* Those four counties make up two IDPH regions. A positivity rate of 8 percent or higher for three days straight is one way for regions to be put into mitigation.
Pritzker said of the 7 regions that currently are not under mitigation, five have a rolling average positivity rate at or above 7 percent, while two are at 6.5 percent.
Click here to watch the governor’s daily press conference.
• All bars and restaurants close at 11pm and may reopen no earlier than 6am the following day
• No indoor service
• All bar and restaurant patrons should be seated at tables outside
• No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)
• Tables should be 6 feet apart
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
• No dancing or standing indoors
• Reservations required for each party
• No seating of multiple parties at one table
Meetings, social events and gatherings (including weddings, funerals, potlucks, etc.)
• Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25% of overall room capacity both indoors and outdoors
• No party buses
• Gaming and Casinos close at 11:00pm, are limited to 25 percent capacity, and follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable
Nothing changes with schools, which set their own rules under broad state guidelines.
…Adding… Press release…
Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) are announcing COVID-19 resurgence mitigations will be implemented in Region 7 (Will and Kankakee counties) and Region 8 (Kane and DuPage counties), beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, October 23, 2020. Both regions are seeing a 7-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8 percent or above for three consecutive days, which exceeds the threshold set for establishing mitigation measures under the state’s Restore Illinois Resurgence Plan.
The administration continues to distribute emergency relief for small businesses and communities impacted by the ongoing pandemic. In Regions 7 and 8, approximately $14 million has already been awarded for small businesses and community aid. Businesses in both regions, as well as other regions currently under additional mitigations, will receive priority consideration for the current round of Business Interruption Grants (BIG), with $220 million available to help offset costs and losses businesses have incurred as a result of the pandemic.
“By the end of this week, four regions will all be operating under the standard resurgence mitigations – that includes no indoor dining or indoor bar service and limiting in-person gatherings to no more than 25 individuals,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “As colder weather approaches and flu season is upon us, we’re going to see the rippling effects of these current unfortunate trends. The massive surge of cases in our neighboring states will continue to have a spillover effect. There is no easy fix for the effects of this virus on our economy and our public health. But we can and will manage through this. We’re Midwestern tough here in Illinois. We know how to deal with a crisis. And we know how to take care of each other.”
“We have seen regions move into mitigation measures, but also move back out,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Working together we can bring down the number of new cases and hospitalizations. Increases are being seen not only across Illinois, but across the country, and in many other countries around the world. Until there is a safe and effective vaccine and a significant proportion of the population has received it, we must all stay the course. What you do in your community affects those around you, so please, do your part and help slow the spread.”
“The actions we take today to slow the spread of this virus will define what happens in the coming days, weeks and months,” said Dr. Justin Macariola-Coad, Interim Chief Medical Officer at Advocate Sherman Hospital. “Wearing a mask, washing your hands, and keeping your distance from others will prevent the spread of this illness and save lives. The more we ignore taking these basic steps, the more people will get sick and the harder it will be on the health care system and our brave frontline clinical workers to keep up with the pandemic this winter and help care for our communities across the Northwest suburbs.”
This election cycle, Illinoisans have been presented with the option of amending the state constitution to allow for a graduated income tax. As proposed, the amendment represents a disappointing repeat of Illinois fiscal history. The enacted rate structure is far from best economic practice, the significant shift in the state’s tax code is not part of a comprehensive plan and the proceeds will provide very little assistance, if any, to struggling local governments and pension funds. Accordingly, the Civic Federation opposes the proposed Illinois constitutional amendment to allow for a graduated income tax.
While the Civic Federation is not opposed to the concept of a graduated income tax and understands the state’s need for more revenue, the rate structure enacted by the General Assembly is anything but ideal. Low income Illinoisans will continue to bear roughly the same tax rate as their middle and upper-middle class counterparts. As the Federation has long cautioned, the flat rate at the top of the structure is unusual and could cause tax avoidance behavior and increase revenue volatility at a time of economic uncertainty. Additionally, nothing in the package protects any one group of taxpayers from being overburdened now or in the future. A better rate structure would further reduce rates for the lowest income bracket(s), maintain only marginal rates and restrict the highest and lowest rates to within a certain percentage spread. The General Assembly’s structure meets none of these standards.
Since the tax rates were enacted 16 months ago, the General Assembly has not delivered on a number of opportunities to streamline and modernize state government. For years, the Federation has publicly encouraged the General Assembly to work toward consolidation of Illinois’ 7,000 local governments, modest changes to pension benefits and rationalization of the property tax system, among others. However, significant measures to cut costs or create efficiencies have not been enacted to accompany a significant change in the way Illinoisans will pay taxes. While the Federation has long recognized that cuts alone will not solve Illinois’ financial crisis, the lack of comprehensive plan to begin tackling it once-and-for-all is a disappointment.
