Working to increase inclusion and decrease barriers faced by people with disabilities, Governor JB Pritzker signed an executive order to ensure people with disabilities receive equal pay for work they perform as employees of state vendors.
“Illinois is leading by example by ensuring people with disabilities are not paid a subminimum wage,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “With this executive order my administration is affirming that people with disabilities are valued members of our workforce who deserve the dignity of equal pay.”
Coming during Disability Employment Awareness month, this EO will prevent state agencies from entering contracts with vendors in the State Use Program who pay people with disabilities a subminimum wage. In addition, the EO requires state agencies who currently have contracts with vendors who pay people with disabilities a subminimum wage to re-negotiate those contracts to ensure everyone is paid at least the minimum wage.
“We know that justice is about more than prisons and courts. It’s about equitable access to opportunities in the workplace and equal pay,” said Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton. “Workers with disabilities earn 87 cents for every dollar earned by those without disabilities. This EO prevents this harmful practice by ensuring people with disabilities are valued and compensated for their work like anyone else. Illinois continues to lead in efforts to make our country more equitable for all and closing wage gaps that impede progress.”
Pritzker said the order requires state agencies currently contracting with vendors that pay a subminimum wage to renegotiate those contracts. Barry Taylor, vice president of civil rights at the disability advocacy group Equip for Equality, said there would be about 35 contracts renegotiated due to the order.
“To be clear, this wage increase will not cost any employee their job,” Pritzker said. “As we move forward, the state will work with its vendors to ensure that they have the tools they need to continue providing people with disabilities an opportunity to engage in meaningful work with standard pay.” […]
Taylor said the federal law dates back to the New Deal era, when it was passed in 1938 in an effort to provide a temporary launching point for disabled workers, before allowing them to “move into competitive and integrated employment.”
But, “that promise didn’t happen, unfortunately,” he said at the news conference, “And so people have been stuck in these jobs, in these places, obviously for 80 years now.”
[US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene] said her ‘We Will Not Comply Act,’ which she filed in April, would offer wary citizens protection against federal overreach.
“It gives you permission to tell Biden’s little posse that’s gonna show up at your door, you know, that intimidate you — they probably they probably work for Antifa by night, and then they come and intimidate you to take the vaccine by day — Well, you get to tell them to get the hell off of your lawn,” she said to a room of about 500 people.
Of course, you don’t need permission from Congress to tell someone to get off of your private property. But Greene said her legislation would also allow people who refuse the vaccine to sue their employers for discrimination if the company makes vaccination mandatory.
One of the men in the audience, 72-year-old Dennis Johnson, showed up to hear Greene speak at a fundraiser for his Congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, who co-sponsored the “We Will Not Comply Act.”
According to a Centers for Disease Control report made public on Monday, while 86.8% of nursing home residents in Illinois have been vaccinated, only 65.7% of the people who care for them have received shots.
And that’s just the average. According to our Marni Pyke’s reporting, just 257 of the state’s 705 nursing homes, less than a third of the total, boast employee vaccination rates of 75% or higher. But fully 163 locations have dismal staff inoculation rates of 50% or lower. […]
When New York mandated that health care workers be vaccinated or be fired, people got vaccinated. When the mandate went into effect on Sept. 27, 92% of New York’s more than 650,000 hospital and nursing home workers had already gotten at least one dose. Forcing the issue works.
The Pritzker administration should push the Illinois mandate one step further and require nursing home workers to get vaccinated. Yes, people will quit, and that’s a concern in an industry where staff shortages are chronic. But when our elderly can no longer live at home and need the round-the-clock care that nursing homes are expert at, they and their loved ones should be assured that COVID, at least, will not be an issue.
Not to mention that very old and infirm vaccinated people are susceptible to quite harmful breakthrough cases. And not that many people will actually quit.
Dozens of Belvidere residents and parents crowded the parking lot outside the Belvidere School District Administration Building to protest Governor JB Pritzker’s vaccine mandate for school workers and the school district abiding by the mandate
Protest organizer Jim McIlroy believe the state is forcing people into an unfair situation by trading the vaccine for their job.
