QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chicago Tribune: Quinn signs Emanuel pension bill
Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a pension measure backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel that would cut benefits and raise the retirement age for workers in two of the city’s pension funds.
Today was the deadline for Quinn to act on the legislation, and he had been mulling it over since lawmakers sent it to him in April. The bill presented a bit of a political quandary for the re-election-seeking Quinn. That’s because it requires the city to make higher yearly pension contributions, which Emanuel has said he would seek to pay for through a property tax increase. Quinn has campaigned on reducing the property tax burden.
In a rare signing statement, Quinn noted that he opposed an earlier version of the bill that would have required the property tax increase. It was later removed and the bill he signed today leaves the funding source up to Emanuel and the Chicago City Council. Still, Quinn urged city leaders not to raise property taxes to come up with the money.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago should reconsider ban of pedicabs on some streets
T.C. O’Rourke makes his living pedaling people around Chicago in a tricycle taxi. But thanks to City Hall, he might soon be out of business.
As of Saturday, it’s illegal for pedicab drivers to use busy downtown stretches of Michigan Avenue and State Street — where O’Rourke says 80 percent of his business is. The ban means fewer customers and longer rides.
“There was one person that I ended up making a 12-block trip instead of a five-block trip, just because I had to avoid Michigan,” said O’Rourke, of Logan Square. “Nobody wants to ride down alleys and side streets to get to where they’re going when they’re visiting Chicago.”
Bloomberg: Waking Up From Fiscal Nightmare That’s Chicago: Muni Week
To show how badly public pensions have been short-changed, Securities and Exchange Commissioner Daniel Gallagher mentioned a place where every household owes $88,000 for promises the government made to retirees.
He didn’t name the locality in his speech last month to municipal-bond regulators, though he did flag it in a footnote to the written text. “In case you were wondering,” Gallagher wrote, “this fiscal nightmare is Chicago.”
The home of the blues, bootlegger Al Capone and a Cubs baseball team that’s gone more than a century without a World Series win has also turned itself into a case study of municipal fiscal plight.
Northwest Herald: Public safety pension woes
Addressing Chicago’s pension problems this spring, state lawmakers left Springfield without an agreement on another pension issue that local officials fear will squeeze resources for road repairs, neighborhood enhancements and other projects residents desire.
A potential bill that addresses ballooning unfunded pension liabilities to suburban and downstate police and firefighter retirement funds never made it to committee, after negotiations led by Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, failed between municipal officials and police and fire unions.
The lack of consensus on a reform to the more than 600 public safety pensions comes as McHenry County officials see more property tax dollars go toward state-mandated pension contributions.
Journal Gazette & Times Courier: Illinois to spend $4M for ballot measure mailers
Illinois will likely spend about $4 million to mail pamphlets and buy newspaper ad space to tell voters about several efforts to change the state constitution in the November election, a state spokesman says.
Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker told The Associated Press on Friday that his agency is required by law to produce almost 6 million pamphlets that include information about the pros and cons of each proposed constitutional amendment.
About 5.2 million pamphlets will be mailed to every Illinois household before the election, and others will be available in libraries or political offices. The law also requires Secretary of State Jesse White’s office to post information in newspapers in every county before the election.
Fox Chicago: Report raises questions about 2010 Quinn program
A published report is raising new questions about when Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration issued payments for an anti-violence program that’s now under investigation.
Quinn started the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative in 2010. It’s been the subject of a scathing state audit detailing mismanagement. Critics have also called it a political slush fund started before an election where Quinn won by a close margin.
Quinn maintains he addressed issues and no money was spent before the election.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
