been vaccinated, according to state data.
Keep in mind that a few of those kids are too sick to be vaccinated. That’s one very strong reason why everyone else needs to get their shots. Those vulnerable kids (and babies too young to be vaccinated) could die if they contract measles.
* I told subscribers about this fight earlier today, so I’ll just leave this here…
House Republican David McSweeney reacts to our story, “I think Jim Durkin should resign as a leader. He is a corrupt insider.” McSweeney voted for Durkin for leader but now calls him a “fake Republican,” “ineffective leader” and adds “I certainly would never vote for him again.” https://t.co/CRbgHTV3uv
Republican State Rep David McSweeney tells me, “It’s time for Durkin to resign. He’s not a real Republican. He is a fake Republican. I think the time is now for a woman to lead the party.” McSweeney says @McCombieforIlli, @AveryBourne and @RepMcDermed would all make good leaders. https://t.co/ya9xAopIBF
* The Illinois Municipal League continues its push for public safety pension fund consolidation…
Illinois has more than 650 separate downstate municipal public safety pension funds. According to the IML, the math adds up to more than 10 million residents paying the bill for 40,000 pension participants. […]
“We are trying to resolve the issue of poor returns, not-great management, and create a system that can sustain these funds.” [said Brad Cole, IML executive director.]
There are 1,298 municipalities in Illinois, Cole said. Those with populations of 5,000 and larger are required to have pension funds if they have police and fire departments. […]
Unfunded pension liabilities are an ongoing concern for many cities, including Moline. Cole said Moline’s fire pension fund is only 33% funded, and the police pension fund is 44% funded.
* Coincidentally, the Illinois Auditor General just released its audit of the Department of Insurance. Part of the probe looked at whether Insurance is complying with a state law to examine each of those same public safety pension funds every three years. The Auditor General went back to 2004, meaning that in the audit period, Insurance should have examined each of those funds four different times.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul today announced a consent decree with a transportation company that requires it to end its practice of discriminating and harassing customers and their families. The consent decree resolves a lawsuit the Attorney General’s office filed in 2018 against Suburban Express, Inc. and owner Dennis Toeppen.
The consent decree was entered today by Judge Andrea Wood in the Northern District of Illinois to resolve allegations that Toeppen and Suburban Express discriminated against customers on the basis of race, national origin and religion; harassed customers with public shame and ridicule; and intentionally compromised customers’ personal information. Suburban Express is a company that provides bus services to students at colleges and universities in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana to the suburban Chicago area and Chicago airports.
The Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against Suburban Express and Dennis Toeppen alleging the defendants engaged in discrimination against customers, including a December 2017 mass-marketing email to customers that touted bus rides with, “Passengers like you. You won’t feel like you’re in China when you’re on our buses.” The lawsuit also alleged Suburban Express encouraged its employees to avoid certain students who appear not to speak English when distributing coupons for bus services. According to the lawsuit, Toeppen even posted an online video mocking Asian students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A statement on the company’s Facebook page continued to dispute the claims of the lawsuit and said the terms of the consent decree imposed “some minor requirements” on the company.
“Madigan’s lawsuit contained numerous false, unproven, unproveable (sic) and legally inconsequential allegations,” the statement said. “Suburban Express felt that it was being extorted by the state, but chose a $100k payment to state rather than spending $250k-$500k defeating the lawsuit.” […]
Suburban Express’ statement also asserted that Raoul’s office mischaracterized the agreement and said it’s considering its own legal action against Raoul and a top deputy.
“Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s press release on the matter is false and defamatory in the extreme, in that it claims his office proved the various false and unproven allegations,” the statement said.
We speak English only. If you are not fluent in English, please have someone who is fluent in English assist you with your travel plans and purchase.
Suburban Express is required to display the below paragraph by a recent agreement with hypocritcal, extortionist Illinois politician Kwame Raoul. Thinking of opening a business in IL? Think again. High taxes and opportunistic, parasitic governement [sic] place a high burden on job creators in Illinois. Note that we have never engaged in any discriminatory conduct. Rather, this is a big show foisted upon us in order to ingratiate certain voters to elected officials.
Suburban Express and owner Dennis Toeppen have allegedly violated a consent decree reached last week with the Illinois attorney general.
According to a motion filed Wednesday morning by the AG seeking a $10,000 fine, Suburban Express posted defamatory webpages of customers and failed to post a nondiscrimination statement everywhere it was required to.
Toeppen has also brought back his notorious “Page of Shame,” which includes phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses of customers he says had dishonored payments, were “fare cheaters” or have been banned from Suburban Express.
“The Consent Decree requires Defendants ‘not to penalize customers based solely on online comments about any Defendant, including reviews,’” Assistant Attorney General Jeff VanDam wrote. “Defendants flouted this requirement immediately after entry of the Consent Decree by posting a defamatory web page that penalizes a customer through viciously attacking the customer solely for online comments about Suburban Express.”
The web page includes screenshots of that customer’s Yelp reviews of Suburban Express, links to the Google Maps page for what Toeppen says is her childhood home and links to her LinkedIn page. It also criticizes her mental health.
The company also allegedly attacked a person of “Asian origin” by labeling them an “insane … spoiled child” and saying the individual reminds them of a prominent Asian-American who advocates against discrimination, adding that readers should Google that activist “for a good laugh.” […]
Reached via email Thursday, Toeppen claimed he was on vacation in the days after the consent decree was signed and stated he believed he had 30 days to “cure any breach” of the agreement, “whether intentional or accidental.”
Toeppen also took issue with the “refunds” outlined in the decree, stating that term never appears in the agreement. Instead, he says his company internally is referring to payments resulting from the decree as “Vote Purchase Payments” and “Beer Money for Suburbanites.”
The term “refunds” isn’t in the agreement, but this is…
The time period for customers to seek payments under this Consent Decree shall commence on the Effective Date and shall end 180 days after the Effective Date.
The Illinois Tollway on Thursday named Jose Alvarez, the former COO of the Chicago Housing Authority, as its executive director, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration completed a full sweep of the tollway’s board.
Alvarez also served as deputy chief of staff for Chicago Public Schools and chief of staff for the state superintendent of education for Washington, D.C., schools.
Alvarez replaces interim director Kevin Artl, who previously served as chief operating officer. Artl led the agency after former Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman, whom former Gov. Bruce Rauner appointed in 2018, left the board in mid-March.
“He’s been there and done it,” tollway Chairman Will Evans said. “He’s got experience running a large agency; the CHA is, I think, the second largest housing authority in the United States.
“You’ve got a large organization that he’s been used to managing, he made a lot of changes and it’s really a great team member that’s going to join us.”
Alvarez’s hiring comes with the backing of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, who on Feb. 28 replaced the entire tollway board in the wake of concerns about cronyism in hiring and contracts. Usually, governors let tollway directors finish out their terms.
Alvarez replaces former Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman, an influential Republican, who was picked with support from former GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner in February 2018. Gorman exited March 15 this year.
Gov. JB Pritzker made two new appointments to the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) this week, naming Commissioner Carrie Zalewski chairman and adding Maria Bocanegra to the commission.
Both positions still require approval from the Senate. That said, outgoing ICC chairman Brien Sheahan has already congratulated Zalewski on her new position, which follows her recent, five-year term appointment to the ICC. By contrast, Bocanegra will serve only a four-year term.
Both women come to their positions from backgrounds as attorneys and in public service. […]
Zalewski has worked as a state regulator, on the Illinois Pollution Control Board and as Assistant Chief Counsel for the Illinois Department of Transportation, in addition to private practice work. She also received her education in-state, at Chicago-Kent Law School and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. […]
Bocanegra has served as an arbitrator at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, in the public seat on the Labor Advisory Board for the Illinois Department of Labor, in addition to her private practice work. She is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and Quincy University.
Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park appears to be saved again, at least temporarily, after a series of back-and fourth court rulings over the future of the hospital.
Last week, a Cook County judge blocked the hospital’s owners, Pipeline Health, from moving forward with plans to close the facility. When the company allegedly violated that order, another judge ordered them to restore nearly all hospital services or face daily fines of $200,000.
On Thursday, an Illinois Appellate Court panel tossed out the first judge’s temporary restraining order against Pipeline Health, stating Melrose Park had no standing to seek the TRO.
Hours later, the Illinois Supreme Court put the restraining order back in place, giving Melrose Park an opportunity to file an appeal by Friday afternoon.
The decisions Thursday followed months of an escalating drama over the future of the 230-bed hospital, particularly in the last couple weeks as the sides have battled one another in court over whether the hospital should be allowed to cut services earlier than expected.
Pipeline Health bought Westlake, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, for $70 million in January. Pipeline pledged at the time to save the hospitals. Just weeks after that purchase, Pipeline stunned community leaders, saying it would close Westlake by July because financial losses exceeded projections, threatening to drag down the other two hospitals.
Melrose Park sued Pipeline and its leaders, accusing them of lying about their intention to close Westlake, so they wouldn’t face opposition while seeking approval from a state review board to buy the hospitals.
Last week, Pipeline announced it would suspend many services at Westlake early, saying staffing had dropped to unsafe levels. Melrose Park sought and received a temporary restraining order to stop Pipeline from cutting services early, at least until after a state review board could consider Pipeline’s application to close the hospital. A Cook County Circuit Court judge found Pipeline in contempt of court for violating that order Tuesday and ordered Pipeline to restore most services at the hospital by Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, Pipeline offered to give the hospital to Melrose Park — a move that the village called a “stunt.”
Pipeline Health, the new owners of Westlake, had been held in contempt of court Tuesday for violating the restraining order. The company had until Thursday morning to restore service or run the risk of being fined $200,000 a day.
“We believe when the entire Illinois Supreme Court reviews the case, it will agree with today’s earlier decision: The Village of Melrose Park has no standing,” Pipeline CEO Jim Edwards said in a statement Thursday evening. […]
“Before Pipeline purchased the hospital, it promised — under penalty of perjury — to keep Westlake open and to continue providing charity care to the community,” Ari Scharg, the village’s attorney, said.
Last month, a lawsuit was filed by the village against Pipeline, accusing the California-based company of fraud. That case is still pending.
The Illinois State Health Facilities and Services Review Board is expected to make a decision about whether the hospital will stay open for good by April 30.
Since March 2014, 20 state-licensed skilled-care nursing homes have closed for financial reasons, while many of those continuing to serve the state’s neediest elderly populations face staffing shortages and operating deficits caused by diminishing state government investment. […]
“These facilities are closing, and I can tell you more are going to close,” said Pat Comstock, executive director of the Health Care Council of Illinois, a nursing home advocacy group. “It’s happening because we have a situation in Illinois where they can no longer financially survive.”
The pace of closures has quickened in recent years, with five skilled-care nursing facilities – those that house the sickest and most vulnerable – closing from 2014 to 2016, six closing in each of 2017 and 2018, and three already shutting their doors in 2019, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
To fully quantify the issues facing the industry and their possible solutions, HCCI commissioned a study conducted by the business advisory firm Plante Moran, the Claude Pepper Center of Florida State University, and managed care Medicaid expert Meredith Duncan.
The 85-page report states Illinois’ Medicaid ranks 49th in the nation for Medicaid reimbursement rates, and nursing homes lose approximately $15,000 per year – or an average of $41 per day – for each Medicaid-funded patient. Those shortages create a $649 million single-year funding shortfall across the industry in Illinois.
A street festival unlike any other will be held in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood this weekend: a daylong celebration of weed.
Saturday is April 20, or 4/20, a day that has evolved into a nationwide celebration of marijuana. In the cannabis community, the term 420 is a slang reference to smoking weed. The term reportedly dates back to the 1970s, when a group of Northern California high schoolers began meeting after classes at 4:20 p.m. to light up. Use of “420” gradually spread and grew into a marijuana holiday of sorts on April 20.
Corporate America has latched onto the 420 celebrations in various ways, sometimes by using April 20 as a day to promote or launch snack foods that stoners with the munchies might crave. Last year, Burger King brought back its spicy chicken nuggets on 4/20, and Lyft offered $4.20 discounts. Conagra, the Chicago-based company behind brands like Healthy Choice and Slim Jims, is launching a special flavor of its Andy Capp’s crunchy snacks for 4/20 this year called “fully baked” Hot Munchies.
In Illinois’ growing marijuana industry, 4/20 is a way to get pot brands front and center with a new set of potential consumers, while educating people on local laws and products. Marijuana is still only legal in Illinois through the state’s medical cannabis program. Local growers plan new product rollouts on Saturday, and dispensaries will be offering discounts.
* The Question: Have you ever consumed cannabis? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
Irene Ferradaz, spokesperson for the CTA, said a “small portion of the East retaining wall fell away from the viaduct structure.”
Crews arrived Thursday morning to check the area for any structural issues and they reported none.
Ferradaz said the concrete experienced “spalling,” where pieces can flake and fall off.
“This happens with older concrete,” she said. “CTA workers removed the debris and are checking the surrounding structures and have found no other issues.”
* The Illinois Times has a story today about DCFS …
If you think DCFS workers need to develop a tough hide to do the work, you’d be right. But they also consider the job to be a calling, a career to which they feel an emotional attachment.
“I don’t think people comprehend how much we care,” said Heidi Creasy, a Peoria area investigator who has been with DCFS for 10 years. “When something goes wrong, no one is more distraught and upset than we are. I have one particular case that I will never get over. Ever.” […]
[Stephen Mittons, a 24-year DCFS child protection investigator] said there are three response codes that trigger his investigations: normal, where he has 24 hours to initiate the investigation; emergency, where he must respond within two hours; and action needed, where some type of response must be made within 15 minutes.
“At any given time my day can be interrupted by an emergency or action-needed case where I have to drop what I am doing at that point to turn my attention to that new case,” Mittons said. “In this job, you can never really rest and think it may be an easier case. You never really know what is going to be behind that door unless you knock on it.”
Investigator Creasy said she walks away from each situation hoping that she had all of the input she needed to make the right decision. But even a case where an investigator finds nothing wrong can come back to haunt DCFS, and Creasy said that’s the result of unrealistic expectations for the agency.
“Just because I had contact with a family doesn’t mean that the kid is a ward of the state,” Creasy said. “If somebody calls in a report and says a family doesn’t have food, I go out and check for food. There’s food, the refrigerator is full, there’s milk, there’s formula, there’s everything, then something happens to that kid later in the year. That goes on the list that we had involvement and failed the family.”
* Jaclyn Driscoll at Illinois Public Radio has a thoughtful, balanced story today about efforts to legalize cannabis…
Back in Jan. when Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave his first budget address to a crowded room full of lawmakers, the first revenue-generating idea he mentioned for fiscal year 2020 was legalizing recreational cannabis. But, it wasn’t really about the money, he said.
“I have noted many times that I don’t view this issue through a purely financial lens,” Pritzker said. “I think we should take this action for our state because of the beneficial criminal and social justice implications and the jobs it will create.”
Revenue estimates for an adult-use program have ranged anywhere from $350 million to more than a billion dollars for the state. Even with those numbers, the lead sponsors of the legislation reiterate it’s still is not the reason why legalizing cannabis is important.
