QUOTE OF THE DAY
State Journal Register: State files response to pension lawsuits
The state’s pension debt and other financial problems justified enacting the pension reform legislation, attorneys for the state said Thursday in court documents.
In its response to lawsuits filed trying to overturn the pension reform law, the state said that “in light of the magnitude of the pension problem and all of the other efforts the state has made to date, the (reform law) represents a valid exercise of the state’s reserved sovereign powers to modify contractual rights and obligations.”
The state filed its response to five lawsuits filed by retired teachers, state workers, university employees and public employee unions seeking to have last year’s pension reform law declared unconstitutional. The lawsuits argue that the law violates the pension protections in the Illinois Constitution that say pension benefits cannot be impaired or diminished.
Daily Herald: $200,000 Elgin library grant tucked into Democrats’ state budget
Tucked in among the rest of the Democrats’ state spending proposal for the coming year is a unique $200,000 grant earmarked for Elgin’s Gail Borden Library District.
Library officials said the grant was an initiative they pushed to kick-start a bookmobile program to provide greater access to underserved readers in the district.
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But critics call it pork designed to persuade a recently appointed state representative to vote in favor of renewing the income tax rate hike.
Daily Herald: State lawmakers considering ridesharing rules
Illinois lawmakers have advanced a plan to create rules for unregulated ridesharing companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar.
A Senate committee voted to approve two pieces of legislation on Wednesday. The proposals would create two tiers of regulations for the ridesharing industry, which operates primarily in larger cities like Chicago.
All drivers would need to pass background checks and have commercial liability insurance. Drivers working more than 36 hours in a two-week period would need to follow stricter regulations similar to taxis.
Chicago Tribune: Hey, Illinois legislators. Knock knock. Your promise is here.
“I would vote to repeal the tax increase. I would not support extending the tax increase.”
— State Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg
“We made a promise to the taxpayers and we should keep to that promise. It was a temporary increase and it should be kept that way.”
— State Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates
During the Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsement process in 2012, we asked legislative candidates: Would you extend the 2011 temporary income tax increase or allow it to roll back as scheduled?
Bloomberg: Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash
A telephone call between a financial adviser in Beverly Hills and a trader in New York was all it took to fleece taxpayers on a water-and-sewer financing deal in West Virginia. The secret conversation was part of a conspiracy stretching across the U.S. by Wall Street banks in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.
The call came less than two hours before bids were due for contracts to manage $90 million raised with the sale of West Virginia bonds. On one end of the line was Steven Goldberg, a trader with Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. On the other was Zevi Wolmark, of advisory firm CDR Financial Products Inc. Goldberg arranged to pay a kickback to CDR to land the deal, according to government records filed in connection with a U.S. Justice Department indictment of CDR and Wolmark.
West Virginia was just one stop in a nationwide conspiracy in which financial advisers to municipalities colluded with Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Wachovia Corp. and 11 other banks.
Crain’s: What’s Madigan up to with call to limit business tax breaks?
So how seriously should you take Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s proposal yesterday to rein in the state’s main job incentive program, so-called EDGE tax credits?
The answer likely depends on just how many votes the speaker has — or still needs — to pass a permanent extension of the state’s “temporary” income tax hike in the waning days of the General Assembly’s spring session. And on who might be inclined to provide those votes.
According to a variety of well-placed sources, revamping the Economic Development for a Growing Economy credits is one of a series of still-moving pieces on the wider income tax chessboard. Also reportedly in play are a possible cut in the state’s corporate income tax rate, an increase in the earned income tax credit for working families, Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed $500-a-home property tax “refund,” and a permanent extension of the tax credit for research and development.
Washington Times: Latinos sour on high-cost, narrow-choice health care
Hispanics have the nation’s highest uninsured rate, yet few enrolled for medical coverage under Obamacare. Despite the expenditure of vast sums of money
and manpower in targeted Hispanic communities, only one in five of those eligible to purchase plans selected coverage, the data show.
California, which led the nation in overall enrollments, was unable to lure even one-third of its eligible Hispanic population into its state-based Obamacare exchange. This occurred despite aggressive courting through a Spanish-language website, bilingual enrollment counselors, community events at grocery stores in Hispanic neighborhoods and more than $8 million spent on Spanish-language ads from January to March.
That raises a question: With government marketing muscle and tax dollars supporting Hispanic enrollment efforts, why did only a reported 816,000 of the estimated 4.1 million eligible Hispanics — or 20 percent in the 40 states where demographic data is available — bother to enroll?
CARTOON OF THE DAY
