SJR: Illinois manufacturers need bold action from Springfield
Should Illinois businesses have to rely on Hoosier runoff to keep their doors open?
That’s the question facing Illinois lawmakers, as big reforms to the state’s manufacturing sector are on the bargaining table, including changes to Illinois’ workers’ compensation system, tort reform and a property-tax freeze.
But Springfield residents don’t need to listen to the endless chatter of state politicians to understand these issues. They can take a five-minute drive from the Statehouse on MacArthur Boulevard and see for themselves.
That’s where one can find Mark Selvaggio, who has been able to keep Selvaggio Steel afloat by picking up extra work from neighboring states experiencing a manufacturing boom. Selvaggio’s father founded his family’s fabricating business in 1957.
Daily Herald: Suburban non-profit fluorishes without government reliance
What happens in a state without a balanced budget? Some Illinoisans are learning the hard way.
Across the state, the lack of a state budget has meant social service providers that rely on government for funding are floundering. As a result, some of Illinois’ most vulnerable residents are suffering.
SJR: Illinois owes Springfield hospitals $76 million
Springfield’s two largest hospitals are owed a total of $76 million for the care of state workers, retirees and dependents — a record amount that continues to grow during the state budget impasse and threatens to stifle growth in the local medical industry.
Memorial Medical Center, which is owed $46.3 million from the State Employees’ Group Health Insurance Program, is delaying plans to construct an $80 million medical office building for exclusive rental to doctors at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine because of the impasse, the leader of Memorial’s parent organization said Friday.
“It’s all designed,” Memorial Health System Chief Executive Officer Edgar Curtis said of the building, which would include a 750-space parking deck. “It’s just sitting there, waiting.”
Sun-Times: City to pay $3.1 million to 47 immigrants denied cop jobs
Chicago taxpayers will spend $3.1 million to compensate 47 immigrants seeking to become police officers who were denied that chance because of a discriminatory rule that required applicants to have lived in the United States for the previous 10 years.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice, now conducting a civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department, filed a lawsuit against the city that stems from unrelated hiring abuses that occurred as long as a decade ago.
Journal Courier: School funding equity nice idea; don’t bank on it
Math used to be simple.
If you had two of something and added two, you had four. Likewise, if you had four of something and shared it among four people, each had one.
When it comes to funding education, though, an endless stream of variables has clouded the computations.
It starts with general aid from the state, which is awarded based on a formula that takes such things as poverty levels into account. Then, property tax revenues and various types of federal funds often designated for specific purposes are added to the mix.
Munilass: Chicago Public Schools and Antisocial Behavior in the Capital Markets
If someone were to ask me for the names of public finance professionals that I respect the most, Jim “Built By Bonds” Lebenthal would be high on my list. Folksy as this may seem, Lebenthal was one of those rare individuals who actually lived his ideals. Many people will remember him as a champion of infrastructure investment, wandering around cities in commercials pointing out important public works that municipal bond investors had funded.
This is what made Lebenthal such a fantastic role model — for him, investment was inextricably coupled with civic pride. In Lebenthal’s world, investors and taxpayers form a partnership. Investors transfer their capital to governments and, in exchange for a fair interest rate, those governments construct projects generations will enjoy and that make their local economies strong. School buildings where children would be educated. Waterworks that would provide the public with safe, potable water. Roads, bridges, and transit systems that promote commerce.
And if you ever had the chance to listen to Lebenthal speak, his enthusiasm for infrastructure investment was contagious. You would walk out of the room thinking, this is what will distinguish the United States as one of the great civilizations in history. Like Rome or Athens, we are a brave race thatbuilds great things, which in turn allows us to do great things.
Sun-Times: 2 aldermen jump on TIF pain train to help CPS
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget director has challenged aldermen who want to use surplus tax-increment financing money to bail out Chicago Public Schools to step forward and identify the local projects they’re willing to sacrifice.
Now two aldermen are doing just that to put the heat on Gov. Bruce Rauner to deliver the $480 million in pension help already built into the CPS budget.