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Quinn supports Wal-Mart deal

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* State Sen. Bill Brady will hold a press conference this morning at the proposed Wal-Mart site in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood with Democratic state Sen. Rev. James Meeks and others. Brady has been a staunch supporter of building new Wal-Marts in Chicago and issued a press release earlier this week praising a deal cut by Mayor Daley that’s still pending in the city council. The deal would require the company to pay starting workers 50 cents an hour above minimum wage. Unions have decried the deal as a sellout. Here’s Brady’s release…

“As the author of legislation aimed at bringing exactly these types of jobs and opportunities to food deserts throughout Chicago, I strongly support the announcement by Wal-Mart and key community leaders of their agreement to create real jobs and more consumer choice in Chicago,” said Bill Brady.

“I’ve met with community leaders who recognize this as an opportunity to create thousands of jobs — both union and non union. I join with them in working to bring this proposal one step closer to reality. Mayor Daley and others have shown tremendous leadership in the effort to bring real private sector jobs that we desperately need. I will stand shoulder to shoulder with those ready to deliver on this agreement and get the job done for Chicago families. If only Governor Quinn was willing to do the same.”

Quinn, however, sounded positive notes about the Daley/Wal-Mart deal yesterday…

Quinn said Tuesday that he is happy to see so many jobs potentially coming to Chicago. He tried to downplay the politically sticky issue that many of those jobs will not be union jobs, and will pay less than the demanded “living wage.”

Quinn instead focused his comments on the need Wal-Mart could fill in providing supermarkets to Chicago-area residents.

“It’s a municipal issue for the city of Chicago…It puts people to work, gets grocery stores where they need to be located in every neighborhood, and at the same time helps our economy go forward.” […]

“I’ve said all along that I believe…[in getting] a good wage for employees who work in the stores and for those who build the store,” said Quinn.

I’m sure SEIU is gonna be happy with that statement. The union has been in the lead on the Wal-Mart boycott and spent $1.7 million on Quinn in the primary,

* In other economic news, Gov. Quinn is expected to sign the “Worst Bill Ever” into law today…

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will sign what his office calls “major economic legislation” Wednesday morning in Marion.

An aide to state senator Gary Forby confirms it’s Illinois senate bill 2093, better known as the STAR bonds bill. STAR stands for “sales tax and revenue.”

That bill will divert state sales tax revenue to help finance a major retail and entertainment development along Interstate 57 in Marion. […]

At Local 773, the Marion-based chapter of the Laborers International Union of North America, man hours dropped from around 1.1 million in 2001 to around 412,000 in 2007.

As the recession continued that number shrank to around 380,000 in 2009.

* And the folks who run Churchill Downs are warning that their Arlington racetrack is on the bubble…

Churchill Downs Inc.’s chief executive on Thursday raised doubts about the future of Arlington Park, its Chicago-area track and said the company’s flagship Louisville track may have to further reduce racing dates.

“You can’t run on hope,” CEO Bob Evans said in an interview after the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Louisville. “… If we get to the point where you know ‘not racing’ is the best answer, well that’s the best answer. But we’re not starting there, and I hope we don’t get there.”

During prepared remarks at the meeting and in the interview after, Evans talked of plans for an impending internal review of its four racetracks and said it is difficult to justify racing at tracks that don’t have slot machines or other forms of gambling to supplement purses.

Asked if Arlington Park and Churchill Downs are in jeopardy, Evans said any racetrack without alternative gambling would find it difficult to keep going without some business to make up the difference.

More…

Churchill’s gaming operations now include the Calder Casino and Studz Poker Club at the Miami track and slot machines at Fair Grounds along with video poker at off-track sites. Churchill’s gaming revenues increased 22% in 2009 to $61,227,000.

Evans outlined racing’s $2.47-billion dip in pari-mutuel wagering in 2009 compared to ’07 and noted that foal crops continue to get smaller. The Jockey Club projects an 11.8% decrease in foals in 2010. With that in mind, Evans believes the tracks that will thrive will be the outlets that are able to boost purses with money from added gaming to attract entries from a shrinking pool of horses.

Evans said the company’s comprehensive review of racing operations would not necessarily lead to immediate changes.