“The biggest bribe and blackmail right now is somebody’s job if you don’t get the shot,” McIlroy said. “I want to stand for people to be able to have that freedom of choice, and that’s what we’re all standing for.”
However, the school district says less than five people are not in compliance with the governor’s order.
Five. People.
* The unvaxed who constantly whine that vaccinated folks need not fear them are particularly loathsome for ignoring the fact that some people can be harmed by breakthrough cases and many others cannot be vaxed…
No one else in the family was sick. Adrian James just had a bit of a cough. She gave him cough syrup and put a humidifier in his room.
But by Friday he was sweaty and his breathing was labored. Jackson took him to an emergency room in her small town of Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Doctors and nurses there did a chest X-ray and swabbed him for COVID - and then airlifted the child to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, about 80 miles away.
Jackson followed in a car, her grandmother at the wheel. They made the usually 90 minute-drive in about an hour.
“I didn’t know if he was going to make it or not,” Jackson said. “I was very emotional and just very upset.”
Her boy is one of nearly 840,000 children under the age of four to contract COVID-19 in the United States, according to statistics from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaccinations against COVID-19 have not been approved for young children, and the United States is being ravaged by a surge of cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, which Adrian has.
* Hopefully, we won’t see a repeat of last fall and experience an even worse wave when the unvaxed move back inside…
The COVID-19 Delta variant “wildfire” is still burning in southern Illinois, but it’s finally simmering down, hospital officials said Tuesday.
After a month that saw intensive care units stretched to the limit across the 20 counties that span the southern tip of the state, public health officials reported 17 ICU beds were available as of Monday night.
Critical care units across the region’s 22 hospitals are still operating at 79% capacity, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health — but that’s a great deal better than the past few weeks, when only one or two beds were available on most given nights for southern Illinois’ 400,000-plus residents.
* Another possible surge next month is just one of the problems with figuring out what to do with the mask mandate…
The governor still has not given an exact benchmark for when he’ll lift the statewide mask mandate.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker had an indoor mask mandate in place for more than a year until he let the order expire in May. He then re-instituted a mask mandate in July for all indoor gatherings. On Monday, he couldn’t say what the benchmark would be to lift the mandate. […]
The only thing Pritzker can point to for when he’ll lift that mandate is whatever comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control And Prevention.
When asked about mask mandates, Pritzker Monday said for schools he’s following recommendations from the CDC.
“And that’s one of the reasons that we have kids who are masked,” Pritzker said. “It’s important to make sure to keep them safe, it’s what scientists here in the United States are recommending and so we’re following it.”
* People really need to pull their heads out of the sand so we can all move on to some semblance of normalcy…
The ferocity of the delta variant surge has delivered a serious financial blow to hospital systems in parts of the country with low vaccination rates that are struggling to care for coronavirus patients, even as they combat plummeting income, reduced bailout funds and higher labor costs.
Many hospitals in Southern states and rural areas of the country — even in states with otherwise high vaccination rates — have been forced once again to temporarily curtail elective procedures such as hip replacements that bring in the most money.
Meanwhile, rates of burnout and nurse attrition have soared at institutions with overburdened ICUs and covid-19 wards, contributing to severe labor shortages that are driving up costs for replacement workers, hospital officials said.
Hospital officials had been hoping a semblance of normalcy would return as vaccines helped beat back the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, with huge swaths of the nation resistant to shots, and delta variant driving a large wave of infection, they got what one administrator called a “triple whammy.” Hiring temporary replacement workers drove extraordinary cost increases. Vital revenue from elective surgeries evaporated. And public taxpayer supports to help providers through the crisis last year are drying up.
* If nothing else, you should read all of this Michael Hawthorne story for a glimpse at how the IEPA is so regularly worthless…
Operators of a southern Illinois coal mine dumped toxic foam deep underground in an unsuccessful attempt to extinguish a fire that idled production last month, according to documents obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
The type of foam used by St. Louis-based Foresight Energy is being phased out in Illinois and 11 other states under laws that for the first time restrict unregulated chemicals known as PFAS — shorthand for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
PFAS are a growing concern worldwide because they remain in the environment forever, linger in the blood of exposed people for years and trigger several health problems, including cancer, liver damage and decreased fertility.
