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Chicago Tribune: With help of lawmakers, Illinois public schools now $20 billion in debt
Illinois’ public school districts are roughly $20 billion in debt, a staggering figure fueled in part by decades of special deals in Springfield that have given districts exemptions so they can keep borrowing beyond limits set by law.
Today, that debt exceeds long-term school borrowing in most other states. It equates to about $10,000 for every Pre-K to 12th-grade public school student in Illinois, a Tribune investigation has found.
All the borrowing is a drain on taxpayers who have to repay the debt, as well as school budgets that must steer billions of dollars annually to principal and interest payments — money that could be targeted to classrooms. In some districts, more local tax money is collected for debt payments than for teacher salaries and student instruction.
WICS: Supreme Court Decision Leave State Workers Without Pay
The state Supreme Court made a ruling recently that could send shock waves through the capitol amid this budget impasse and the Governor is already on the defense trying to make sure it doesn’t happen.
In the case of the union worker’s back pay, the Supreme Court said without an appropriation the raises couldn’t be paid out.
That argument could be used right now because there is no appropriation for state workers pay for the impasse.
In a speech this week, Governor Rauner outlined his thoughts that it could be used for political reasons.
Chicago Mag: Even for Most Disadvantaged Families, Housing Relocation Pays for Itself
The housing voucher program Moving to Opportunity is one of the most famous experiments in the history of the social sciences. The study included 4,600 families from housing projects in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Baltimore who volunteered to participate. Those families were randomly assigned: One-third got vouchers for housing in low-poverty areas and counseling to find it; one-third got vouchers they could use anywhere; one-third didn’t get anything.
From the outlines of the study, you can see the point—does it help to move from high poverty neighborhoods to low poverty neighborhoods? Does it help more than just giving people a free choice? And does it make financial sense for the government to facilitate these moves?
The data it generated has been the foundation of work by some of the most famous researchers in the country. Last year Raj Chetty, a John Bates Clark medal-winning economist from Harvard, led a long-run study that found children whose families got the low-poverty voucher had incomes that were one-third higher in their twenties. Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago led a study that found reductions in diabetes and extreme obesity among the same group. The data set has been used to investigate academic outcomes and changes to mental health. It factors into policy debates big and small.
Chicago Tribune: Lincoln-Way 'inappropriately' spent bond money, will borrow $5 million
Lincoln-Way High School District 210 deposited millions of bond dollars into the wrong account, used bond funds for “temporary loans” to cover payroll and other operating expenses, and spent $366,985 earmarked for capital projects on items like school supplies, district officials acknowledged late Thursday.
The district’s former superintendent, Lawrence Wyllie, also directed the bookkeeping department to reclassify non-capital expenses as bond expenses, an attorney for the district said.
Correcting the cash-strapped school district’s mishandling of bond money will cost taxpayers $5 million more in new borrowing, officials said in a statement.
New York Times: The Sins of the Chicago Police Laid Bare
No one who is even passingly familiar with the history of the Chicago Police Department can claim to be surprised by a new report showing that the department is plagued by systemic racism and operates with utter disregard for the lives of the black citizens whom it batters, maims and kills.
Nevertheless, this report, issued on Wednesday by a task force appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, lays out with extraordinary clarity the department’s long record of racial profiling, torture and killings and makes scores of recommendations that might offer Chicagoans some hope.
Sun-Times: House Democrats propose graduated income tax plan
The state’s top earners would pay more in income tax and 99 percent of Illinois taxpayers would pay less, under a tax code overhaul hailed as “good public policy” by its Democratic sponsor but denounced by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration as “the straw that breaks the Illinois economy’s back.”
The proposed graduated income tax system is meant to raise $1.9 billion to prevent more cuts to the state’s social services.
NBC Chicago: 6 Videos Released Showing Excessive Force Used on Cook County Jail Inmates
Six videos released Friday show correctional officers in Cook County, Illinois, using what officials say is excessive force on inmates.
“The public has a right to know when officers abuse the public trust as well as the ramifications of that abuse,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said in a statement when the footage was released.
The videos correspond to six different cases and involve 13 correctional deputies, all of whom have been disciplined, according to police.
Forbes: The Fastest-Shrinking Cities In The U.S.
The United States has a population of 323,341,000 as of April 2016, with 81 percent living in cities or suburbs. Even though the number of people living in cities across the U.S. has increased over the past few years, at least 23 metropolitan areas experienced a decline in excess of 2 percent between 2010 and 2015.
The website 24/7 Wall St. analyzed the downward population trends using U.S. Census Bureau data. It found that Farmington, New Mexico, is the fastest-shrinking city in America, having experienced a population decline of 8.76 percent between 2010 and 2015. The city is known for low incomes as well as a violent crime rate far in excess of the national average.
Pine Bluff in Arkansas is also experiencing a fall in its population, recording a 6.38 percent drop during the same timeframe. It also has low income levels per capita, coupled with high rates of violent crime. With a 4.92 percent decrease over the same five year period, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, rounds off America’s top three fastest-shrinking cities.