“I’m not sure about the timeframe of any of this, but we have to be realistic,” Evans said. “Every track without alternative gaming or some other way to get money into purses is going to be in trouble. There’s no other way to survive.”

And…

Last week, Arlington announced $725,000 in cuts to stakes purses for 11 races and the elimination of another, citing declines in out-of-state betting.

* And speaking of slots at tracks and racing woes…

Harness racing at county fairs like the Perry County Fair has long been a tradition in Illinois, but cuts in state funding and late payments to county fairs are putting the tradition in jeopardy and threatening jobs.

Rita Williams, a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association, said the future of harness racing at Illinois fairs is in “critical mode.” She said Illinois law provides reimbursement of 66 percent to county fairs. Williams said the actual figure is one-third of what it should be. […]

Williams said the purses that draw horsemen to enter races are composed of fees paid by the horsemen and funds the state provides to fairs. In the past several years the harness racing industry has experienced a reduction of more than 50 percent in state funding, which has reduced the purse size for each race and caused some horsemen to seek alternative venues, she said. […]

“If we lose this industry we will lose 35,000 to 40,000 jobs,” Williams said. “What will these people do? That will create another burden on the state.”[…]

A piece of legislation in the general assembly could save harness racing in Illinois, Williams said. Senate Bill 3146 would amend the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975 and allow slot machines at tracks. Williams said the action would not only save the harness racing industry, but provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state.

Expect a bill after the election.

* Related…

* Quinn to sign STAR bill in Marion

* Harris: Controversial tax break for developer goes to Quinn

* AT&T announces plans to upgrade and expand broadband in Illinois

* Quinn signs bill at Community Nurse clinic

* Churchill Prospering from Diversification

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:23 am

Comments

The STAR Bonds bill is bunk. You cannot take money from one business and give it to a competing business to develop. Only in Illinois do we have to pull these financial stunts to attract growth and business. It is a boondoggle that will surely generate headlines years from now that read “Star Bonds Bill Sapping resources, while development struggles.”

Comment by Living in Oklahoma Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:30 am
Finger in the wind Quinn is milquetoast at best on the Walmart deal. Perhaps the SEIU likes people spending $5.00 lb on grey ground beef. He did say he wanted them here so he gets credit for that.

Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:40 am
So, people can buy at low prices and also have access to jobs. What is the downside of this plan for WalMart to come to Chicago? Other than some unions being unhappy w/PQ?

If you build them, people will shop!

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:44 am
**What is the downside of this plan for WalMart to come to Chicago?**

How about that it actually drives jobs away? And drives local businesses out of business. And the jobs it “creates” are crappy low paying, low/no benefit jobs?

Comment by dave Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:48 am
There’s been some bright spots recently in Illinois. Cat is investing $700 million for a new shovel line in Aurora. Corn Products is making a $1.3 billion purchase. Navistar obviously wants to invest here.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:53 am
About slots at racetracks. A no brainer, revenue enhancer and more jobs created than casinos owned by las vegas mobsters. Good idea, so it never will happen in Illinois

Comment by downstate hack Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 11:54 am
Chicago needs Wal-Mart. And no, I’m not trying to spew some hackneyed talking point. If unemployment in Illinois were at 4%, I might think differently. But a high unemployment rate, when coupled with an overall lack of grociers choice in the area, makes Wal-Mart almost a necessary evil. And I really don’t like Wal-Mart.

As a side note, perhaps some Chicago residents can answer me this: does Chicago proper (not the suburbs - just the city itself) have any Meijer or Target Greatland stores?

Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:11 pm
Dave, there are not many businesses in these areas. Especially where they can get these supplies/groceries at a decent quality and reasonable price.

$8.75/hour > $0.00 per hour

Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:11 pm
If Target continues growing within the Chicago market, it will get a global edge on Wal-Mart with this new base. This creates a need for Wal-Mart to compete within Chicago enough to raise the costs paid out in wages. Right now, Wal-Mart has decided that an additional 50 cents per hour more than their US base pay is affordable when considering the overall costs of not having Chicagoans within their market.

So, it isn’t that Wal-Mart is doing anyone a favor here, it is that Wal-Mart sees Target getting a global edge with their Chicago deal.