One of Foresight’s lawyers told state officials the foam used at the Sugar Camp complex was biodegradable and would not harm fish or wildlife. But inspectors later determined the company had pumped more than 46,000 gallons of PFAS-laden foam into the mine, raising the possibility that nearby private wells and other sources of drinking water could be contaminated.
Company officials also hired contractors to drill boreholes into the mine without a permit, records show. One of the boreholes is close to a creek where testing this month by the Illinois Environmental Protection detected high levels of PFAS. […]
Nearly all of Foresight’s coal is shipped to other states and countries. The company cuts costs by relying on longwall mining, a process that uses robotic equipment rather than people to do most of the work.
…Adding… IEPA…
Illinois EPA received an incident report from the National Response Center on September 1, 2021, that firefighting foam possibly containing PFAS was seen in surface water in an unnamed creek near the mine. On that day, the Illinois EPA began an investigation which included onsite inspection and collection of samples. Following the receipt of sample results, the Illinois EPA initiated an enforcement action against Foresight Energy.
The Illinois EPA has no role or authority to dictate how a fire, either above or below ground, is to be handled, including what type of firefighting tools or materials are used in the process. Banning specific tools or materials would need to be done via state or federal law. While there is currently no prohibition in Illinois on the use of aqueous firefighting foam (AFFF) containing per-and polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS) in emergency incidents, the Illinois EPA has serious concerns about the potential for environmental and health impacts and is taking a number of steps to address this emerging contaminant. This includes working with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and Illinois Fire Chiefs Association to develop a fact sheet for first responders, finalizing a statewide sampling exercise of all 1,749 community water supplies in Illinois to determine PFAS levels, and working to propose statewide standards for PFAS in drinking water and groundwater. The promulgation of water quality standards and drinking water standards for PFAS will place Illinois in a small number of states nationwide that have taken action on their own to further oversight and enforcement of PFAS.
* I got the same information from the Griffin team yesterday…
SPEAKING OF KEN GRIFFIN: His team is doubling down on how he remembers a phone call with Pritzker and other civic leaders talking about violence in the city. Griffin acknowledges Pritzker deployed the National Guard in June 2020 to address violence, but the Citadel CEO called for it again in August 2020 during a phone call with the governor and other civic leaders as crime persisted.
Griffin said Pritzker responded: “It won’t look good for there to be men and women on Michigan Avenue with assault weapons.” The governor’s chief of staff pushed back Monday, saying she was on the call that day and Pritzker “never said that.”
Pritzker’s team does acknowledge that there was a conversation that day about the National Guard, though the exact wording is fuzzy. According to a spokeswoman, the governor reiterated that it’s not his decision alone to call up the Guard — that local officials (the mayor) are part of the decision-making, too.
We put out queries to the other executives on the line — Ariel Investments’ Mellody Hobson, Grosvenor’s Michael Sacks, Cleveland Avenue’s Don Thompson, Motorola’s Greg Brown, UL’s Jennifer Scanlon, Hyatt Corp.’s Mark Hoplamazian, and Pritzker Organization’s Tom Pritzker — and heard only crickets. No one wants to get in between (or sideways with) two billionaires it seems.
I don’t think any Illinois governor has ever called out the National Guard over the opposition of a local mayor. Rod Blagojevich threatened to do it, then backed off. (I’d also point out that those who most often want the National Guard called out are, like Rod, usually just looking for cheap and easy media coverage.)
“When we don’t hear of the need in the city even though we are offering it, then we don’t provide it,” Pritzker said. “You can’t just march people in without coordinating with the Chicago Police Department.”
Exactly. And the mayor controls the CPD.
I told you yesterday that Griffin’s rant was aimed at 2022. This is just more proof. If he was serious about the issue, he’d have publicly spoken up against the mayor last summer.
