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* Mayor’s appointees will remain in key spots after he leaves office
The mayor appoints members to more than 150 boards and commissions. They range from high-profile boards that oversee schools, parks, libraries, public housing, the CTA, the City Colleges and police discipline, to “Sister Cities” committees and relatively obscure panels that guide spending in local taxing districts known as “special service areas.”
* Southtown Star: We stand up for your right to speak up
* Retirement perks cost towns millions
Pensions for executives are routinely boosted with bonuses, car allowances, cash-outs of unused sick and vacation time, and other perks. Retirement checks can jump 10, 20 even 30 percent from the perks — a practice other states in the Midwest don’t allow.
The lax rules and oversight cost taxpayers in Illinois nearly $13 million for just the top-level retirees in the last two years and perhaps as much as $145 million for all municipal fund retirees in the last decade. Now, several local officials are on course to bump their retirement checks by up to 45 percent.
* Tribune: Find them, fire them
* Sun-Times: Not too bad, for Stroger
* High-speed rail construction begins
Such a project has drawn some skepticism, largely over its taxpayer-covered price tag and concerns that ridership might not meet expectations. In Wisconsin, GOP gubernatorial candidates recently promised to stop an $810 million project to build a 110-mph rail line between Madison and Milwaukee.
* Metra Board Approves Employee Related Ordinances
* Hinz: The real reform Metra needs, post-Pagano
* City Cultural Chief: Don’t Privatize Taste
* Daily Herald: Sue gangs? Host meetings? Why not?
* Michigan’s Tax Incentive Program for the Movie Industry May Not Be Helping State
The Senate Fiscal Agency’s report says the credits raised less than $4 million in revenue for the 2008 to 2009 fiscal year. The director of the agency says that’s much less money than what Michigan is paying out in tax credits.
* Cops step up enforcement of new crosswalk law
* Police: Take Precautions Against Credit Thieves
* 4 Shot On Northwest, Southwest Sides
* Just outside Chicago, a major polluter lurks
* Batavia school budget preserves programs, tax rate
* Deficit hangs over Kaneland budget
* McQueary: Does Gorman owe us a ‘thank you’ for paying her tuition?
But then we have Exhibit A: the use of contingency funds by elected members of the Cook County Board.
* State offers rebates for energy-efficient appliances
* Rebates offered for energy-efficient appliances
* Union carpenters at McCormick Place make peace with convention organizers
* Union carpenters file suit against labor rules at McCormick Place
* Carpenters Sue Over New McCormick Place Rules
* Tribune: A supreme justice
Candidate Patrick Maher, president of the Orland Fire Protection District, is skewering his opponent, incumbent Elizabeth Doody Gorman (R-Orland Park), regarding the use of her fund.Gorman spent about $6,000 of county taxpayer money toward her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame, which she earned in 2008. While the degree itself cost much more, Gorman used part of her county stipend to cover tuition costs.
* Once a ‘best buy’ college, U of I’s tuition rising
* Sangamon County running out of fat to trim; staff cuts imminent
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Sep 20, 10 @ 9:45 am
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RE: Illinois Tuition
Just to date myself, in my first year at Illinois, tuition was $260. The last year of my masters, five years later, the tuition had risen to $450. It’s now $20k.
I feel very old.
Comment by Cincinnatus Monday, Sep 20, 10 @ 10:02 am
The municipal officials who rail against police and firefighter pensions enjoy a more lucrative pension deal for themselves. That hypocrisy won’t help the IML cause in Springfield.
Comment by Reformer Monday, Sep 20, 10 @ 10:06 am
Elizabeth Doody Gorman is taking gross advantage of
a clause that allows education to be reimbursed. McQueary’s
column nails it.
Comment by Amalia Monday, Sep 20, 10 @ 10:23 am
Wow. I am old, too and the State of IL. paid for a lot of my education. It used to be that everyone in the office got their MS paid for that way - even law degrees.
Comment by PPHS Monday, Sep 20, 10 @ 10:52 am