“Step one is ending prohibition, undoing the harm of the war on drugs,” state Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) told a public forum earlier this year. “And then, there will be revenue.”
Politicians advocating for legal marijuana haven’t wavered on this point, even through the months of negotiation to craft the legislation. But, not everyone believes it.
Teresa Haley, the president of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP, opposes legalization efforts — although she supports expunging records and releasing people from jail or prison for minor pot crimes. But, one of Haley’s main concerns is what happens after they are released.
On Wednesday morning, a handful of opponents gathered outside the district office of state Sen. Emil Jones III, a leader of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, to push back on the idea that legalizing marijuana would benefit communities like the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.
“This is not about social justice,” said Abu Edwards, national director of state affairs for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a nonprofit organization opposing legalization. “This is about big corporations and big greed coming into communities like Chicago and opening up dispensaries in low-income African-American communities. And the African-American community is not going to benefit from it.
“If we’re going to talk about real social justice reform, then let’s separate legalization of marijuana and social justice.”
Omari Prince, field director of the Illinois chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said the group has been meeting with lawmakers in Springfield throughout the spring legislative session and is heartened that a majority of House members — including several members of the Black Caucus — have signed on as cosponsors of a resolution urging lawmakers to slow down on the issue.
“This is not a done deal,” Prince said.
* From the presser…
Michael Childress of DuPage County NAACP and Hope Pickett of @learnaboutsam getting ready to speak to small group of media in Chicago on cannabis legalization. pic.twitter.com/Q3V4zKMTS8
* There are a few different angles to this WCIA TV story, but let’s start with this one…
A political media firm that charged Illinois Republicans more than $2.1 million in the 2018 election cycle also made payments to House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s right hand political operative David Walsh. […]
Durkin’s spokesperson confirmed the payments were made, and that Durkin knew about them, but declined to comment on the story. The secretive transaction caught many top House Republicans off guard and aggravated existing concerns about the potential for vendors making “kickbacks,” “spiffs,” or offering other incentives to consultants.
Walsh is far and away Durkin’s highest paid political consultant. Public records show Walsh earned more than half a million dollars from the Republican House leader’s campaign committee for work dating back to 2013.
Redfield, a campaign finance expert and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Springfield, said the payment illustrated a process that could easily be exploited as a sort of dark money loophole.
“When you get in a posture where someone can essentially engage in self-dealing, it’s not only the public trust in understanding transparency, but the people that are trying to operate and win campaigns want to make sure things are above board,” Redfield said. […]
“David Walsh is an advisor to me and helps me develop business ideas that have nothing to do with the Illinois House,” CEO Brett Buerk explained in a phone call. “To suggest that we somehow had to pay him in order to get work is offensive. We had the Illinois House as a client going back to 2011. Our business relationship with Walsh has only been for the last 18 months.” […]
According to several sources in the House Republican caucus, Representative Mike Unes of Peoria questioned why so many high priced consultants who failed to deliver results remained on the party payroll. Durkin responded by booting Unes from his leadership team. Reached by phone, Unes declined to comment on the falling out.
Rep. Unes voted for the 2017 tax hike and, despite being in leadership, contributed just $15K to the HRO campaign committee last year and ended 2018 with $642K in the bank. That may explain some things.
Walsh says he consults on non-campaign issues and adamantly denies any connections between the spending and his consulting. And Buerk was so upset about the story that he reportedly threatened to sue.
As the article also notes, Walsh didn’t include his client’s name on his economic interest disclosure form when he was a member of the MWRD board, but state ethics laws don’t require consultants (and attorneys) to disclose the names of their clients and I’m not aware of anyone who does (although some could, I suppose).
The House Republican Organization spent just $190K on Majority Strategies during the 2018 cycle. By contrast, HRO spent $389K on Majority Strategies in 2016. You’d think that number would go up after Walsh started, not down. And despite House GOP Leader Jim Durkin’s hugely expensive 2018 GOP primary against a Dan Proft/Local 150-backed candidate, Majority Strategies didn’t get a dime during the effort.
* However, the Illinois Republican Party spent $1.9 million of that $2.1 million during the same period. And the vast majority of that was spent on House Republican candidates. Legislative leaders wash money through both state parties to save on postage costs, and they control how that money is spent. The state party spent $414K with Majority Strategies in the 2016 cycle and nothing before that.
In a world like this when everybody is an automatic suspect, consulting for a campaign vendor - even if it is totally unrelated work - is gonna bring some heat. And that’s especially so considering the HRO’s losses last year. People will always look for someone to toss under the bus. Walsh, despite whatever his intentions may have been, gave his enemies a too-easy opportunity.
U.S. Census data released Thursday showed the population in every one of the state’s metropolitan areas declined in the past year for the first time.
The Chicago metropolitan area, which includes suburban cities and portions of Wisconsin and Indiana, reported the largest population decrease in the nation, shrinking by an estimated 22,068 people. That represents 0.23 percent of the area’s total population of about 9.5 million people.
Population in the Danville area shrank by 1.26 percent, representing an estimated 970 people. Nationally, only three other communities saw a bigger percentage decline. It also marked Danville’s largest decrease in population in recent years, the next highest being a loss of 778 in 2014. […]
Other metropolitan areas that saw population losses included Decatur (821), Springfield, (1,539), Carbondale (590), Kankakee (520), Rockford (594) and the Bloomington-Normal area (157).
From 2001 to 2007, downstate metro areas added 144,089 residents, mostly driven by gains in migration. But in the last seven years, those areas have lost a third of that gain, about 43,000 people.
As for the state’s rural counties, they have been losing population since 1997 as residents’ deaths outpace births and more people move out than come in. […]
While many experts bemoan the drops in population, Chicago demographer Rob Paral examined Cook County’s most recent numbers and found “neither cause for joy nor cause for alarm.”
Because Cook is such a large county, the number of residents lost is less important than the percent change, he said. Cook County’s population increased for several years after 2010, Paral said, and while it’s been falling since 2015, the percent decrease has been minimal. […]
“There’s not some mass exodus going on,” he said. “I think this is important, because for many years there was a worry that somehow the county was just going to have accelerated loss, but that’s not what we see. People were using the loss of population here … as a hook to hang their favorite issue on. They would say it was because of taxes, or because of this and that. But the numbers don’t really support the idea that we have some kind of dire problem.”
Since 2010, Cook County’s population has dropped by 14,533 people. That’s a decline of 0.28 percent. You obviously want to see growth, and the problem did worsen starting in 2015, but you’d think the numbers were much more dire by reading the headlines.
The more problematic numbers are in rural Downstate areas. But, that’s been a national issue for a very long time.
The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is throwing its support behind the massive transit center and megadevelopment proposed over train tracks near Soldier Field, which it says could create $120 billion worth of new jobs, taxes and other economic benefits over the next four decades.
The nonprofit business organization, which represents more than 1,000 companies in the Chicago area, on Wednesday unveiled a report outlining the potential impact of the proposed One Central project on the local economy, tourism and regional transportation. […]
One Central would create a massive transit center that would bring together CTA, Metra and Amtrak trains, as well as bus station and a bus or tram route on an existing access road along train tracks between the McCormick Place convention center and the Loop.
One Central will need all the help it can get as it tries to coordinate plans with transit agency leaders, handle the concerns expressed by neighbors and alderman and deal with a new mayor. Landmark will need all of them on board before it can break ground.
It’s unclear how the developer plans to finance the complex project, and whether it might include state or federal funds. Landmark has previously said it does not intend to seek tax-increment financing from the city.