During Rauner’s single term, funding for violence prevention programs and other social services was cut off as the state went more than two years without a complete budget amid a standoff with the Democratic-controlled legislature over the governor’s pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
“I am very focused on the safety and security of the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “I’ve increased significantly the resources, trying to build back from what Bruce Rauner did — with the support of Ken Griffin — to our state by increasing dollars to violence interruption, violence prevention programs, by investing in our communities.”
Still, Pritzker said, “we are nearly at a state of emergency in our need to address crime.”
“We are very concerned about it at the state level and providing resources at a local level, not just to Chicago but to Rockford and other places around the state,” Pritzker said. “But we need local leadership, including the corporate leadership, to step up and help our cities.”
…Adding… Just a reminder about how the Chicago news media generally rewards blatant publicity hounds who demand the National Guard be deployed…
The Illinois State Board of Education has quietly changed its process for enforcing the governor’s mask mandate.
As of October 1, non-public schools have a probationary period to regain their recognition if they are noncompliant, as opposed to losing it immediately.
ISBE stated this change on their website, and when we inquired, they told us the goal was to make the enforcement process more equal for public and private schools.
Previously, public districts were put on probation for noncompliance.
Just days after an Illinois judge ruled in favor of a private suburban Christian school whose status was revoked for flouting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s school mask mandate, the State Board of Education this week changed course on a policy that had instantly labeled noncompliant private schools “nonrecognized,” while granting public schools defying the order a 60-day probation period. […]
Kendall County Judge Stephen Krentz last week ordered ISBE to temporarily reinstate Parkview Christian Academy in Yorkville, which is among the private schools that have recently lost their status and been deemed nonrecognized for refusing to comply with the governor’s school mask order.
In his ruling, Krentz targeted the state board’s separate standards, saying the “guidelines and procedures for recognizing nonpublic schools may necessarily be different than the guidelines for recognizing public schools, but they may not be more burdensome.”
The rules treated the recognition status of public and private schools differently long before COVID-19. Nobody really complained until now.
Tuesday, Oct 5, 2021 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois families will soon be losing their opportunity to purchase dogs and cats from safe, highly-regulated local pet retailers, such as Petland, who offer their customers the choice of a pet that best fits their needs and provide health warranties. This change is coming because the state’s Animal Welfare Act has been updated through HB 1711 which bans the retail sales of dogs and cats obtained from licensed and regulated professional breeders.
But HB 1711 needs fixing, because while singularly blocking retail pet sales, it fails to strengthen any animal standards or protections at unregulated puppy mills across the state. Consumers looking for particular breeds will have no choice but to purchase dogs from unregulated breeders or dog auctions – thus perpetuating puppy mills. Responsible breeders and retailers will be heavily penalized while HB 1711 does nothing to address the issue of substandard breeders across the state.
Petland is dedicated to improving animal welfare and we have publicly demonstrated this commitment; in fact, we support the Humane Society’s petition effort to improve standards of care. Petland’s breeder pledge is a commitment to provide more space, more exercise, and more socialization for their pets plus numerous other improvements to standards of care.
Claire Serdiuk Anderson was taken from us far too soon. She was a co-worker to many of us and a friend to even more. On Friday 10/08 we will be gathering at Hubbard Inn at 5:30pm for a fundraiser and a celebration of life.
Claire is survived by her husband Kurt and her young son Henry. We are trying to raise funds to help support the family, please share whatever you can so that Claire knows she has a strong, loving support group that would have her back when it was needed most.
Claire…
If you can’t make it to the fundraiser, click here.
Many aldermen are furious over the handling of a brazen gunfight in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on Friday in which the suspects walked away without a single criminal charge being filed.
We entirely understand. In a city where authorities should be doing everything to quell a surge in violence, there’s a shoot-out like at the OK Corral, an entire block is endangered and several obvious suspects are detained.
And then nothing.
This was a shocking incident, even in a city that seems increasingly inured to daily violence, caught on video and described by one source as “just like the Wild West.” More than 70 shell casings were found, and many more shots likely were fired. Police apparently arrived in time to witness at least part of the shootout.
