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* From a Sun-Times editorial…
Two years ago, 30,000 Illinoisans thought they’d voted on Election Day, but in fact their ballots were tossed out because those would-be voters weren’t properly registered. […]
They are allowed to cast provisional ballots, but if they are not properly registered or at in the wrong precinct, those votes won’t count. That’s what happened to those 30,000 voters two years ago. […]
Cook County Clerk David Orr estimates that 25 percent of eligible Illinois voters aren’t registered. It happens for a variety of reasons. Some people, of course, are lazy or uninterested. But others have moved and simply haven’t kept up their registrations. Each year, half a million people move from one address to another in Cook County alone, and in 2012, more than 13 percent of Illinoisans changed addresses.
To put it into a little perspective, 30,000 is about the same as Gov. Pat Quinn’s winning margin four years ago.
* Crain’s has a very informative piece on the difficulties manufacturers have recruiting employees, despite job openings…
Crain’s conducted its own analysis of state manufacturing wages for this story. Over the past decade, they grew by 29 percent overall, according to figures provided by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. But consider this: Over the same period, wages in construction grew by 42 percent, in education by 43 percent and in finance by 61 percent.
Basically, if you’re a young grad following the money trail, why go into manufacturing? “It boils down to our view of the trade fields,” says Maciek Nowak, associate professor of supply-chain management at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business. “Dad says to son, ‘You can do better.’ “ […]
After receiving $13 million in federal money in 2012, a consortium of 21 Illinois community colleges has moved quickly to implement degree programs and apprenticeships for advanced manufacturing. Even Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. chose to partner with colleges and universities around the country to help form a pipeline of skilled workers. In the meantime, however, Cat has spent the past decade laying off employees and freezing pensions and wages. It has also steadily shifted work from union strongholds in the North to right-to-work states in the South.
* Daily Herald…
On the second night of the NFL draft, an Oakland Raiders pick from 40 years ago sat in a one-story house in Des Plaines with a wheelchair ramp out front, a home he’s both lived and worked in for 12 years.
Dozens of millionaires would be newly minted via the draft.
But on that Friday evening, Gregory Mathis, the Raiders’ 15th pick in 1974, planned to watch the Chicago Blackhawks playoff hockey game with the residents of the house as part of his $10.70-an-hour job.
Six people with disabilities live at the home, called Cambridge House for the quiet Des Plaines street where it sits. Mathis is charged with taking care of them for the afternoon, overnight and early the next morning. He charts their progress, prepares meals, cleans up, and helps them bathe and use the bathroom.
Mathis, 62, has received $1.70 in raises in a dozen years for his work. His pay reflects stagnant state funding for agencies like his employer, Avenues to Independence, an issue that demonstrates how the political give and take in this month’s state budget battle can hang over daily life.
* And, finally, a Reboot infographic…
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:07 am
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Previous Post: Ride-Sharing Protections: Overwhelmingly passed by Illinois General Assembly
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Maybe Cook and the Collars could cut lose the rest of IL. We would call it South Illinois. They would get 2 senators. Be free of losing baseball, airport noise. They could close all those universities and return inmates to Illinois.
Problems solved
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:13 am
Shows what I know. Adams and Vermillion really surprise me, ahead of Madison and Macon
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:14 am
Adams ahead of Rock Island and tied with Peoria? That surprises me too.
Comment by mugwump Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:19 am
Re: manufacturing
Turns out people flee from working in an industry that treats them with utter contempt and refuses to compensate them for the breadth of skills it demands they have.
Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:25 am
Any of the 98 County Romantics want to chime in on those income tax receipts?
I’m a little surprised that DuPage is still a bit ahead of Lake. Must be a function of DuPage having nearly 300,000 more residents.
Arizona Bob, why don’t you check out that North Shore real estate market and square that with your contention that high earners are moving out and being replaced by low earners.
Not a lot of inventory on the market up there, and people are throwing big wads of money at what is available.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:25 am
== His pay reflects stagnant state funding for agencies like his employer, Avenues to Independence, an issue that demonstrates how the political give and take in this month’s state budget battle can hang over daily life. ==
It also illustrates the anger people feel, for example, when they hear stories about things like gilding the Capitol doors, proposing a $1.5 billion corporate tax cut but keeping the personal income tax increase, or giving an unprecedented $100 million to a Presidential museum and library.
The details concerning funding sources and so on take a back seat to the broader message. “They would rather spend my tax money on all these other things, than on me.”
Comment by Formerly Known As... Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:27 am
I thought more than 70% of Illinois, lives in Chicagoland.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:29 am
Just checked - 65% of Illinois lives in Chicagoland.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:33 am
So 65% is paying 70% of total tax returns and 51% of total sales taxes.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:34 am
Kane is missing off the top 14 list too, with Elgin and Aurora
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:35 am
–Kane is missing off the top 14 list too, with Elgin and Aurora–
That doesn’t seem right, does it?
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:37 am
To VMan’s thought - 65% of the state’s 2010 population was in Cook and the collars. The income tax split of 69% (69.47% should round down, not up as was done in the pie chart) is not too far out of alignment with the population.
The sales tax number is the surprising chart. The fact that downstate generates 49% of the sales tax with 35% of the population should say something about our use of the sales tax. I suspect that if Illinois taxed services like the neighboring states do, the proportion of sales tax generation would more closely mirror the population.
Comment by muon Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:38 am
I personally do not know of anyone who ever stated that Illinois could split off without the collar counties. Of course, there are always some crackpots who will say anything.
Many have stated that if Chicago (Cook County)only were to be separate that it would be a plus for the rest of the state in many ways and not just financially.