Finally, the state will not share any but a miniscule portion of the proceeds of the proposed graduated income tax with Illinois’ many struggling local governments. An initial plan to share $237 million of the billions in proceeds was whittled down to $100 million, the future of which now remains uncertain. Another $100 million had been set aside for supplemental payments to Illinois’ five pension funds, but was not included in the state budget even if the amendment passes and in any event falls far short of a real solution.
While attractive in the abstract, the graduated income tax amendment and its accompanying rate structure are far from a panacea for Illinois’ many financial challenges. Further, the Federation remains concerned that with an influx of revenues, lawmakers may consider their work finished and abdicate their responsibility to make the hard decisions that would actually complete the work of the state shoring up its finances. For these reasons, the Civic Federation is unable to support the proposed graduated income tax amendment.
The governor has been saying that opponents of his “Fair Tax” have historically supported taxing retirement income, even though many opponents are now warning that taxing retirement income is a very real possibility if the tax is approved. Pritzker is right to a point. Not all groups have backed taxing retirement income, but the Civic Federation did, indeed, propose taxing the income just last year, as well as some services.
Also, if you click here, you’ll see that billionaire Ken Griffin is a Civic Federation trustee. Griffin is bankrolling most of the opposition to the graduated income tax proposal.
…Adding… Press release…
Vote Yes For Fairness Chairman Quentin Fulks released the following statement in response to the Civic Federation:
“Yet another organization made of the wealthiest people in the state has announced its opposition to the Fair Tax, which isn’t surprising considering they’re the select few our current tax system benefits. Members of the Civic Federation would rather keep the burden on our middle and lower-income families and implement a retirement tax on our seniors instead of finally paying their fair share.
“It’s clear that despite their rhetoric today, the wealthy only care about protecting their own bottom line, even when that means denying 97% of Illinoisans a tax cut. They continue to advocate for policies that allow them to keep building their wealth on the backs of hardworking families, while opposing any effort to bring relief to millions of struggling Illinoisans. The Fair Tax will set things right, and allow everyone an opportunity to get ahead.”
See the Civic Federation’s call for taxing retirement income here. The Civic Federation’s opposition to the Fair Tax comes just weeks after a similar announcement from the Civic Committee, which has also advocated for taxing retirement income and for increasing the flat tax by 20%.
…Adding… Lissa Druss,spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop the Proposed Tax Hike Amendment…
More and more are joining our bi-partisan coalition of middle-class families, retirees, small business owners, and family farmers because after two tax hikes over the last ten years and an $8 billion deficit, now is the worst time to trust Springfield politicians with another tax increase.
Illinois is scheduled to sell $850 million of bonds on Tuesday as investors demand fatter yields for the state’s debt due to increased worries over its deep financial woes, which were exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ahead of the competitive sale of general obligation bonds due over the next 25 years, the spread for Illinois 10-year bonds over Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A yield scale has widened by 10 basis points to 281 basis points since Oct. 1.
Howard Cure, director of municipal bond research at Evercore Wealth Management, pointed to “a legitimate fear that the state could go into junk status — although not default on its debt.”
“The state continues to delay tough decisions with a number of speculative revenues as part of its current budget, including additional federal aid, voter approval for a progressive income tax, and more Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) debt,” he said, referring to the possibility Illinois, which took out a $1.2 billion cash-flow loan in June from the Federal Reserve’s MLF, could borrow more.
If there’s no danger of default, then the rest is just Kabuki theater.
…Adding… Bond Buyer reporter…
Illinois' tranches winning bidders & true interest cost: $100M JP MORGAN TIC 2.1534%; $300M B OF A TIC 4.3156%; $325M BOFA TIC 3.7075%; $125M JP MORGAN TIC 2.8259%…as always with illinois they have headline of "TIC appears high"…BofA a periennial winner….
Quick look at 1 of Illinois tranches…yield of 3.64% w/ 5% coupon on 10-year in $325M tranche is a 270 bp spread to AAA & 144 spread to BBB (where Ill rated) …Slightly better than the 280 MMD has Illinois 10-year at & way better than peak, punishing 452 bp spread in May sale
nerdom explained….illinois did ok today all things considered….a very high rate compared to what even other govs rated at BBB would pay but rates so low right now it masks the true costs….
* The governor will announce at his 2:30 press conference in Jackson County that he intends to go back to holding daily press conferences on COVID-19. Pritzker stopped doing press conferences when the state moved to Phase 4 in June.
“It’s bad out there,” said one administration official, pointing to recent positivity spikes around the state. The CovidExitStrategy.org website reports that Illinois is one of several states that have entered the “Uncontrolled Spread” stage. Despite all this, opponents appear to be growing louder.
Pritzker has said, however, that a new statewide stay at home order is not in the cards. He’s sticking to regionalization and targeted mitigations.
* The Question: Do you agree with the governor’s decision to return to daily news conferences? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
…Adding… Gov. Pritzker just confirmed he will hold daily briefings. “Every region of the state has started to move in the wrong direction,” he told reporters. “So to ensure that you have the utmost transparency on where our state is headed, Dr. Ezike and I will resume,these COVID-19 briefings on a daily basis every weekday until Illinois returns to a better standing in our COVID metrics.”
