QUOTE OF THE DAY
Greg Hinz: ‘Magic’ Madigan loses his touch — and Pat Quinn, his nerve
In the latest issue of Crain’s, I asked whether “Magic” Mike Madigan still has his good stuff and whether he remains the all-powerful speaker who can conjure up votes for just about anything he wants to pass.
We now have an answer: No.
Like an aging pitcher who’s been kept on the mound an inning too long, Mr. Madigan’s handling of the state budget this week and whether to extend the “temporary” income tax increase has been anywhere but on target.
Reuters: Chicago aldermen to propose raising minimum wage to $15 an hour
A group of Chicago aldermen plan to introduce a proposal on Wednesday to boost the minimum wage in the nation’s third-largest city to $15 per hour, joining officials in other major U.S. cities who also are considering a hike.
The group proposing the wage hike is separate from a panel Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel named last week among aldermen, labor and business leaders to provide recommendations for raising the minimum wage.
Alderman Ricardo Munoz said 12 to 15 of the 50 council members support the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and he expected more to join.
Chicago Sun Times: On second try, Senate passes ‘cupcake girl’ legislation
At first, it looked like the “cupcake-girl” bill suffered the same fate as an overbaked batch of brownies or cookies: It got tossed.
But the Illinois Senate had second thoughts, undoing a vote it had taken earlier in the day and voting to give a downstate 12-year-old cupcake baker the right to stay in business without her family having to build on a second kitchen in their home to satisfy their county public health department.
The Senate used a parliamentary maneuver to reverse a 17-32 vote that appeared to have killed legislation aimed to help Chloe Stirling. On a second try, the Senate voted 57-0 on legislation that would keep her mixing bowls spinning and bake-oven lit.
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) seems concerned about what voters think all of a sudden.
First he tried floating the idea of a millionaire tax last month, which went nowhere. The he tried to get Springfield to consider switching to a progressive tax system – that failed. Then he tried twisting arms to get Democrats to break their campaign promises and make the temporary 67% tax hike permanent, and not enough of them were willing to follow him down that road (mostly suburban and downstate Democratic lawmakers outside of Chicago). So now he’s back at the top of the batting order trying to sell the millionaire tax again.
Only this time instead of trying to whip his caucus in line to try and pass it into law (a feat he probably deemed futile after he couldn’t get the federal judge to delay Rep. Derrick Smith’s corruption trial till after Springfield adjourns May 31), he instead got the House to pass an “advisory question” on the ballot asking voters whether they support the idea of an extra 3% tax on incomes of more than $1 million a year by a vote of 64-46.
AEI: Why don’t progressives want to cut taxes for middle-class families?
Look, I understand the value of a shock headline, but this one from Salon is ridiculous: “The right’s new horror show: What reform conservatives are really peddling: Forget the talk about modernizing conservatism and making it less nutty. The future’s more dangerous than you think.”
And the actual piece from writer Matt Bruenig is no better. The “horror show” referred to is the reform conservative agenda, as outlined in the new book “Room to Grow.” What really seems to bug left-wing blogger Bruenig is the idea of a new child tax credit for parents. Here is an example, from “Room to Grow” of what it might look like:
A recent tax reform proposal by Senator Mike Lee (R., Utah) would take a large step in this direction. He would keep the current $1,000 child credit and the personal exemption for children, and add a new credit of $2,500 available to all taxpayers with kids, with no phaseout of the sort that applies to the current credit. The new credit could be used to reduce income-tax and payroll-tax liabilities; it couldn’t be used to increase refunds for those who have already used other credits (like the earned income credit) to reduce their tax bill to zero.
Daily Herald: Illinois state police overtime costs increase as budget cut
Budget cuts and staff reductions have led to a jump in overtime costs for the Illinois State Police.
The Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers reports the agency paid $1.7 million more in overtime during the last fiscal year than it did in 2010.
Total overtime increased by 20,000 hours in 2013, compared with three years earlier. Over that period, the budget shrank by $34 million to $383 million.
Washington Post: Robot workers could tear America’s social fabric
We are a long way from the Luddite riots of 19th century England, when protesters smashed the trappings of progress. But worries about the rise of the machines are still with us, and for good reason. Will the machines take our good-paying jobs?
Many economists offer a quick no. Today, real wages and per capita income are both enormously higher in the West than they were when the Luddites were destroying labor-saving machines during the Industrial Revolution, and to date the machines have not eliminated the need for human workers. Why would a technological revolution today have a different outcome than the Industrial Revolution? No need to worry, argue many economists.
This dismissal is too flip.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
