QUOTE OF THE DAY
AEI: Here are the states that small business owners love and hate
Some key findings of a national survey of 12,000 small business owners by Thumbtack, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. (Key factors evaluated include ease of hiring. ease of starting a business, regulations, licensing, tax code, and zoning.) Note the importance of regulation and government-created barriers to entry:
– Utah, Idaho, Texas, Virginia and Louisiana gave their states the highest rating for friendliness to small business.
– In contrast, small business owners gave California, Rhode Island and Illinois an “F,” while Connecticut and New Jersey both earned a “D” grade.
Chicago Sun Times: Phone tax won’t keep $20B pension bill on hold for long
Mayor Rahm Emanuel did what he had to do to convince Gov. Pat Quinn to sign on the dotted line.
But chances the mayor and City Council can solve Chicago’s $20 billion pension crisis without raising property taxes range between slim and none.
A 56 percent increase in Chicago’s telephone tax buys time to appease Quinn and get past the Nov. 4 gubernatorial election and the Feb. 24 city election for mayor and aldermen.
Chicago Tribune: Building a Chicago action plan
A century ago civic architect Daniel Burnham mapped a physical future for this city. He had intended to design social remedies as well but didn’t deliver. Today, with education failures, joblessness, crime and other intertwined challenges confronting Chicago with the fourth great crisis of its 176 years, the Tribune invites readers and organizations to finish Burnham’s work — to address the imperiled livability, uneven prosperity and desperate public finances that have driven residents to leave by the hundreds of thousands. In coming months, you, and we, will explore how this metropolis can better survive and thrive. Together, our mission echoes Burnham’s: Make no little plans.
Eight months ago, with those words, we set out to craft a new Plan of Chicago that we hoped would stir Chicagoans. More than 1,000 readers and organizations have spoken up. They’ve told us — told all of Chicago — their most urgent priorities. They’ve awed us with their energy and insights about how to fix Chicago’s festering problems. In previous editorials we’ve organized their proposals in clusters: Improve the lives of children. Revive troubled neighborhoods. Better deploy public dollars. Help disadvantaged Chicagoans improve their lives. Tap the intellectual firepower of every neighborhood.
The problems that plague the city may seem intractable: Too many children dropping out of school. Too many parents not paying attention. Too much violent crime shredding families and neighborhoods. Too many small businesses struggling to survive.
Northwest Herald: Chicago determined not to lose Obama library bid
Barack Obama’s hometown is making an official pitch that the city where the president got his political start should also be at the center of his post-White House legacy, with five separate Chicago bids to host his presidential library ahead of Monday’s deadline.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who initially sought to channel the competing proposals into a single bid, has decided for the moment not to pick a favorite. But the mayor, who also is Obama’s former chief of staff, is pressing the case that it should be on the South Side, where Obama’s path to the White House began. Emanuel also believes that’s where the library and museum would have the most lasting economic impact.
The submissions are from three universities, a community organization and a real estate developer. Despite some one-upmanship among them, all agree the city can’t afford to lose to rival offers from New York City and Hawaii. Some involved are cautioning the city to take nothing for granted, pointing to its bid for the 2016 Olympics; Chicago sent Obama, Oprah Winfrey and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley to sell the city in person, yet the bid got booted in the first round.
Chicago Sun Times: Doing nothing while Illinois falls apart
The spring session of the Illinois Legislature ended in failure to adopt a serious budget. This is no longer about kicking cans down the road. The can is now an empty tank car — too big to kick.
The Legislature’s failure invites renewed musing about why it failed — again.
One non-novel thought: Legislators want to hang onto their jobs; they don’t want to irritate any sizeable constituency or group (particularly if it has a PAC fund). Raising taxes or cutting programs would irritate somebody, and getting reelected means avoiding tough votes. Does that explain the continued failure?
Another thought (also not new): Several legislators aren’t running for re-election, but they’ll be able to vote in the veto session — after the election. It might be easier to “persuade” some of them to vote for an income tax extension then. But if they aren’t running, why do they care about not voting now? Making some interest group mad before the election would have no consequences for them anyway. Would a vote for a tax extension post-election be more “trade-worthy” — more deserving of a cushy state job?
Sun-Times: Ex-felon tries to help young fathers find success
When Sheldon Smith, 25, talks to or about his 5-year-old daughter Jada, he becomes a different person.
He’s stern: “OK, sit up straight now,” says Smith, founder of The Dovetail Project, his voice immediately garnering a flagpole stance from the child slouching on his lap.
Or Smith is just mush: “You OK? We’re almost done, Boo-Boo,” he says when she fidgets.
CBS Chicago: Clout-Heavy Firm Had Key Job In Illinois’ Obamacare Rollout
A key subcontractor working on the campaign to promote President Barack Obama’s health care law in Illinois is a Chicago political strategy consulting firm owned by three former aides to some of the state’s most-powerful Democrats.
The three political strategists — Mike Noonan, Victor Reyes and Maze Jackson — are among the individuals whose billing rate of $282 an hour is raising questions about whether Illinois did enough to rein in taxpayer costs within a $33 million contract funded by a federal grant. The hourly rates were first reported this week by The Associated Press.
Their firm, Compass Public Affairs, could take assignments directly from Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration under a special provision of its subcontract. Compass was part of a team assembled by the main contractor, the Chicago office of public relations agency FleishmanHillard.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
