April 28, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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NWI: Illinois brings joy to Indiana

From the email this week, I sensed a profound need by Hoosiers to find joy in the problems of Illinois.

Our neighbors to the west are fighting their way through a mess of their own making. They have forced themselves to raise taxes and cut services to correct, in part, their failure to fund their state and local pension plans.

Illinois’ difficulties prompted Indiana’s leaders to hunt like vultures for carrion on the other side of the border. We celebrate every family or firm that moves from the Land of Lincoln to the Hoosier state. Are there no Hoosiers moving to Illinois?

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Crain’s Chicago: One bidder, one winner in county care contract

Last fall, the Cook County Health & Hospitals System asked nine companies to bid on a monster contract to operate a new Medicaid managed care plan called CountyCare.

Or so county officials say.

Three of the vendors say they never received the system’s email invitation, with one saying it would have submitted a proposal had it known about the ask. Of the rest, five did not respond by the submission deadline, 25 days later. In the end, only one company applied—IlliniCare Health Plan Inc., a division of St. Louis-based Centene Corp. The system’s board approved the five-year, $1.8 billion contract last month.

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Daily Herald: Fact Checker: Was it really 35% of young enrolled in health care?

“Thirty-five percent of people who enrolled through the federal marketplace are under the age of 35.”– President Barack Obama, news conference, April 17, 2014

While on break earlier in the month, The Fact Checker managed to pass a TV set that aired images of the president’s announcement on April 17 that 8 million people had signed up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. A headline in the TV news ticker amplified the president’s message that 35 percent of the enrollees were younger than 35.

Why is that important? The “young invincibles” are considered a key to the health law’s success because they are healthier and won’t require as much health care as older Americans. If the proportion of young and old enrollees was out of whack, insurance companies might feel compelled to boost premiums, which some analysts feared would lead to a cycle of even fewer younger adults and higher premiums.

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St. Louis Post Dispatch: Documents show increase in Illinois patronage jobs

The Illinois Department of Transportation increased the number of jobs that can be filled based on politics or loyalty by 57 percent in the last decade, documents released Friday show.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s office divulged 137 pages of memos sought by an anti-patronage activist in a lawsuit filed this week. Lawyer Michael Shakman of Chicago wants a federal judge to order an investigation of hiring under the governor, a Democrat. The documents are copies of memos written between Quinn’s office and IDOT from 2011 through summer 2013.

They deal with the hiring of people for “staff assistant” positions — generally paying about $40,000 a year — that the administration deemed were exempt from rules set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1990 ruling on an Illinois case known as Rutan. The Better Government Association reported last summer that IDOT skirted Rutan prohibitions on hiring based on politics or loyalty by putting people into the staff assistant positions.

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CNBC: Best and worst US states for ‘Taxpayer ROI’

It’s not only Uncle Sam that needs money. State governments also collect tax revenues—even the seven that don’t have a state income tax. But some of them do a better job at giving taxpayers a bang for their buck—or to put it into Wall Street terminology, give better return on investment (ROI).

And the best at that is Wyoming, according to WalletHub.com, a finances-focused online community for consumers, which released its “Taxpayer ROI” survey results this week. Next is Alaska, followed by the above-mentioned South Dakota, Washington and then North Dakota.

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Real Time Economics: Is the Growth of Solo Businesses A Good Sign for the Economy?

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More Americans are running businesses from home. But does that bode well for the recovery?

The number of U.S. businesses without paid employees—mostly self-employed individuals with unincorporated businesses—rose 1.1% to 22.74 million in 2012, the latest data available, according to a new report by Census this week. “Non-employer” businesses have increased nearly 7% since dipping to 21.35 million in 2008, the first full year of the 2007-2009 recession.

The new Census data jibe with reports from the Labor Department that suggest self-employment took a hit during the recession but has since come back slightly.

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CARTOON OF THE DAY

IRS