Who can blame anybody for asking: “If charges can’t be filed in a case like this, when can they?” […]
This page has long argued that criminal charges should be brought by police and prosecutors only when there is sufficient evidence to support a case. Too often in the past, cases have been built using torture, false confessions and the strangest stretching of the evidence. But the pendulum can’t be allowed to swing so far in the opposite direction that obvious suspects walk away from crime scenes with impunity.
False arrests and convictions have cost city taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. A more careful and just approach has been warranted, but this is ridic.
Today, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) explained how he recently experienced gun violence in Chicago first-hand.
“Last Saturday night, my wife and I went out to eat, downtown Chicago with another couple – several couples – and we were driving home on Lake Shore Drive. about 10:00 on Saturday night. I heard a popping sound,” said Durbin.
“I didn’t know what it was, the driver of the car said, ‘those are gunshots.’ It turned out to be the car next to us. The driver was leaning out the window and shooting into the air. He could have just as easily been shooting the gun at us. Sadly, that’s what happens way too often.”
Coincidentally, the senator was in town to announce federal funding to support gun violence and prevention research.
Senator, there’s been plenty of research. The feds need to stop with the press releases and deploy actual violence prevention programs in a robust and timely manner. Not all crime can be stopped, of course, but the government needs to do far more to prevent this stuff within the realities of whatever the US Supreme Court will allow.
A new Illinois survey of likely 2022 GOP Primary election voters was released today. This Illinois GOP Gubernatorial primary survey measures President Trump’s approval and breaks down voters’ preference in the 2022 primary election. Ogden and Fry, a nationally recognized polling firm, conducted the poll from October 3-4, on behalf of the Northwest Side GOP Club — a Chicago based Republican umbrella organization.
President Trump’s approval rating remains strong. The results showed that 86.6% of voters approve of President Trump, 13.4% disapprove.
On the second question, voters were asked their preferred candidate in the Illinois Republican Primary for Governor. The results showed that State Senator Darren Bailey, who sued Governor Pritzker over unilateral lockdowns last year, has a commanding lead with 33.3% followed by Jesse Sulllivan at 6.2%, Gary Rabine at 5.2%, and Paul Schimpf at 3.0%.
Ogden and Fry conducted this survey of 400+ respondents from a random selection of likely 2022 GOP Primary election voters. The margin of error is +/- 4.98%.
With the usual caveats about O&F polls, here are some results…
* Meanwhile, Sullivan has launched an effort to catch up…
Political outsider and Republican candidate for governor of Illinois Jesse Sullivan released his first television campaign ad [Friday] morning. The ad will air statewide and is part of a six-figure buy, the latest piece of a comprehensive television, digital, and radio plan to get Sully’s message out and begin a conversation with Illinois voters about what’s at stake in this race to replace JB Pritzker, who has already spent millions on the air.
The $222,032 cable TV aspect of this buy runs from October 2 through November 5. That’s slightly less than the governor has been spending per week. Sullivan has the money to sustain this rate for quite a while.
Former state Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo, who is also vying to be the Republican nominee for governor, has welcomed Sullivan’s entry into the race, but on Friday, he took issue with his opponent’s ad.
“Jesse Sullivan is not a veteran, and a TV advertisement that implies he is does a disservice to the voters of Illinois, who deserve better,” Schimpf said in a statement.
Schimpf spent 20 years in the U.S. Marines, at one point serving as the nation’s top adviser to prosecutors trying Saddam Hussein.
Sullivan’s campaign said in response to Schimpf’s statement Sullivan is “proud of his service as an Army civilian. That service has only deepened his respect for veterans and first responders who keep us safe at home and abroad.”
* These DGA videos are just laughable. All press release, zero impact…
The DGA is launching a new video today that hits the crowded GOP gubernatorial field for their radical anti-choice records. Watch the video here.