An angry Republican who wants to ‘lock ‘em up,’ regardless of evidence. It’s not Trump. It’s Pat O’Brien.
O’Brien oversaw nearly 30 wrongful convictions as a prosecutor, including personally putting away four innocent black teenagers who together spent 47 years behind bars, helping make Chicago the false confession capitol.
His angry rhetoric? Pure Trump. His record as a prosecutor? Even worse. Pat O’Brien’s wrong for State’s Attorney.
…Adding… I forgot to link to O’Brien’s ad. Click here.
During President Trump’s rally in Janesville, he struck a chord with many Illinoisans who are frustrated with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions.
“I’ll tell you what…Illinois could use a new governor,” the president said, met with thunderous applause.
Rockford is in Region 1, which has a 7-day average positivity rate of 11.1 percent. Winnebago County’s rate is 12.3 percent. Perhaps those fine folks might wanna look inward.
Facing a resurgence of the coronavirus in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that President Donald Trump and his local allies are in part responsible for rising case numbers and positivity rates in the state.
“He’s modeling bad behavior. He doesn’t wear a mask in public. He has rallies where they don’t encourage people to wear masks in public,” Pritzker told “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper. “Truly, this is now rhetoric that people understand, particularly in rural areas in my state, ‘Well, the president doesn’t wear a mask; we don’t need to wear a mask. It’s not that dangerous.’ The truth of the matter is that it is very dangerous.”
The governor appeared with Tapper a day after Trump slammed him during a rally north of the border in Wisconsin, which is seeing one of the worst COVID-19 surges in the country.
“Illinois could use a new governor,” Trump told supporters in a wide-ranging 93-minute speech in Janesville. “That guy doesn’t know what’s happened. We gotta open up that state. They gotta open up that state. Kids have to get back to school.”
Asked by Tapper to reply, Pritzker said, “the president has made it nearly impossible for states to open up any more than they are now.
“… This pandemic has been around now for seven to eight months, and without much help from the federal government we’ve been fighting it off.”
Pritzker said Illinois is impacted by the higher rates of infections in the border states of Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa. […]
“So it is dangerous right now. We want people to wear masks. We want people to socially distance. We need to make sure that we have certain mitigations in place, and, of course, we’ve already opened up much of our economy. But we have to maintain certain capacity limits, and make sure that our people are safe and healthy,” Pritzker said.
“He’s modeling bad behavior. He doesn’t wear a mask in public. He has rallies where they don’t encourage people to wear masks in public,” Pritzker said. “But it is the president’s allies in our state, all across the state, who are simply saying to people, ‘Don’t pay any attention to the mitigations, don’t follow the rules.’ Indeed, there are bars and restaurants which are restricted from expanding their indoor service that are just ignoring the rules, and they’re just filling the place up.”
And he defended the state’s performance, saying, “This pandemic has been around now for seven to eight months, and without much help from the federal government, we’ve been fighting it off. Illinois has one of the lowest positivity rates among the Midwest.”
He said that the state is bordered by Wisconsin, which has a 27% test positivity rate. “Ours is about a fourth of that,” he said.
Tapper pointed to things the president has done right, including ramping up efforts to find a vaccine, and pressed Pritzker for specifics.
Pritzker responded, “Well, you just saw one of them, which is he’s modeling bad behavior. He doesn’t wear a mask in public. He has rallies where they don’t encourage people to wear masks in public.”
Dr. Robert Murphy, a professor of medicine and infectious disease at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said lifting even more restrictions would be disastrous right now.
“Everybody is tired of it,” Murphy said of the pandemic. “And so you have that pressure to just open up, and that’s just going to make everything worse. And from an epidemiological standpoint, I can’t support that. And I can’t recommend that. It’s a big mistake. Every time you do that, you pay with a life. You’re going to kill somebody.”
Murphy agrees with Pritzker that pandemic fatigue is playing a role in the recent surge facing Illinois and much of the nation. But Murphy said other factors include the reopening of schools to in-person classes and the relaxation of restrictions regarding bars and restaurants.
Last month, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced bars that don’t serve food can reopen, and restaurants could serve more indoor customers. Since then, infections have steadily grown. The city has a 5.2% positivity rate and is seeing a weekly average of 508 cases per day, according to data released on Friday. […]
But Murphy said local officials can gain control over the outbreak without having to resort to another stay-at-home order by mandating face masks and placing limits on social gatherings, like in Spain, where gatherings are now limited to six people. And Murphy signaled optimism, saying that the U.S. will be in much better shape a year from now when a vaccine may be widely available.
“I’ve studied pandemics, and they all end,” Murphy said. “Every one of them ends. The question is: How long does it take to end? And how many people will die?”
…Adding… Sigh…
"If there's a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it, I couldn't care less," Trump says.
