News-Gazette: Dueling visions for Illinois
I decided “to get outta Dodge” for a couple of weeks and set down in Austin.
Texas has been booming. The state’s population has grown by more than 20 percent a decade since it became a state in the 1840s and is on course to do so this decade as well.
State capital Austin is really hot. On average, 100 new people settle in the city — every day.
Apple is building a new campus here that will employ 4,000, I am told. Google, Oracle, Samsung — they are all here in this high-tech boom town.
ABC: CPS completes $725 million bond sale
Chicago Public Schools has made a $725 million tax-exempt bond sale that it says, combined with the $100 million in cuts announced Tuesday, will get the district through the school year by offsetting debt.
Credit-challenged CPS agreed to pay a whopping 8.5 percent interest rate on most of the bonds it sold Wednesday. Some of the money will be used to make interest payments on old debts. The district said it had hoped to secure $875 million from bond sales.
Sun-Times: Is teachers union on suicide mission?
The Chicago Teachers Union prides itself on being a democratically elected organization that fights for its members. Too bad the members had no say on a very generous contract offer from the Chicago Public Schools that the union leadership summarily rejected.
By all accounts, the deal that Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis presented to a 40-member bargaining committee was more than fair to teachers, even if it was less than ideal for parents and students. It avoided teacher layoffs, protected pensions, provided across-the-board raises based on seniority rather than performance and even limited charter school growth.
In exchange, the district would stop paying the so-called “pension pick-up,” under which the districts covers most of the employee pension contribution. Teachers would also pay a little more for health care but the deal is still a net financial gain for teachers.
The Republic: Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner unveiled a plan he says will save Illinois more than $500 million annually by streamlining how goods and services are bought
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner unveiled a plan he says will save Illinois more than $500 million annually by streamlining how goods and services are bought.
Rauner is urging lawmakers to pass legislation he says will reduce the time it takes to buy products by eliminating redundant steps in the procurement process. He estimates the state could save $514 million a year that can be used for colleges and human service programs.
Rauner’s announcement Tuesday came on a day when he and his comptroller highlighted Illinois’ worsening financial shape as the state enters the eighth month without a budget. Comptroller Leslie Munger says the state is on pace to finish the year $6.2 billion further in debt because of court-ordered spending and a drop in the income tax rate last year.
Herald News: Illinois politicians are bad-check writers
I have never understood people who will deliberately write a bad check.
Please note I said deliberately.
Folks occasionally make a mistake and overdraft a checking account. That’s when you look at the overdraft fee, sigh and pay what you owe.
CBS: CTU Closes $725,000 Account At Bank Of America To Protest CPS Debt Swaps
The battle between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools headed to a new front on Wednesday, as the union told a big bank it is taking its elsewhere.
CTU recording secretary Michael Brunson visited the of America offices at 135 S. LaSalle St. to pull more than $725,000 out of the bank and close the union’s account. The union said if CPS needs money for its classrooms, the district shouldn’t make cuts, it should go after Bank of America.
“The board is literally choosing teacher layoffs and special ed cuts to pay Bank of America profits. If the mayor and the Board of Education would choose to fight the the way that they fight the Chicago Teachers Union for these school funds, and put real legal and financial pressure on Bank of America, we have no doubt that the bank would come to the table,” Brunson said.
Chicago Tribune: Park Ridge orders family to tear down treehouse
Park Ridge family says they are considering legal action against the city of Park Ridge after being told that their backyard treehouse will have to come down.
Joseph and Margaret Solomon say that over the last two years, they’ve received mixed messages from city building officials regarding the legality of the wooden play structure they’d built atop a partial tree trunk on the 900 block of North Western Avenue.
The couple say drawings for the play structure, which at its highest point measures about 15 feet above the ground and overlooks two single-story homes, were approved by the city’s previous zoning coordinator. But last summer, the Solomons were told by a new zoning coordinator that their treehouse and the elevated walkway attached to it are not allowed.
Chicago Tribune: Teachers union has triple the public support of Emanuel
Three times as many Chicagoans side with the teachers union as with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on how to improve public schools at a time when the two sides remain locked in contentious contract negotiations, a Chicago Tribune poll has found.
The survey also found that Emanuel’s approval rating on education has fallen to a record low as the mayor and Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool are slashing budgets and cutting jobs in the face of the latest massive budget shortfall. Voters’ displeasure with the mayor’s handling of education tracks with the similarly low marks they gave Emanuel on his overall job performance and handling of crime.
As CPS has faced surging pension costs and a plummeting credit rating — the district borrowed $725 million Wednesday at an extraordinarily high interest rate to stay afloat this year — Emanuel has sought budget relief from the state. Those efforts, however, have been caught up in the Springfield stalemate. And now Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling for a state takeover of CPS and suggesting the district file for bankruptcy.
Northwest Herald: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner creates privately funded economic agency
Gov. Bruce Rauner used his executive powers Wednesday to establish a privately run and funded economic development corporation that’ll take over a state agency’s role in luring new business to Illinois, despite concerns from top Democrats about transparency.
Rauner, a former private equity investor, signed an order pitching the Illinois Business and Economic Development Corporation as a way to make Illinois more competitive for jobs. The nonprofit group will be funded by private funding, and Rauner estimated donors were prepared to chip in “millions” of dollars.
The state’s commerce agency would still have oversight and would have to approve any incentives the corporation offers.