The “deck” or “table top,” as Chicagoland Chamber CEO Jack Lavin likes to call it, would transform a 34-acre site that is now a “barrier between neighborhoods and lakefront attractions” into a transit center unlike any Chicago has seen.
Metra rail lines, Amtrak, the CTA Orange Line and a so-called “Chi-Line” along an under-used dedicated busway would all come together in one location. With trams or buses, Chicago would finally have its elusive downtown “circulator” linking McCormick Place, the Museum Campus, Navy Pier, Millennium Park and downtown hotels. […]
It shows an unsightly plot of land that now generates just $23,000 in annual property tax revenue could become a $120 billion cash cow over the next 40 years.
Even if the $3.8 billion “Civic Build” that includes the “table top and transit center” requires a significant contribution from Chicago taxpayers, it would be worth the investment, Lavin said.
It would dramatically increase the number of people living within a 45-minute commute of downtown, and could support 42 million CTA and Metra riders by year 40. That translates into $3.6 billion in “cumulative farebox revenue,” the study shows.
Despite the chamber’s glowing endorsement and Landmark Development’s claim that One Central won’t seek controversial tax increment financing (TIF), the project will need to overcome some political obstacles before it becomes a reality.
It will need to win over incoming Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a growing City Council contingent that has vowed to be less friendly to large developer interests, and—perhaps most importantly—local 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell who already said she will push for significant reductions to One Central’s height and density.
Effingham County State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler last month told a raucous crowd the origin story behind the “Second Amendment sanctuary county” movement, which began in Effingham a year ago and now includes 64 of the state’s 102 counties, counties in three other states, and nine more states in which counties are eyeing similar nonbinding measures. And as Illinois legislators, emboldened by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, look at more gun-control measures, counties are looking at more ways to resist them. […]
Kibler has said state’s attorneys are able to weigh decisions on a case-by-case basis and that will continue. When explaining discretion, he often uses the example of a man from Mississippi who was passing through Effingham County on his way to visit relatives in Chicago. The man had a small revolver visible inside a driver’s-side door compartment when he was pulled over. He originally was arrested by a state trooper for having a loaded weapon in the car.
“I said, ‘get him out of here and give him his gun back.’ The state of Illinois should not be making a felon out of this man,” Kibler said.
Kibler also said the central and southern parts of the state are dealing with high rates of methamphetamine use and police and the state’s attorney’s office don’t have time to pursue minor gun cases.
“We don’t have the luxury of trying to enforce the laws that come on down from high from liberal jurisdictions while we’re making record numbers of arrests in a meth epidemic,” he said.
[Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx] runs the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the country, responsible for prosecuting crimes in Chicago and a hundred and thirty-four municipalities. Her staff sees almost half a million cases every year. Prosecutorial discretion is one of the pillars of our justice system, and it is her job to discern what deserves her staff’s attention, as opposed to what has grabbed the most public attention. “I cannot run an office that is driven by anger and public sentiment,” Foxx said on Saturday.
The onslaught of criticism against Foxx exposes an uncomfortable truth about the depth of America’s attachment to mass incarceration. In theory, criminal-justice reform is more popular than ever. A majority of Americans support reducing punishment, especially for nonviolent offenders. Across the political spectrum, voters want law enforcement to focus more resources on the most serious crimes. But there’s no way to reconcile what we claim to believe and what commands our outrage. There are currently two million incarcerated people in this country. Another four and a half million are under some other form of correctional control. Yet, with the Smollett case, it is leniency that gets the attention. There’s a common belief that criminal-justice reform is one of the few bipartisan issues left in politics. But our thirst for punishment is equally politically salient.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Chicago. In 2014, the Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald, an African-American teen-ager, sixteen times. Dash-cam footage shows that McDonald was walking away from Van Dyke when the officer began shooting, and that he continued shooting for thirteen seconds after McDonald fell to the ground. The video is deeply distressing, and makes it impossible to characterize McDonald’s death as anything less than the execution of a child. But, for thirteen months, the former state’s attorney Anita Alvarez chose not to charge Van Dyke with murder. In the end, she only brought charges against him when the video was going to be made public, in November, 2015. (In January, Van Dyke, who was convicted of second-degree murder, received a sentence of nearly seven years in prison.)
For eight years, Alvarez had aligned herself with law enforcement, aggressively prosecuting even minor crimes. In 2010, Cook County Jail, the largest single-site jail in America, was so crowded that federal authorities stepped in, requiring that the county reduce the population. But, by 2013, the inmate count had only increased, and Alvarez continued to file unnecessary charges, including prosecuting people for misdemeanor marijuana possession three years after the state decriminalized it.
Former Rock Island County Democratic Chairman Doug House has been hired by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker as deputy secretary of transportation. […]
House said his main responsibilities will be dealing with state and federal legislation and communications. […]
“I’ll be overseeing any legislation dealing with transportation issues,” House said. “And I’ll work to gain support for important legislation, including a capital bill. It’s a really exciting and important time to be coming on in that capacity.
House chaired the Democratic county chairs’ organization until shortly after the election. He played a significant role in Gov. Pritzker’s campaign, and helped build up local party operations. Doing legislation and communications means he’ll have more of a political role at IDOT, so he should be fine.
Springfield Ward 5 Ald. ANDREW PROCTOR won a second four-year term on the City Council on April 2, but eight days later, he lost his state job as chief legislative liaison for the Illinois Department of Labor.
The $80,000-a-year position is at-will, Proctor is a Republican and new Gov. J.B. PRITZKER is a Democrat.
“It was somewhat expected,” Proctor said. “But then, being held on for so long, almost three months, it was kind of a surprise.”
In his position lobbying for the agency, Proctor had worked for passage of a bill the governor has now signed to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.
“I think it was needed,” Proctor said. “And I’m glad there were some tax breaks for businesses.” He said he was “happy to work on it,” and he and others at the department also have been working on other things for the governor’s office.
Proctor is a former advocacy director for the Illinois Chamber (that TrackBill program I’m involved with is a direct result of his time at the Chamber), and he had some labor support during his aldermanic reelection campaign.
By all accounts he did fine at IDOL under Pritzker, but having Bruce Rauner’s Labor liaison on staff rubbed some folks the wrong way. It wasn’t an ideal look.
Most people have to wait until they’re out of a job to begin collecting retirement benefits they accrued while working there.
That’s not the case for at least 13 part-time suburban county board members who are receiving as much as $82,124 in annual pension payouts from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund for jobs in which they’re still getting salaries of $21,000 to $43,018.
Six Lake County Board members are receiving the pensions, as are three each in McHenry and Will counties and one in Kane County, a Daily Herald examination of IMRF beneficiaries shows. A fourth Will County board member just filed paperwork this month to begin collecting his pension while still on the board and receiving a $23,000 annual salary, IMRF officials noted in a response to a public records request to the agency.
So… wait. They’re being paid pensions for their county board service while they’re still serving on the same county boards?
They get the retirement benefit while still working as a result of a 2016 law aimed at pension reform, which eliminated their ability to keep working toward a pension if they don’t provide documentation proving they worked at least 1,000 hours a year, or about 19 hours a week.
Many elected leaders chose not to submit timesheets and were kicked out of the retirement plan — but their previous participation in the plan allowed them to begin collecting their pensions even though they were still on the job.
*Sigh*
If county board members “chose” not to submit their timesheets, do you think that means they might not have been able to justify their previous claims of time they supposedly put in? Or, I suppose it’s possible that they just don’t like filling out paperwork to receive a pension.
Either way, never underestimate the determination of people to take full advantage of “reforms.”
Go read the rest, particularly the bit about Will County board member James Moustis.
Republican state Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Crystal Lake) is taking his fight against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax proposal directly to the people.