In any case it will not happen so it is just a part of the never ending rhetoric on this issue.
Comment by Federalist Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:40 am
There is no way Kane is not in the top 14 counties. It is likely number 5, above McHenry, as it has 200k more residents.
Comment by Southwest Cook Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:43 am
–Kane is missing off the top 14 list too, with Elgin and Aurora–
Aurora is split between Will, Kane, DuPage & Kendall Counties and Elgin is split between Kane and Cook counties
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:43 am
What is the source of this “infographc.” Maybe its wrong.
Comment by mugwump Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:43 am
Regarding the infographic, does anyone know where to find data which shows how much each county government spends? Also, does anyone have data which shows how residents of each county rate the value of the services their county/city governments provide? Thanks.
Comment by Rharaz Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:46 am
==I personally do not know of anyone who ever stated that Illinois could split off without the collar counties. Of course, there are always some crackpots who will say anything.==
Yea, Crackpots or Asst. Republican Leaders (Rep. Mitchell)
Comment by Jimmy CrackCorn Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:56 am
Any other theories as to the discrepancy between the income tax and sales tax distributions?
Comment by Commander Norton Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 11:58 am
According to the LRU’s County Data Book 2013 (http://www.ilga.gov/commission/lru/CountyDataBook_2013.pdf), Income and sales tax collections in Adams County (p. 13) were $94.7 million and in Kane County (p. 57) were $693.1 million. I think this inforgraphic is wrong. What is the source????
Comment by mugwump Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:13 pm
Um, some of y’all don’t know how to read an infographic.
Do you see the numbers in the county map? Those numbers correspond to the county names on the right hand side. It’s not a ranking, folks. It’s a map key.
Sheesh.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:16 pm
– Do you see the numbers in the county map? Those numbers correspond to the county names on the right hand side. It’s not a ranking, folks. It’s a map key. — RM
The corresponding numbers in the map key sure look like they’ve been organized in descending order.
Comment by Wallinger Dickus Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:20 pm
30,000 votes tossed away 2 years ago….4 years ago Bill Brady loses to Quinn by 31,000 votes
Comment by Rahm Weasley Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:23 pm
===sure look like they’ve been organized in descending order. ===
Sigh.
Have you never seen a map key before?
How would you organize things numerically? In random order?
Sheesh.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:26 pm
===But others have moved and simply haven’t kept up their registrations===
Motor Voter has been a success; I wonder if Filer Voter would improve the data. Income tax data could be matched with voter registration data to keep addresses updated. Better yet, give a $20 tax credit to those that voted in the previous year and registrations and voting numbers should improve.
Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:27 pm
This shows where the money comes from, but is there a similar breakdown of where the money goes?
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:31 pm
If it is not a ranking what is the point of listing those particular counties? My quick calculation from the LRU’s County Data Book shows that 64.4% of sales tax collections come from Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties.
Comment by mugwump Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:33 pm
===If it is not a ranking what is the point of listing those particular counties? ===
1) It’s not a ranking.
2) They’re just a few counties to illustrate the point.
3) If you’re truly that dense, you need to go somewhere else to comment.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 12:53 pm
HJR0052: Short Description: ILLINOIS & COOK COUNTY SEPARATE (97th GA)
House Sponsors
Rep. Bill Mitchell - Adam Brown - Mike Bost and Jil Tracy
Now that there’s funny.
Comment by Larry the Cable Guy Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 1:04 pm
Rich, from the comments above, it looks like a lot of us will have to leave
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 1:25 pm
I knew that, this is why I focused on the pie chart totals.
Then I took my figures from the 2010 Census and calculated it roughly.
I’m still pretty surprised by what I discovered and if those pie charts are correct, it makes me rethink the old idea that non-Chicagoland doesn’t pull its weight.
Was there a time when Chicagoland pulled a higher percentage of tax revenue? Is it dropping?
This whole thing has piqued my interest. I’m not going to lunge at folks claiming that Chicago should be cut off from Illinois anymore. We are not only polarized regionally, it looks like we may be polarizing fiscally as well.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 2:32 pm
Rich, you scared people from commenting. lol It illustrates that things are pretty even and the whole Chicago/collars/downstate fight about who collects the dough should go away. It’ proportional. Nowadays you just need a graph to prove it. I believe!
Comment by A guy... Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 4:09 pm
–It illustrates that things are pretty even and the whole Chicago/collars/downstate fight about who collects the dough should go away. It’ proportional. Nowadays you just need a graph to prove it. I believe!–
You can’t be serious. How do you see that?
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 4:10 pm
LOL, math IS hard.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 4:29 pm
Don’t you read Slinger? Kane County is lost. Can you quit complaining and help me find it? lol
Comment by A guy... Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 4:30 pm
A Guy, take off your shoes, start counting your toes and try to do the math.
If you have to get to 21, let’s just go on the honor system there. No need to illustrate it.
Since you’re the King of DuPage, how’s that state tax delivery system working for you? Here in Oak Park, we get oogats from the stat for what we’re paying in.
See, through our income taxes, we subsidize those among the 98 County Romantics, who can’t believe that 98 counties don’t count for something. Especially money.
It’s fascinating to me that a bunch of Willie-lump-lumps can somehow view the fourth-largest metro economy in the world as some sort of barrier to their economic well-being.
Who do you want to be hooked up with? Indy? Frankfort? Jeff City? You’d starve.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 20, 14 @ 5:24 pm
No dude. I’m not for secession in any case. One of my life long proud moments is being able to merely converse with the Jedi of Oak Park and have him refer to me as the King of DuPage. Regardless of the fact that neither is true. Now, are you going to help me find Kane County or not?
Comment by A guy... Wednesday, May 21, 14 @ 10:44 am