WirePoints: $224 Million Thanksgiving Eve Binge by Pat Quinn!
Prepare to get sick.
Late today, in nine separate press releases, Governor Pat Quinn announced spending totaling $223.7 million from the infamous “Jobs Now” program passed in 2009 that was justified as stimulus for the Illinois economy at the depth of the recession. Today’s press releases are linked here.
While much of the spending under the program has been for legitimate capital projects, Jobs Now has been highly controversial from the start. It was not used as stimulus during the recession, and much of it was spent on projects widely regarded as pork. Earlier spending has included decorative lights for a bridge over the Mississippi, handouts to wealthy universities, and grants to two technology incubators that don’t need the money (which we wrote about in articles linked here and here).
The projects will be paid with money the state does not have — borrowed through a bond offering that was part of the program.
Washington Post: Taxi medallions have been the best investment in America for years. Now Uber may be changing that.
A taxicab is a car remade by government, modified dozens of ways by edicts within subsections of articles of the city’s taxi code.
“Everywhere on this car has been regulated,” John Henry Assabill says. “Look at it!”
He throws up his arms in the direction of his gold-colored 2012 Ford Transit Connect. The car’s medallion number — 813 — is painted in black plain gothic figures (must be black plain gothic figures) on the driver’s-side hood, on both passenger doors and, for good measure, on the rear. Inside, there is a camera mounted over the rear-view mirror, a dispatch radio bolted to the console, a credit-card reader snapped to the passenger headrest.
Chicago Sun Times: Chicago's overnight parking ban begins Monday
The city’s annual winter overnight parking ban begins at 3 a.m. Monday.
New York Times: In First Week, More Than a Million Apply for Health Insurance on Federal Website
Obama administration officials said Wednesday that more than one million people had submitted applications for health insurance in the first week of this fall’s open enrollment period under theAffordable Care Act, and 45 percent of them had already selected health plans.
The applications showed that HealthCare.gov, the website for the federalinsurance marketplace, was working. The federal marketplace was largely dysfunctional when it opened last fall. More than three times as many people selected health plans in one week this month as in all of October and November of last year.
“We are off to a solid start,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said in a conference call with journalists on Wednesday. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do every day between now and Feb. 15,” when the three-month enrollment period ends.
WirePoints: New Jersey Comes Clean on Pension Numbers; Will Illinois?
“Our state pensions are really only 33% funded, not 54% as we have been telling you.” That’s a pretty fair summary of what New Jersey officially said yesterday to its potential bond buyers. Adding in two large local pensions, the funded ratio dropped from 63% to 44%.
The statement was made in the form of a short, clear supplement to an Official Statement for a pending sale of New Jersey general obligation bonds. That supplement is linked here, and an article about it from Pensions & Investments is linked here. An Official Statement is the big document bond issuers publish, the primary purpose of which is to notify potential buyers of financial matters material to the safety of the bonds.
Specifically, what New Jersey did was clearly state it’s pension deficits using new accounting rules from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. Like Illinois, New Jersey has it’s own statutory methods for tracking pensions and determining annual contributions, which GASB decided are junk, so it issued its own standards.
AEI: Top 400 taxpayers paid almost as much in federal income taxes in 2010 as the entire bottom 50%
We hear all the time that “the rich aren’t paying their fair share of taxes” (you’ll find more than 1,000,000 Google search results for that phrase). Early last year Obama reiterated his belief that the wealthiest Americans still aren’t paying their “fair share” of taxes. Here’s an analysis using recent IRS data that suggests otherwise.
1. In 2010 (most recent year available), the top 400 taxpayers based on Adjusted Gross Income earned $106 billion collectively, and they paid $19.1 billion in federal income taxes at an average tax rate of 18% (see chart above).
2. In 2010, the bottom 50% of taxpayers, a group totaling 67.5 million Americans, earned collectively almost $1 trillion and paid $22.4 billion in federal income taxes at average tax rate of 2.4%.
Daily Herald: Pensions make up most of Elgin's new day-to-day expenses
The majority of the $9.5 million increase projected for the city of Elgin’s general fund budget stems from pensions, along with salaries for new employees and increases in benefits.
The 2015 proposed general fund budget — which is used for the city’s day-to-day operations — is $114.9 million. Elgin’s fiscal year starts Jan. 1; the city council is expected to approve the overall $290.5 million budget Dec. 17.
The police department is the largest component of the general fund, with $39.4 million in expenses projected for 2015, compared to $38 million budgeted this year.