The veteran lawmaker is scheduled to speak at a “graduated income tax rally” hosted by the Illinois Opportunity Project beginning at 7 p.m. on April 29 at the Huntley Park District. Skillicorn is slated to be joined by policy experts Adam Schuster of Illinois Policy Institute and Ted Dabrowski of Wirepoints.
* The Question: Your predictions for “best” rally chants?
Wednesday, Apr 17, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
On April 10th, the Illinois Power Agency held a lottery to award renewable energy credit contracts to community solar, large commercial and industrial projects. Community Solar is for the 75% of Illinoisans who can’t put solar on their roofs. Demand was exceptionally strong, but due to the limited program size, approximately 90% of permitted community solar projects failed to receive contracts. Now those projects and the $222 million in tax revenue they would have generated for their communities over the next two decades is in jeopardy.
Without a fix to the state’s renewable energy program, remaining projects may not be built.
Tim Nugent, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of Kankakee County, said: “Rural communities need new sources of revenue right now, and solar is one way to do that. We’re interested in seeing more community solar projects move forward, because at this point we’re leaving money on the table.”
Vote YES on HB 2966/SB 1781 to fix Illinois’ clean energy cliff and let shovel ready projects move forward.
And the governor on Tuesday said he believed “pushback” about his pension plan is simply a “misunderstanding” — while trying to link that criticism to the graduated income tax, his top priority this legislative session.
“I think there’s a misunderstanding about what it is, because there’s an element of people, of opponents, to doing anything. The people who also don’t want the ‘fair tax,’ who don’t understand that we are in a dire situation in the state in terms of just addressing our fiscal challenges,” Pritzker said. “You can’t do nothing. That is not an option anymore. We are going to address this challenge in the state of Illinois and that is my job.”
I agree that some the criticism is coming from professional opposers who are making bank off doing and say anything they can to stop his tax proposal. But I don’t belong to that crowd.
* The governor also talked yesterday about how he wants to transfer state assets to the pension system, something he’s never really fleshed out with specifics. And then he addressed the question about his plan to short the pension systems $1.1 billion a year over the next 7 years by lengthening the payment ramp…
It really is designed to bend the cost curve going forward so that we’re not just in a straight line for a $9 billion payment to a $19 billion payment in… 2045 and then 2046 it’s like a billion and a half dollars.
1) That isn’t a “straight line” of projected state payments until 2045.
2) The real problem, as we’ve discussed before, is the ramp’s last ten years or so. Pritzker can’t “bend” that curve by lowering payments up front. That’s a preposterous thing to say. He’ll either make the curve worse or prolong the state’s fiscal agony or both.
3) If the governor truly wants to “bend the curve,” he’ll abandon this irresponsible idea and work on a solution for twenty years from now. Put more money in up front via bonding, asset transfers, whatever. But do not reduce payments by over $7 billion to spend elsewhere and then pat yourself on the back for fixing a problem that you’re only making worse.
The link is to an Illinois News Network article about an AARP poll taken months ago about seniors who want to move out of Chicago.
The freshman GOP Rep. Caulkins lives in Decatur, which lost the Archer Daniels Midland world headquarters to Chicago. The top execs just didn’t want to live in Decatur any more. They preferred to live and work in the big city.
Numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show Decatur’s population declined by 3,400 residents from 2010 to 2016, or 4.5 percent. Among Illinois cities with populations over 50,000, Decatur’s losses were the worst in the state on a percentage basis.
Legislators in this state should be working together to solve a problem that is hurting everyone rather than constantly trying to score cheap political points against other regions.
Putting down Chicago won’t help Decatur one bit, Representative. And it might actually make your own town’s problems worse.
* Edward McClelland on the Democratic primary rematch between Congressman Dan Lipinski and Marie Newman…
Newman didn’t exactly lose with grace in 2018. She refused to concede to Lipinski on election night, saying, “I would like Mr. Lipinski to have a very painful evening.”
She then said her family would never forgive Lipinski because, she claimed, his campaign had sent out texts accusing her of running an abortion clinic and trying to defund the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Despite that, Newman has a better chance this time than she did in 2018. Here in Illinois, the 2020 congressional primary will be held on the same day as the presidential primary, which means the supporters of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg — candidates whose philosophies are inimical to Lipinski’s — are going to show up at the polls.
Yes, she was a sore loser, but she had her reasons.
* Newman seems to understand her 2018 campaign didn’t do nearly enough in the city…
“What we’ve done over the last year is we have really built out our ward structure much more significantly,” Newman told me.
“And it’s very evident when I go there now. I think that’s one of the things that we needed to do at the end (of the 2018 race.) It was clear that I needed to do more, be in the wards more.” Indeed, Newman worked for aldermanic candidates in the 2019 elections in the 14th, 15th and 22nd Wards.
The 14th Ward has a new state Representative tied to Chuy Garcia who could help a lot there. There aren’t many votes in 15 and 22 within the 3rd CD, but every vote counts.
What may complicate the road ahead for Newman is the entry this week of another Democrat in the contest — a political unknown, Abe Matthew, who will compete with her for the progressive vote.
If Matthew, 32, a personal-injury lawyer who lives in Bridgeport, gets any kind of a campaign going — which he does not have now — it could guarantee a win for Lipinski.
The general rule for primary opponents is the more the merrier.
[The Brookings Institution conducted an exit poll and] concluded nearly one in five Lipinski voters also cast ballots for Trump.
We’ll see if they take Democratic ballots in a presidential year.
* Will this make any difference at all? Maybe if Gillibrand’s campaign survives until next March…
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is endorsing a Democratic challenger to Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), making her the first presidential contender to wade into a down-ballot Democratic primary.
At a Democratic Party event in Chicago, Gillibrand endorsed Marie Newman, a liberal activist who narrowly lost to Lipinski in 2018.
West-central Illinois school officials are making plans in case one of two state bills passes to mandate a $40,000 minimum starting salary for teachers.
Two nearly identical bills have been passed — one in the House and one in the Senate — that would direct districts to increase their minimum teacher salary to $40,000 by the 2023-24 school year. […]
Increasing the North Greene school district’s minimum salary to $40,000 is a huge pay increase for the district, Superintendent Mark Scott said.
The starting salary for North Greene teachers now is $29,850, Scott said, adding that he expects any increase in the starting salary to be met by a demand for an equal increase from teachers higher on the pay scale.
“It’ll cost at least $3.5 million just to raise our teachers up $10,150,” Scott said.
The district serves approximately 865 students. North Greene Elementary houses approximately 480 Pre-K-6 students while North Greene Junior-Senior High School houses approximately 130 students in grades 7-8 and 245 students in grades 9-12. The district is a member of the Four Rivers Special Education cooperative, with special education services provided within the district as well as facilities located outside the district. The district employs about 70 licensed educators, 61 support staff members and two building administrators as well as the district superintendent and a supervising principal. [Emphasis added.]
So, they have 70 educators. I seriously doubt that all of those 70 are making the starting salary of $29,850, but whatever. Seventy times $10,150 equals $710,500. And, again, that’s only if all 70 teachers are making the starting salary, which seems highly unlikely. And that undoubtedly inflated number is still a far cry from the alleged $3.5 million cost, which would, in reality, give every one of those 70 teachers a $50,000 annual pay increase.
* The Cook County State’s Attorney and her employees ought to realize that these official communications are publicly accessible under the Freedom of Information Act. The fact that they are chatting like it’s a private conversation says almost as much about them as the substance of the conversations…
Just after news broke that “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett had been indicted on 16 felony counts, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told her top deputy that Smollett was a “washed up celeb who lied to cops” and the number of felony counts he faced was excessive, communications obtained by the Chicago Tribune show.