Darren Bailey has said he wants to outlaw abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and Jesse Sullivan agrees on a near-total ban on abortion. Gary Rabine is a self-described “big pro-lifer,” and Paul Schimpf voted against the IL state law protecting abortion access if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
That release was sent out four days ago and it has since garnered precisely 5 views as of this writing. Pathetic. Stop wasting my time with this nonsense.
* Indeed, this particular bit of silliness had far more impact than anything the DGA has done here so far…
Somehow Darren Bailey’s campaign has convinced hundreds of people on Facebook that their lack of a mult box somehow amounts to a larger media audience because of… mic flags? pic.twitter.com/vXm8y80npi
Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of former President Donald Trump’s chief GOP antagonists and the only House Republican to vote last week for a “clean” debt limit increase, isn’t ruling out a bid for a Senate seat from Illinois or a campaign for governor.
Kinzinger, appearing Tuesday on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power with David Westin,” said those potential alternatives are “not something I’m planning for at this moment.”
But he added, “I’m certainly not ruling it out,” noting that Democrats control the process of drawing new congressional lines in Illinois, with more details on that expected in the next week.
He said he’s putting what happens “in God’s hands,” adding, “I will not give up the fight for this country.”
Griffin said he spoke with Pritzker on the phone when looting and unrest were afflicting Chicago following the murder of George Floyd. He advocated that Pritzker bring in the National Guard to restore order, he said. Pritzker did activate the National Guard on May 31 at Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s request.
“He says, ‘It won’t look good for there to be men and women on Michigan Avenue with assault weapons,’ ” Griffin said. … Griffin said today: “If that saves the life of a child, I don’t care.”
* Good points from Pratt and Cherone as well as some clapback from the governor’s office…
Ken Griffin is angry with Gov. Pritzker because he hasn't called in the National Guard — over Mayor Lightfoot's objections, since he's not the only one opposed — to deal with Chicago's street crime problem, which he likened to Afghanistan war violence. https://t.co/n9wgWzAzjr
But Griffin’s concern about violence echoes criticisms from Illinois Republicans in recent weeks. Rep. Jim Durkin, the head of the House Republican caucus, told the Center for Illinois Politics last month that Democrats “all turned their back on law enforcement” by making the criminal justice system “softer and kinder on hardened criminals,” pointing to a law that will end cash bail.
On Monday, Griffin said one of his top priorities for improving Illinois would be to make sure “police officers who have our backs on the street” will “feel like we have their backs.”
“We need our police officers to know that they are also entitled to the rights of being an American citizen, that [they] are innocent until proven guilty. It’s incredibly hard to do your job as a police officer, if, the moment you have to protect yourself, you have to wonder: Will you go to jail? Will you lose your job? Will you be publicly persecuted and humiliated before any of the facts come forth?” Griffin said.
If Illinois Republicans want some of that sweet Griffin cash, then Illinois Republicans need to be in lockstep with Griffin’s talking points, no matter how false or absurd (deploying the National Guard to Michigan Ave. to protect children?) those points may be.
The governor has tried hard to avoid getting dragged into the topic of local violent crime. He’s proposed and passed some state solutions for anti-violence programs, but polling has shown that crime is an increasingly concerning issue among voters, so the Republicans and their top potential financial backer will want to drag him into it. It’s truly a no-brainer. I’d do it if I were them without hesitation or regret…
"It is a disgrace that our governor will not insert himself into the challenge of addressing crime in our city. It is a disgrace," Griffin says of @GovPritzker. https://t.co/A9siY5yEFI
An added benefit is that many of the city’s political reporters, who have endlessly asked for decades why the National Guard isn’t being called up to quell the violence, will likely go right along with the show.
* And the governor is obviously still peeved at Griffin for funding the opposition to his income tax amendment…
Griffin took obvious pride in his central role in defeating one of Pritzker’s top priorities: a proposed state constitutional amendment to allow for a progressive income tax. Asked if there was a limit to his political entanglements and willingness to spend money to advance his beliefs, Griffin said, “We went pretty far on the fair tax bill, if I may say so.”
