Chicago Sun Times: City lawyers predict 'catastrophic outcome' if pension reform overturned
Chicago faces a $300 million deficit in 2016 with shortfalls continuing “for the forseeable future” — even before piling on $20 billion in pension liabilities that have saddled the city with the “worst credit rating of any major city other than Detroit.”
And if state legislation that saved two of four city employee pension funds is overturned, a “catastrophic outcome” awaits retirees and Chicago taxpayers alike triggered by “further downgrades.”
Nobody’s talking about it in the race for mayor, thanks to Rahm Emanuel’s decision to postpone the day of reckoning until after the election. But that’s the dire portrait of city finances painted in the city’s friend-of-the court brief in the state pension case.
Crain's: How will Illinois' high court rule on pension reform?
The members of the Illinois Supreme Court are difficult to predict on any one issue but tend to follow clear voting patterns, according to Crain’s statistical analysis of decisions. They are also politicians, four Democrats and three Republicans, who face the voters every 10 years in increasingly costly elections in which business interests, personal injury lawyers, unions and political parties play key roles, the publication found.
Legal experts say it’s a tough call whether a majority of the justices will uphold the ruling in November of a circuit judge in Springfield who voided the pension law, saying it violated the Illinois Constitution.
Beyond the legal issues, the reality for a former Chicago Bears kicker, the wife of a powerful Chicago alderman and the other justices is that Illinois as well as Chicago and many other localities will need staggering budget cuts or steep tax increases—more likely, both—to cope with woefully underfunded pension plans if the law is struck down.
Daily Herald: Ill. Attorney General: Rosemont must release contract info
Rosemont violated the Freedom of Information Act when it denied requests for details about Garth Brooks’ appearance at Allstate Arena, the Illinois Attorney General’s office determined.
The village has fought for months to protect documents related to country star Garth Brooks’ 11-concert event in September, specifically information about incentives or a rebate that might have drawn Brooks to the venue.
The decision by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office Friday is the latest in a back-and-forth between the Chicago Tribune, which originally requested the information in September, and the village, which called the information “trade secrets” and passed a village ordinance in November protecting such information from FOIA.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois misses the fracking boom because of falling oil prices
Lyle Weber paid off a sizable chunk of his son’s college loan three years ago with money he got from an oil company intending to drill on his farmland.
“You get this oil lease check, and all of a sudden you think, ‘I deserve one of these things every day,'” said Weber, 55, a corn and soybean farmer in Gallatin County near the Kentucky border. Weber won’t say how large his check was, but many farmers sold leases for $100 to $200 an acre, which can add up to a nice fat one-time check for those with 500 or 1,000 acres.
Weber and thousands of downstate landowners are now watching as those leases begin to expire with dwindling hopes they’ll be renewed.
CBS Chicago: Rauner Previews 1st-Year Priorities: Cut Taxes, Medicaid
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner on Thursday began laying out priorities for his first year in office, saying property taxes and workers’ compensation costs are too high, Medicaid spending is unsustainable and state workers’ salaries andbenefits are too generous.
In a speech he said was a preview of the State of the State address he’ll give next month, the Winnetka Republican said Illinois is in “massive deterioration mode.”
He said he will propose a number of reforms to turn the state around, and indicated they would involve making Illinois more attractive to businesses while slashing spending on everything from health insurance for the poor to public-worker pensions and the state’s payroll.
Chicago Sun Times: Emanuel won't extend tax break, so United Center entertainment complex is on ice
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s refusal to extend a United Center property tax break due to expire next year has nixed plans for a $95 million retail-and-entertainment complex in the shadows of the stadium.
Instead, the Bulls and Blackhawks will build a stand-alone office building — with a ground level retail store and a public atrium connection to the United Center — that will free up space inside the stadium for more entertainment and fan amenities.
With a nudge from Emanuel, Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz also is mapping plans to build a $50 million practice facility near the stadium with two rinks to accommodate the explosion of youth hockey in Chicago triggered by the Hawks’ two recent Stanley Cup championships.
Quad City Business Journal: Deere to lay off 910 across Iowa, Illinois
Deere & Co. announced Friday that it will lay off more than 900 employees in Iowa and Illinois as the Moline-based agricultural equipment maker continues to align production with a decreased market demand.
The company also will extend an inventory shutdown at its Moline manufacturing facility.
In a news release, Deere said it is making workforce adjustments at several ag manufacturing factories, including John Deere Harvester Works, East Moline, and John Deere Seeding and Cylinder, Moline. The layoffs affect a total of about 910 employees at five locations.