“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 (felony) becomes exhibit A,” Foxx said in a text message to Joseph Magats, her top assistant, on March 8.
Foxx went on in those texts to Magats to compare Smollett’s case to the office’s pending indictment of R&B singer R. Kelly on 10 charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16 (counts),” she wrote. “… Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should.” […]
When asked why the state’s attorney continued to communicate about the case after her withdrawal, a spokeswoman issued a statement Tuesday night on Foxx’s behalf saying she reached out to Magats only “to discuss reviewing office policies to assure consistencies in our charging and our use of appropriate charging authority.”
#FacePalm
There’s no doubt in my own mind that Smollett was ridiculously over-charged. And the comparison to the number of charges against R. Kelly has some merit.
But, wow. If you have something to say that might not look so great splashed all over the front page of the Chicago Tribune, maybe just walk down the hall.
* Related…
* Black Caucus: We will continue to stand with State’s Attorney Foxx
As the 94th season at Fairmount Park arrives, track president Brian Zander wants to be confident.
The park, in Collinsville, opens Tuesday at 1 p.m. and will run through Sept. 14 with a Tuesday and Saturday schedule. Zander has no reason to believe that will change.
An unsuccessful battle to bring slot machines and video gaming to Illinois race tracks continues to make the future tenuous. But Zander, who has been on the job since 1986, has been through this for more years than he’d like to remember. […]
Trips to Springfield, Ill., to work on legislative efforts that could boost the track are now routine. Fairmount continues to offer live simulcasts and wagering on races at other tracks to generate more revenue.
And the track will continue to offer the usual promotions that have been successful, with Tuesday “Horse Hookie” and Saturday “Party in the Park.”
“From that standpoint we’re doing great,” Zander said. “But we’re competing with other tracks in other states that have slots and gaming, and we simply lack that in terms of generating money for purses. That’s what horse owners have to be driven toward. We’re running behind and need to catch up.”
* The Question: When was the last time you were at a horse racing track and, if you’ve been to one, how was the experience?
After all ballots opened in Ward 2, Gail Simpson has 466 to 465 for Shawn Gregory. Gregory is considering options, which include asking for a discovery recount
In Tri-City School Board race, one late ballot went to John Martincic, bringing him even with Patrick Davis at 284 each. County Clerk Don Gray set lottery for Thursday
It won’t be official until Thursday, but the latest results in the two closest aldermanic races make it a near certainty Ald. James Cappleman (46th) will be proclaimed the winner over Marianne Lalonde, while challenger Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez will be declared the victor over Ald. Deb Mell (33rd).
Although both races remain extremely close, there aren’t enough votes that remain uncounted to reverse the outcome — unless a large batch of ballots mysteriously arrive in Tuesday’s mail two full weeks after the election, which would set off quite the federal investigation.
After Monday’s count, Cappleman stretched his lead over Lalonde to 30 votes — 7,079 to 7,049 — while Rodriguez Sanchez saw her lead over Mell shrink to 13 votes — 5,753 to 5,740.
* This article is from January because it’s the most recent one I could find on the topic…
A new Champaign County judge has been assigned to sort out the details of a request for a recount in the one-vote Macon County sheriff’s race.
Newly installed Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Karle Koritz has assigned Associate Judge Anna Benjamin to hear the case after the attorney for Democratic Sheriff Tony “Chubby” Brown asked that a judge other than Tom Difanis be assigned to the case.
Litigants are entitled to one judge substitution without cause as a matter of right, assuming that no substantive rulings have been made by the assigned judge.
Republican Jim Root had initially filed suit Dec. 19 in Macon County Circuit Court asking for a judge to review the election results in hopes that he might be declared the winner over Brown.
Chris Rothweiler is the apparent winner in the race for Ward 6 alderman in Belleville as he garnered 14 votes by mail. Andrew Gaa received only four votes by mail, according to counts by the St. Clair County Clerk’s office.
That brings Rothweiler’s vote total to 313. Gaa now has 310 votes, according to unofficial totals. After election night, Gaa had a seven-vote lead.
* The first round of assessments under new Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi has some Evanston businesses upset, but it’s what the people voted for last year…
The assessor’s estimated value of some apartment buildings in the northern suburb [of Evanston] have doubled or even tripled, fueling fears that a massive property tax increase is coming next year. […]
Landlords have been bracing for big hikes since Kaegi was elected assessor last year, promising to reform the office and improve the accuracy of its assessments. Kaegi replaced Joe Berrios, who was harshly criticized for undervaluing commercial properties and being too cozy with property tax appeals attorneys who represent some of the biggest landlords in town. The result: Cook County homeowners bear more of the tax burden than they should, and commercial landlords bear less, said Berrios’ critics.
As landlords in Evanston are learning, that is almost certain to change under Kaegi, who says Cook County has “the least accurate assessment system of any major jurisdiction of the U.S.” Fixing that is his top priority—not worrying about how the tax burden is distributed. […]
If there is a silver lining, at least in the near term, it’s that higher assessments on commercial properties in Cook County are likely to result in lower taxes for many homeowners. In Evanston, for instance, the assessed value of all residential property rose 25 percent from 2018 to 2019, while the assessed value of all commercial and industrial property rose 125 percent. The wide gap suggests that taxes will rise for commercial and industrial landlords in the suburb when property tax bills come out next year but drop for Evanston homeowners.
The math is complicated. While some property owners assume that their tax bill will double after their assessment doubles, it doesn’t work that way. A taxpayer’s final bill depends on the relative change in assessed values among properties and a process known as equalization that was created to ensure fairness in the system. It also hinges on the tax levy, or how much local governments decide to collect in property taxes in a given year.
It’s downplayed in the piece, but homeowners are the ones who benefit from this tax shift.
Willis Tower illustrates the potential pain downtown. The 110-story tower sold for $1.3 billion in 2015, but its 2017 property tax bill shows the assessor valued it at only $579 million. Applying that year’s nearly 7.3 percent commercial property tax rate, which was calculated based on revenue needs for the dozen taxing bodies that pulled in money from Cook County property taxes, the tower’s tax bill was $31.2 million, county records show.
Based on a $1.05 billion valuation—the portion of the sale excluding personal property, which is not taxable—that tower’s tax bill would have been far higher. By applying a hypothetical 5.5 percent tax rate for the 2017 year using publicly available data that accounted for all commercial properties being assessed by Kaegi’s definition of market value, a study by tax property law firm O’Keefe Lyons & Hynes estimates Willis Tower’s tax bill would have been around $42.5 million, or 36 percent more than it actually was. […]
A report last year from tenant brokerage Savills comparing the average cost of rent, operating expenses, taxes and utilities for office users in major markets found that downtown Chicago in 2017 came in at a little more than $50 per square foot, lower than downtown Manhattan ($58), west Los Angeles ($63), Boston ($69), Washington ($71) and San Francisco ($80).
That makes Chicago a relative value play, especially for big corporations that can absorb a few extra dollars per square foot in property taxes. The bigger blow could be dealt to small and midsize, privately held companies already in the city that might endure a sudden, more painful hit to their bottom lines, says Savills Vice Chairman Robert Sevim.
I assume that human nature being what it is, building owners facing skyrocketing assessments will shovel big money at property tax appeals lawyers. Kaegi, in other words, could turn out to be fantastic for Mike Madigan’s law firm.
* The number of so-far successful bills that could fundamental change things in this state is really quite something to behold…
Kids in Illinois would have to start kindergarten at 5-years-old under a plan moving ahead at the statehouse. […]
The Illinois Senate last week approved a plan to lower the age to 5-years-old. Many parents start their children at age 6. Existing state law says kids have to be in school between ages 7 and 17.