“We resoundingly defeated the governor—and resounding is the right choice of words, too,” he added. “We did for one simple reason: He’s not just coming for the rich; he’s coming for everybody. The graduated tax bill in Illinois was just another mechanism to take more money from the hands of hardworking Illinois families and putting it into the coffers of Springfield. And I know every person in this room would sign up for higher taxes if it meant reform of our pension plans and an end to corruption.”
Yeah, Griffin spent all that money to make sure the middle class doesn’t get hit with an imaginary tax hike down the road. Right. Sure, Ken. But in just about any campaign discussion you have with Republicans, the defeat of Pritzker’s tax plan is defined as proof of Pritkzer’s political vulnerability. They will continually beat this drum to knock down any speculation that the GOP is automatically out of the running here.
Also, Griffin talked yesterday about shifting corporate staff to New York City, which has a much higher graduated income tax rate than even Illinois’ proposed graduated rate. So, yeah, c’mon. This ain’t about taxes, it’s about the upcoming campaign.
The former mayor of Alorton, a state senator and Mayor Curtis McCall Sr’s sons are among the 112 employees working for the new city of Cahokia Heights. McCall Sr, who was sworn in as mayor of Cahokia Heights in May, said he’s confident in everyone he’s appointed to serve in his administration so far, given that several have previously worked for the three dissolved towns and associated entities included in the merger. […]
Former Alorton Mayor JoAnn Reed works as the director for the city’s nutrition center. Illinois Sen. Chris Belt (D-Swansea) is the director of compliance, risk management and safety, according to 2021 documents obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat. Both positions are full-time. Reed and Belt previously worked for Commonfields of Cahokia Public Water District — making $29,400 and $58,500, respectively, in 2020 — which the new city absorbed under its own water and sewer department. […]
Roy Belt, who also makes $20.42 an hour is McCall’s nephew-in-law. Chris Belt, whose job description for the city includes managing “risk management and safety related to storm sewers, water mains, sanitary sewers”, is McCall’s brother-in-law. He’s married to Belt’s sister, Yvonne.
* My own opinion of this story is that the most prominent disabled veteran in Illinois should not have turned down this state property tax break for two reasons: 1) Rejecting it could very well discourage other, much needier veterans from applying; and 2) Going through the process means she could see for herself if it was working for her fellow disabled vets. So, yeah, she should’ve taken the tax break and she should most definitely tell the Sun-Times to stick it where the sun don’t shine…
No one likes to pay property taxes. This year, the owners of 27,288 homes across Cook County don’t have to.
Their property tax bills: $0.
That they’re paying nothing means the rest of the county’s 1.8 million property taxpayers — the remaining homeowners and business owners — have to pick up the slack, a total of just under $102.8 million.
The pay-nothing bills result from a host of property tax exemptions the Illinois General Assembly has given homeowners over the years. The biggest tax breaks go to homeowners 65 and older and disabled veterans.
Among the homeowners whose property taxes are entirely wiped off the books because they are disabled veterans are U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, former Ald. James Balcer and some veterans who are now Chicago police officers, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
Yeah, let’s gin up taxpayer envy against somebody who left large parts of her body on a battlefield. Such a lucky ducky for having a 70+ percent disability rating! Wish I had thought of that! /s
The Illinois General Assembly did not put any income limits on the property tax break, partly because doing so would’ve needlessly complicated the application process. If you’re disabled because you served in your country’s military, you’re given the break.
We can talk about economic philosophies all day (I am generally opposed to narrowing the property tax base), but who’s gonna sponsor the bill to yank away this benefit from disabled American military veterans?
President Trump said on Friday night that Chicago has “weak, ineffective political Democrats” that won’t force gun restrictions, which leads to their crime rate, comparing it to the violence in Afghanistan.
“It’s embarrassing to us as a nation. All over the world, they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison, it’s true,” said Trump.
“When you have 88 shootings, that’s not even conceivable, that’s worse than Afghanistan, I hate to say it. That’s worse than any war zone that we’re in by a lot,” Trump said.