If Target takes over Chicago, you will have the same effects as if Wal-Mart takes over, and Target already is doing this. So, to all those who hate Wal-Mart because they are afraid it will drive out small businesses, well, that cat is already out of the bag, thanks to Target. If Target takes over Chicago, then you will not see lower prices for long, because they will have a domination of the market, letting them raise prices to offset the costs of doing business in Chicago.

So, you have to get competition for Target to keep it’s prices down, and that would be Wal-Mart. So, the longer the decision makers meddle in this situation, the more costly it will be for Chicagoans.

Cry all you want about how these two giants will corner the Chicago market, but also recognize that this is the price of not allowing free market innovators into the Loop. Chicago had Sears, Fields, Wards, and Spiegel taking huge chunks out of the national market at the expense of smaller businesses for over a century. Now it is Bensenville Arkansas and Minneapolis Minnesota’s turn to do to us what we did to them.

The higher the walls built to shield a local economy, the higher the costs within those walls, and the higher the price paid when the walls eventually fall. Chicago screwed itself, which is a pity when we consider how Chicago was once a giant in this very market but failed to keep up.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:13 pm
We’ve heard all those arguments before, Dave. In the neighborhoods in Chicago where WalMart wants to build the local businesses that you mention are simply not there. WalMart can provide groceries for folk who currently have to take long, multi-step trips on public transit to get to a grocery store or buy food of limited variety (and frequently, low quality/low health) from local convenience stores at much higher cost. Imaine a senior citizen traveling on 2 to 3 buses to get to a store only to have to bring all the groceries back on a bus?

Besides that, are there any jobs for folk in those low income neighborhoods? This debate has gone on for years and no fair solution is to be had in these empty (of stores, anyway) neighborhoods. Go to those neighborhoods and ask the folk if they would want a WalMart with the “crappy” jobs. Go ahead, ask them. You will find that many there ache for the chance to have such a store nearby for low priced goods and jobs. Your idea of a crappy job is manna for many. Just sayin’

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:14 pm
Wal-Mart can come in any time without a problem if they’d just pay $11.03/hour. Can someone explain why the largest US Corporation can’t simply pay $2.28/hour more to corner one of the best markets in the country? Is there a reason they shouldn’t pay? It’s really a small demand to have them pay the “living wage”. If they want our market, they should have to meet our requirement, which is a drop in the ocean for them.

Comment by Sacks Romana Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:43 pm
Sacks,

They should pay what the labor market bears. An artificial number does not reflect market conditions. If all entry-level labor requires $11.03 per hour, you may have hit on the reason there are few entry level jobs in Chicago.

Comment by Cincinnatus Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:48 pm
SR, the free market doesn’t work that way. I wonder how long the line would be if WalMart started hiring for a new store in Chicago offering the wage they pay now. I bet there would be thousands lined up. Why would you deny these folk a job because you know better how much they would like to be paid?

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 12:51 pm
The apprpriate quote here comes from actor and Senator Fred Thompson, from his role in Hunt for Red October:

“This is getting out of control. It’s getting out of control, and we’ll be lucky to live thru it.”

The Walmart thing, if it goes thru, is only a little better than the STAR bonds debacle. Walmart has no intention of playing by the rules in Chicago, and as soon as they buy off enough aldermen and get their hooks in, they are going to put Upton Sinclair back in business, double-shift.

Comment by Gregor Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:01 pm
When Wal-Mart pays $11.03 per hour, the cost of a bag of Doritos will cost $10 a bag.

So, don’t be so silly.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:02 pm
Gregor said:

“Walmart has no intention of playing by the rules in Chicago…”

I sincerely hope not.

Comment by Cincinnatus Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:03 pm
Bad weather keeps Quinn in Chicago. He’ll sign the STAR bill tomorrow.

Comment by Deep South Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:06 pm
Walmart has no intention of playing by the rules in Chicago, and as soon as they buy off enough aldermen and get their hooks in, they are going to put Upton Sinclair back in business, double-shift.

Chicago doesn’t make the rules, and neither does Wal-Mart. And Upton Sinclair? He’d be crying about how hard it is to be a Wal-Mart greeter.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:06 pm
I’ve come to realize that not all grocery stores carrying the same name across the outside of the building are created equal in quality of food inside the store. Ever swing by more than one of your current grocery stores in more than your usual neighborhood? Is this chain willing to agree the carried produce/meat will be the same quality the chain carries elsewhere? If not, it rather defeats the purpose intended to supply the people with selection/quality food.