Democrat Kim Lightford said lowering the school age will get kids a jump.
“It’s time for them not to wait until their 6-years-old to start school,” Lightford said at the statehouse last week. “If parents feel that their kids who turn 5 over the summer months, then they have the extra year to make sure their kids are ready.”
Critics, like Peoria Republican Chuck Weaver, said parents should decide when kids are ready for school, not the state.
“Parents are very concerned about the state taking the decision away from them,” Weaver said. “A lot of kids aren’t prepared to go to school at age 5. This makes that mandatory, it takes that [decision] away from parents.”
Members of the Senate Black Caucus are fighting a bill that would force private firms to pay their workers the prevailing wage in an area — a move the business community claims is tantamount to “forced unionization” — at least until trade unions can promise meaningful inclusion of minority workers in their ranks.
SB 1407, sponsored by State Sen. Mike Hastings (D-Orland Park), would require construction workers at “high-hazard facilities” — like oil refineries and ethanol plants — to be “skilled journey persons” with advanced safety training.
The measure would also require companies who employ these workers to pay them at least the prevailing wage that a union member would receive in that area.
Though the Black Caucus has not taken an official position on the bill, its members have privately been laying down a hard line during bill negotiations. Earlier last week, State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) would only say that negotiations were ongoing. But since then, State Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago) has taken over negotiations on the caucus’ behalf.
Jones referenced the years of fighting between the Black Caucus and trade unions, saying that it’s a fight his father, former Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) also took on, and yet minority representation within unions has not improved.
The Illinois State Senate has passed a bill to crack down on inmates who expose themselves to correctional officers and others.
WGN Investigates reported on the problem back in 2017 when Cook County Jail inmates set fire to new uniforms meant to prevent them from exposing themselves and throwing bodily fluid at staff and visitors. […]
The new bill allows correctional administrators to revoke up to 90-days of “good behavior” credit for inmates who do it. Repeat offenders could see as much as a year of “good behavior” time taken away for each subsequent charge.
* Other stuff…
* A New Association Fights for Illinois Counties: Joe McCoy, who lobbied for years for the Illinois Municipal League, brings his legislative experience to work on behalf of the counties across the state and to bring lawmakers the issues that the counties say need addressing.
* Group backs legislation to expand medical cannabis program: Along with making the state’s pilot program permanent, it adds health conditions that could qualify for medical cannabis care, including autism, chronic pain, migraines, anorexia and kidney disease. Patients under 18 would be able to see more designated caregivers, and veterans would qualify for the Opioid Alternative Pilot Program.
* Bill would put fire departments staffed by part-timers on hook for pension costs: Should the bill become law, any town larger than 5,000 people that hires a part-time firefighter would be required to pay into the pension system of their full-time employer. State Sen. Melinda Bush said larger departments are beginning to keep their full-time firefighters from taking extra work. “This is really about sharing in the liability issues when you’re a firefighter,” she said. “If you are hurt, at this point the primary employer is taking all of the responsibility.”
* Lawmakers to vote on adding DACA, work visa immigrants to Medicaid rolls: “Sixty percent of DACA recipients are already insured,” she said. “We’re looking at people who are already paying taxes, people that are already either DACA recipients or legal permanent residents who are already eligible for Medicaid.”
* As we’ve already discussed, the governor’s budget would essentially short state pension payments by $1.1 billion next fiscal year and several years into the future.
Carol Marin asked lawmakers last night if the governor was trying to skip state pension payments or not. Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford…
Well, I hope that isn’t the desired goal. I’m hoping we could look at some of those ideas that you’ve mentioned [cannabis, gaming, etc.] to generate revenue so that we don’t have to do that.
Trouble is, the money from all those revenue proposals are already being spent. I suppose he could use projected sales tax revenue from cannabis, sports betting and a new graduated tax on video gaming to cover pension payments, but will that be enough? I don’t think so.
* Marin then asked Rep. Kathleen Willis (D-Northlake), a member of House leadership, whether Democrats were united in support of the governor’s pension plan…
No, I don’t think we’re all united. I think we all want to wait and see, look for possibly a better alternative to that because we don’t want to repeat history. We don’t want to see this. We’re open to ideas. But that doesn’t necessarily mean this idea.
The state of Illinois has abruptly changed the rules for providing vaccines to children from low-income families, putting tens of thousands of them at risk of potentially not getting their immunizations on time.
In late August the Illinois Department of Public Health told doctors that children covered by the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Plan for low-income families would no longer get their vaccines for free. Children covered by Medicaid can still get free vaccines, but for those 185,347 children covered by CHIP, doctors will have to privately order vaccines from suppliers and wait to be reimbursed by the state.
This new policy presents a sizable challenge for doctors and parents. And it goes into effect Oct. 1.
Illinois is committed to every child being immunized. For parents or guardians of a child covered by Medicaid or by CHIP, their child’s eligibility for free vaccines has not changed. What has changed is the way doctors obtain and get paid for vaccines. Some providers may choose not to provide free vaccines to children covered by Medicaid or CHIP.
The change was required because, for years, many doctors had not been doing the necessary work of determining a child’s eligibility for a vaccine (e.g. do they qualify under the Vaccines For Children program or CHIP), and then submitting the proper paperwork to HFS (the entity that administers CHIP). Because many physicians were failing to provide this billing paperwork, HFS has not been able to channel the appropriate reimbursement for children in CHIP to the CDC. For good reason, the CDC has requested that Illinois, and many other states, alter their process to ensure that the proper reimbursement occurs. Without making such a change, IDPH runs the risk that the CDC will no longer continue to provide vaccines free of charge to the State for the VFC program.
Dozens of Illinois pediatricians are warning Gov. JB Pritzker about a potential health crisis from reduced access to vaccines for potentially thousands of children. […]
Local doctors say a particular group of Illinois kids is at risk of triggering an outbreak — those who are covered by the state-run Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP. There were about 324,000 children in Illinois enrolled in CHIP at some point in the 2017 fiscal year, the sixth highest amount in the nation, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks health care issues.
Doctors say this large group of kids is vulnerable to an outbreak because some physicians stopped vaccinating them after a major policy shift by the Rauner administration in 2016 made it too expensive. Doctors at the time were already grappling with not getting paid, or waiting for months, during the state’s epic budget battle. […]
It’s not clear how many Illinois children on CHIP haven’t been vaccinated or are getting shots later than doctors recommend. Physicians aren’t required to report it, according to Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health.
According to the article, the Pritzker administration says it’s working on changing the way doctors are paid for immunizations.
* A bit more history…
* July 13, 2017: What does $15 billion in overdue bills mean for the state’s doctors and hospitals?: Having a budget doesn’t put everyone at ease. Dr. Timothy Wall’s pediatric practice is one of the largest private providers of Medicaid managed care in DuPage County, and insurers owe it more than $1 million. He’s put off vaccinating children after their first birthdays because the insurers stopped paying for the expensive shots
It may not be the biggest state, nor the one with the most students, but Illinois leads the nation in school district spending on administrators. Even amid a looming statewide financial crisis, the state’s 852 districts spent more than $1 billion in fiscal year 2016, the most in the nation, according to a newly released analysis.
A report from the Metropolitan Planning Council analyzed administrative spending in Illinois and compared it with other states. […]
Illinois also spends twice as much per pupil on school administration as the national average — $544 in Illinois to $226 nationwide. Measured per pupil, that is the third highest rate in the country, nearly double New York at $349 and nearly five times as much as California, where admin costs are $95 per student.
Not only do most districts spend a lot on administration, Illinois has 852 districts, more than many other states. About one-quarter of those districts operate only one school. Roughly 4 percent serve fewer than 100 students.