Billionaire Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, hinted Monday that he might move his company’s headquarters from Chicago, saying the crime makes the city more akin to a war-torn country.
“It’s becoming ever more difficult to have this as our global headquarters, a city which has so much violence,” Griffin said. “I mean Chicago is like Afghanistan, on a good day, and that’s a problem.”
“I think it’s time for America to move on,” Griffin said. “The four years under President Donald Trump were so pointlessly divisive, it was not constructive for our country.”
We’ll get to more of Griffin’s trolling later today.
At the end of August, after the Illinois Senate had been unable to find a consensus on the massive climate/energy bill and punted the issue to the House, I asked Senate President Don Harmon during a press conference why he hadn’t addressed Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s list of problems, legal and otherwise, with the Senate’s proposal.
“I don’t know if the governor’s team understood how fundamental some of those provisions were to getting the agreement among all stakeholders,” Harmon replied.
That seemed to me to be quite an extraordinary statement about the governor and his team.
So, when I did a one-on-one interview with Harmon the other day, I asked whether that misunderstanding had been a continuing problem during negotiations, because some folks in the governor’s office were saying at the time that Harmon and his team didn’t quite grasp the implications of what they were proposing.
Harmon pointed out that, since the Senate was convening the talks, “our team was familiar with all the details and all of the trade-offs” in the proposal. Some of the suggested changes coming from the governor’s office, Harmon said, “would have so up-ended the negotiations and the accommodations that had been reached, people would have walked away from the table.”
I am far from being the only person who has picked up on the ongoing tension between Harmon and Pritzker and their respective staffs. Harmon backed his then-Senate colleague Daniel Biss in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Pritzker not-so-covertly backed Kimberly Lightford in the Senate President’s race that Harmon won. But the tension between the two offices seemed to boil over at times during the climate/energy talks.
“I’m a J.B. Pritzker fan,” Harmon insisted. “He and I have known each other for 30 years. We have always been friends.”
“Let me just talk about my relationship with him,” Harmon continued, then repeated something he’s said often in the past when asked about this topic. “He and I probably agree on 99% of policy issues. I think we might have a harder time figuring out what 1% we disagree on.”
But then Harmon talked about some things that I don’t think he’s discussed publicly before.
“My job as senate president is to try to encourage the Senate to be as productive and as responsible as the chamber can be. My job vis-à-vis the governor is to advise him as to what legislation can pass and in what form it can pass, and sometimes to tell him something can’t pass.
“Now, there have been legislative leaders who did anything a governor asked however, however inane or harmful it was. There have been legislative leaders who obstructed the governor’s agenda, whether for sport or to settle scores. Neither is a responsible way to govern.
“So I will continue to give the governor the best advice I can as to how to get his legislative agenda through the Senate and the General Assembly. Sometimes he will listen to me, sometimes he won’t. That’s fine.
“And while we always seem to agree on policy, we might disagree sometime on tactics. That’s okay, too. I think it’s a sign of a healthy and productive relationship.”
So, I asked Harmon, that’s how you define your relationship with the governor? Healthy and productive?
“Absolutely,” he said.
Um, OK, then how about your staff’s relationship with his staff, I asked Harmon. And, more importantly, his staff’s relationship with yours?
“I think our staffs are both extraordinarily and understandably protective of us,” Harmon replied.
That was quite an understatement, to say the least. The two staffs have often been openly hostile. But he is right that they are very protective of their respective bosses.
Speaking of governors, I asked Harmon if he thought that the House and Senate Republicans grew too financially dependent on wealthy Republican Bruce Rauner during Rauner’s term in office and two statewide campaigns. Rauner put millions into electing other Republicans, particularly early on.
“I do,” Harmon said. “It’s hard to raise money,” he continued. “I know this even better now that I’ve raised money as senate president for the caucus. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of trust and relationship. And anytime you’re too dependent on one person or one interest, it leaves you vulnerable.” I’m assuming that goes for the current governor, too.
Harmon also said that he was “confident that we’re going to have the resources we need to run through the primary election cycle and the general election cycle and to defend all 41 seats.”
