QUOTE OF THE DAY
The Federalist: Conservatives Won’t Win Millennials With Political Consumerism
Who killed the car of the future?
Was tomorrow’s automotive tech slain by an unholy alliance of Big Oil and the Bush administration? That’s the answer a semi-famous 2006 enviro-documentary clubs over its viewers’ heads.
Or do fancy prototypes fail to scale up because they are vanity projects designed to delight the rich people who fund them, and thus devoid of real market appeal? That’s the conventional conservative claim, followed up with a chuckle and words of praise for the Ford F-150.
Pew Charitable Trusts: States Debate Millionaires’ Taxes
When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last month vetoed a tax increase on any income over $1 million, no one was surprised.
The Republican vetoed similar tax increases on the wealthy in 2010, 2011 and 2012, arguing that the state’s richest residents would flee to other states, taking much-needed tax revenues and jobs with them.
“I strongly believe that punitively raising taxes on our already overtaxed residents and small business owners is not the answer to the state’s short- and long-term fiscal challenges,” Christie said in his veto message.
Chicago Tribune: Minimum wage hike imperils Chicago job creation
Before we mull what hiking the minimum wage in Chicago by 57 percent would do, detour with us to North Dakota, where the latest measure of unemployment is a measly 2.6 percent. Last month, a sign outside a Wal-Mart there went viral: “Now hiring the following positions: Cashier $17.40/HR.” Other openings: $17.20 an hour for a job in apparel to $17.60 for a meat department position.
Why are wages at a North Dakota Wal-Mart more that double the federal minimum wage of $7.25?
Milton Friedman would patiently explain that a free labor market adjusts wages to the availability of workers who have the skills and attributes that jobs require. With an energy boom raising demand for workers and thus their wages, other North Dakota businesses have to compete for job candidates. Government isn’t forcing Wal-Mart to pay more. Wal-Mart is paying more because a growing economy pushes up wages.
Now back to Chicago: When City Hall forces businesses to pay higher wages, will more employers move to that city? Will more people land jobs? Will the local economy grow, raise demand for workers and push up wages at all income levels?
Chicago Tribune: New TIF tracker web site debuts
Cook County Clerk David Orr today launched a new website that details how much money has been collected in the hundreds of controversial special taxing districts spread across Chicago and its suburbs.
The TIF Viewer, which can be accessed here, maps out the tax increment finance districts and includes downloadable data for each one. The launch comes less than a month after Orr, a frequent critic of how TIF districts are used, announced he was including a breakout of TIF data on each property tax bill.
This year, about $683 million in property tax revenue will flow into 435 TIF districts, including about $422 million into the city’s 151 special taxing areas, Orr said. Those collections are down in both the city and suburbs, primarily because some TIF districts reached the end of their lives, he added.
NBC Chicago: Obama Library Foundation Unmasks Identities of Deep-Pocketed Donors
Since launching earlier this year, the Barack Obama Foundation has raised as much as $1.75 million from deep-pocketed donors like Chicago investor Michael Sacks for the construction of a presidential library and museum.
The foundation named names on Tuesday, voluntarily unmasking contributors’ identities on its website. They are: Sacks and his wife, Cari; Jim and Marilyn Simons, and Tim Collins, each offering between $250,001 and $500,000. Two others, Lise Strickler and Mark Gallogly, together donated somewhere in the ballpark of $100,001 and $250,000.
The precise amounts were not disclosed, so the collective first-quarter fundraising tally lies within the range of $850,000 and $1.75 million. The foundation — headed up by Obama’s best friend, Marty Nesbitt — has said it would regularly reveal contributions of more than $200. The Obamas won’t start raising money for the library until leaving the White House in 2016.
CBS: Hearing On Quinn Anti-Violence Program Bogged Down By Partisan Debate
Politically tinged bickering among lawmakers looking into fraud and waste in the now-defunct Neighborhood Recovery Initiative overshadowed a hearing on Gov. Pat Quinn’s scandal-plagued anti-violence program.
WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports, even before the Legislative Audit Commission could deal with a request from federal prosecutors to wait 90 days before taking testimony on NRI, a hearing in downtown Chicago was bogged down by partisan debate.
The commission subpoenaed seven former Quinn aides to testify about their roles in how NRI spent $54.5 million in state funds, in light of an audit that concluded the program was poorly managed and misspent money.
Huffington Post: Fixing Public Pensions: The First Step in Detroit’s Long Road to Recovery
On the surface, Detroit may look like a lost cause–a bankrupt city facing a nearly insurmountable fiscal and social crisis.
Sure, the Motor City’s problems are numerous. A depleted manufacturing base, population decline, urban decay, and a high crime rate are just a few of the high-profile problems facing this once proud American city.
There is one problem, however, public pensions, which caused the worst problems.
Sun-Times: Did hot mic pick up Topinka clout request?
Did Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka really appear with Gov. Pat Quinn at a bill signing then ask the governor to help her son get a job?
Topinka and Quinn stood side by side following a July 7 bill signing in Washington, Illinois. When the event was over, Topinka whispered into Quinn’s ear. Her microphone, however, was still hot and picked up the conversation.
WSJ: Costly Vertex Drug Is Denied, and Medicaid Patients Sue
Vertex Pharmaceuticals‘ $300,000-a-year cystic-fibrosis drug has sparked a legal battle here, where the state’s Medicaid program is restricting access to the expensive therapy.
In a lawsuit filed in Arkansas federal court last month, three people suffering from the fatal lung disease allege Medicaid officials have for two years denied them access to Kalydeco because of its cost. The plaintiffs allege state officials have violated their civil rights under federal law governing Medicaid, the government-run insurance plan for the poor.
The patients all meet the eligibility criteria established by the Food and Drug Administration when it approved Kalydeco in 2012, including the presence of a rare genetic mutation it is designed to correct. But Arkansas officials have said the patients must prove their disease has failed to benefit from older, less-expensive therapies, a policy their doctors say contradicts treatment guidelines.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