Comment by Cindy Lou Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:11 pm
Cindy, you must not be a Chicago Alderman because you are thinking way too hard about this.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:14 pm
Obviously we’re coming from very different political philosophies, but history is pretty clear that when there isn’t any sort of legal wage protection, the labor market can bear a depressingly low salary.

My point is that if Wal-Mart wants to operate in the US, they have to pay workers at least $7.25/hour. If they want to operate in Illinois they have to pay $8.25/hour (July 1st). And if they want to operate in Chicago, they have to pay $11.03/hour. That’s the law, and I think it’s ridiculous that the largest US Corporation gets to throw a hissy-fit about it. They can afford it, and can open all the stores they want tomorrow. I don’t appreciate all the wheeling and dealing going on to pay Chicago resident’s less. This isn’t putting an undue burden on mom and pop.

Comment by Sacks Romana Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:15 pm
SR said:

“And if they want to operate in Chicago, they have to pay $11.03/hour. That’s the law…”

The current minimum wage in Chicago is $8.25. Wal-Mart is offering above minimum wage. Refresh my memory on what “law” would be broken, since you claim that Wal-Mart is breaking it by not paying $11.03 per hour. Your claim that Wal-Mart is breaking the law is absurd on its face. You think just because the unions want something, that it is automatically law?

Comment by Cincinnatus Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:35 pm
The Wal-Mart Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

After standing in lines stretching for blocks waiting to be accepted in this devilish corporation’s nest as a “greeter”, I was paired up with a tuna-scented AARP senior named, “Fred”. Fred was in a wheelchair, having lost his left foot in a military battle, and was now smiling like a tranquilized zombie wearing the official Wal-Mart uniform. It sickened me when I considered what magificent manhood Fred once was, until forced to fight in the Capitalist’s War over Vietnam. It furthered sickened me when I stood too close to him. But I was there to unveil to the world by my writings the inhuman suffering experienced by Wal-Mart, so I hung on Fred’s every word. His breath smelled like moth balls and Newports.

“When folks come on it”, he says with a smile, “we give them a big Wal-Mart “How-De-Do!”. Although smiling, I could make out the sense of inhuman suffering Fred endured throughout his four-hour work day. I could read it though his cataracts. He smiled on the outside, but was weeping for his fellow veterans on the inside.

In came a young woman wearing pajamas and a tank top. Normally, this would be attractive, but she was over 300 pounds. She had a neck tatoo that read, “bite me”, suggesting that she knows what it is like to be a host of the parasitic Wal-Mart Corporation. My heart bled.

“I need to git me some ketchup!”, she said to me, as if I would every consume such a foul inorganic product. Fred piped up, “How-De-Do! Welcome to Wal-Mart. Ketchup is located in Aisle 274, right next to the display we have set up offering rebates on Dr. Scholl’s corn plasters!” Like a soul-less automaton controlled by the great Ozark Satan, Fred rattled off store locations as though he was proud to work here.

As she shuffled off to buy her foul red liquid, composed of unorganic and I’m certain, highly toxic chemicals, she accidentially mooned Fred and I when she lost one of her Eeyore slippers and picked it up off the spotless Wal-Mart floor.

Everything in Wal-Mart was ghastly white and clean. Every surface sparkled, washed by the tears of underpaid Wal-Mart personnel. My stomach churned as I witnessed the parade of Wal-Mart shoppers, deluded into spending their Link cards and hard earned wages in order to feed the Beast Sam Walton birthed on that Black Night so many years ago!

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 1:52 pm
SR,

Go to the neighborhoods and ask the folk what they want. Do you think they are capable of making decisions for themselves?

So many people want to work. So many people want their dollars to buy more of what they need. Why would you want to deny that to these folk? To satisfy your political philosophy? The folk out there need to pay the rent. Go out there and ask them what they want. Go ahead, ask them.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 2:11 pm
so harness racing survives due to socialism? who knew?

Comment by winco Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 2:56 pm
Yeah Deep South, then he’ll sign the bill and the “bad weather” will be down here.

Comment by Ronbo Wednesday, Jun 23, 10 @ 3:47 pm