The reasons for that are complicated, says Josh Ellis, vice president of the council. Some rural school districts in Illinois serve sparsely populated areas with few students. Historically, some school districts were formed a tool to to enforce racial segregation.
In FY 2016, Illinois spent $1,105,435,000 on general administration expenses, making us the only state in the country with more than $1 billion general administration expenses, despite serving the fifth most students. For comparison, Illinois spent 33% more than California, despite their public-school system serving over three times as many students.
What would Illinois districts save if they could reduce general administration spending to the national average? They would spend approximately $459 million per year, a savings of approximately $645 million. This would be a savings of $318 per pupil. […]
One of the drivers of administration costs is the number of students a district serves. As of July 1, 2018, there were 852 school districts in Illinois. There are 211 districts that serve only one school. There were 31 school districts with fewer than 100 students enrolled and 463 districts with fewer than 1,000 students enrolled. For example, Morris Illinois, a town with approximately 15,000 residents, has 3 elementary school districts and one high school district. Each elementary school district only has one school. Among the elementary districts, one district only had 86 students, while the other two have an enrollment level over 800. […]
On average, multi-school districts spend only $484 per student on general administration compared to $842 per student for single school districts, a disparity of 74%. A large portion of this savings represents Chicago Public Schools, which spends $349 per student on general administration.
In New Jersey, boards of education have been authorized to share their superintendents and school business administrators with other boards and to “subcontract” the services of their school business administrators to other school districts and have done so since 1996.
The State of New York also utilizes administrative service sharing through Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), and differential state aid encouraging sharing services with poorer districts.
The State of Texas authorizes Shared Services Arrangements that allow for a shared district unit or a shared fund in accordance with the shared services arrangement districts’ agreement.
The State of Ohio explicitly shares district staff, in particular, a treasurer, and has demonstrated cost savings. In Hamilton County, the Reading City Schools and Three Rivers Local School District reported annual saving of about $55,000 to $66,000 in each school district sharing a treasurer. The Wyoming City Schools and the Oak Hills Local School District report saving $45,000 for Oak Hills and $60,000 for Wyoming sharing a treasurer.
* I’m not sure this is why the Democrats want a graduated income tax, but I do know it’s why the wealthy are so strongly opposed…
Peoria Republican Senator Chuck Weaver said the biggest reason Democrats want a progressive tax is to make it easier to raise taxes on a small number of high-earners.
“Flat taxes are harder to raise. Illinois needs discipline,” he said.
A lawyer and political newcomer from Bridgeport announced Monday that he plans to challenge eight-term U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski in the 2020 Democratic primary.
Abe Matthew, 32, made the announcement in a one-minute video posted on Twitter. […]
Matthew said that in the 2018 Democratic primary, he voted for challenger Marie Newman, a La Grange businesswoman who gave Lipinski the toughest challenge of his political career, garnering 49 percent of the vote in a district that stretches from the Southwest Side to the south and southwest suburbs. Lipinski, a conservative Democrat, easily won re-election, defeating Arthur J. Jones of Lyons, a Holocaust denier with neo-Nazi ties.
Newman has said she is exploring another run and has raised nearly $7,000 through political crowdfunding website Crowdpac.
* Early this morning, Newman all of a sudden sent out an e-mail announcing her candidacy. Here’s the Sun-Times coverage..
Democrat Marie Newman, after spending several months exploring a rematch against Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., on Tuesday made it official and said she would run again for the seat, setting up the biggest Chicago-area congressional 2020 primary.
The 3rd Congressional District race comes in what may well be a different political climate, with Newman’s progressive wing of the party gaining strength. At the same time, the House political operation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, led by Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., is committed to supporting incumbents, a policy some activist freshmen Democrats oppose. […]
In the March 2018 primary, Lipinski defeated Newman by only 2,145 votes, or 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
The district includes several parts of wards on the Southwest Side and stretches into the western suburbs. A big vote for Lipinski from old Democratic machine city precincts contributed to his victory.
Today, Think Big Illinois released a new ad highlighting why we need to implement a fair tax in Illinois. The 15 second ad, “Almost Every,” will be running in media markets across the state as part of Think Big Illinois’ latest efforts to ensure voters have the chance to decide whether they want a tax system that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. “How Unfair” and “Affect You” will continue running in markets across the state.
“Almost Every” highlights how Illinois currently has one of the most unfair tax systems in the country. In almost every state with an income tax, wealthy people pay a higher tax rate than the middle class, but not in Illinois. This disproportionately places the burden on our middle-class families, who on average are forced to pay nearly 13% of their income for state and local taxes. Meanwhile, the top 1% of Illinoisans only have to pay around 7% of their income for state and local taxes.
Under the fair tax plan, 97% of Illinoisans will not see a state income tax increase, with only those making above $250,000 paying more. It will also help address the state’s $3.2 billion budget deficit and bring in much-needed revenue to fund critical programs, including our schools.
Very few drivers in Illinois get any money back when their cars are damaged on state roads, and one reason might be the state’s claims database seems to be stuck in the 1990s.
From 2016 through 2018, a total of 1,765 damage claims were submitted to the Illinois Department of Transportation for damages from bad roads and construction zone work, totaling $1.2 million. The state paid only 28 claims, reimbursing drivers $34,517, mostly from a single construction zone claim of $26,000.
IDOT still uses Microsoft DOS to manage damage claims. The MS-DOS operating system dates back to the 1980s, and was largely replaced on most computers by Windows in the 1990s. Microsoft founder Bill Gates heralded the end of the MS-DOS era in 2009. […]
Another reason so few claims are reimbursed could be the slow process. IDOT’s website indicates all claims can be filed with the agency only after waiting for the state to mail the form to you. The site also notes IDOT will decide in 120 to 180 days.
The Effingham County Board Monday voted to pursue a referendum to separate the rest of Illinois from Cook County.
The draft resolution has been modified from the measure approved out of committee earlier this month. This is the wording of what was approved by the Board on Monday: “Shall Effingham County collaborate in discussions with the remaining 101 counties of the State of Illinois, with the exception of Cook County, the possibility of forming a new state and ultimately seeking admission to the Federal Union as the 51st state, pursuant to the provisions of the United States Constitution?”
The separation referendum was brought to the table by board member Heather Mumma. Mumma said that the referendum moved to the full board with an addition stating the board will collaborate through discussions about just the possibility of separating from Chicago.
“I’m hearing from my constituents every day through many varieties of communication that this is one thing they’d like to see on the ballot as a referendum. They all seem to have a different reasoning. The main thing I am hearing is we have spoken to Springfield through the Second Amendment resolution and also the resolution for the unborn, and they just don’t seem to be listening,” Mumma said.
Matt Pals attended the meeting in support of the referendum and the board’s decision to discuss separation with Chicago.
“I think it has to start somewhere,” Pals said of the proposed separation. “I think once you get two more counties, four more counties, 10 more counties, then they’ll have to listen because right now…it’s not always about taxes and having some extra money. It is something about morals and raising your communities so people stay here.” […]
Menard County resident and separation movement leader Collin Cliburn was also in support of the county’s role in the separation, saying if the state was separated, the downstate portion would have a fair shake at voting in who it wanted and passing bills that would aid it.
* Mr. Cliburn’s attire at the meeting says it all about these folks…
The Board also voted to approve a resolution declaring the state’s Firearms Owner Identification Card unconstitutional.
* Related…
* Sales tax for schools rejected in Effingham County: A 2014 study on the 1 percent sales tax found that, in Effingham County, 54 percent of of the sales tax would be paid for by non-residents passing through, visiting and shopping in the county.
