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Sun-Times: Rauner reignites push for term limits
Gov. Bruce Rauner called on lawmakers on Monday to vote on a proposed amendment that would impose limits on their terms in office.
Speaking at Raise Marketplace, a tech startup in the Loop, Rauner pushed for the Illinois General Assembly to vote on the issue during its fall veto session. The governor spoke for less than 10 minutes and did not take reporters’ questions afterward.
Atlas: Economic freedom enables success after prison
Each year, 30,000 people leave Illinois prisons after completing their sentences. They’ve made mistakes and served their time. But now, the biggest challenge they face will be getting back on their feet and staying out of crime.
Yet studies show that as many 60 to 75 percent of ex-offenders are unemployed a year after leaving prison. Many reasons contribute to this. There are few opportunities, for example, to build employable skills while incarcerated. And some employers may, understandably, be reluctant to hire employees with criminal records.
But one major problem is that too often government stands in the way, impinging on the economic freedom that can provide solutions to post-incarceration underemployment and joblessness.
Crain's: Want to defend the middle class? Freeze property taxes
Actions speak louder than words.
Illinoisans have come to understand this all too well. Our lawmakers like to talk about helping the middle class, but their votes often show otherwise. For example, property tax reform is a prime way to help the middle class, yet another legislative session has come and gone, and we’ve been left without relief from this crippling tax.
It’s long past time for them to act. Illinois homeowners now face the highest median property tax rate in the country. At 2.67 percent, homeowners in the Land of Lincoln pay double the national median rate.
Sun-Times: Feds: Blago doesn’t deserve leniency
Rod Blagojevich broke his silence from prison last year, vowing he “must fight on” and “what is at stake is nothing less than the rule of law.”
Late Monday night, federal prosecutors threw those words back in the former governor’s face as he nears a key turning point in the battle for his freedom. They wrote in a court filing that Blagojevich’s comments “demonstrate a complete lack of acceptance of responsibility.”
Bloomberg: Chicago Still Has Time to Embrace Pension Reform, Moody’s Says
Chicago still has time to fix its pension problem, but if the junk-rated city wants to improve to investment grade, it must reverse the direction of its mounting retirement debt, according to Naomi Richman, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service.
“Time is not about to run out for Chicago,” Richman said during a panel at the City Club of Chicago on Monday. “The city clearly doesn’t have forever, but there’s still time we think to make policy changes to avoid a full blown financial crisis.”
Chicago Tribune: Rauner ally chalks up abrupt resignation as politics getting 'too ugly'
A suburban Republican lawmaker known for throwing plenty of verbal jabs during the 18-month stalemate at the Capitol said Monday that he abruptly resigned because politics is getting “too ugly.”
Rep. Ron Sandack, a top ally of Gov. Bruce Rauner, said he made his decision to step down from the Illinois House after several fraudulent social media accounts were set up in his name in recent weeks. He also cited recent automated telephone calls accusing him of accosting a Democratic staff member.
“I wasn’t looking forward to an ugly general election as it were; this additional stuff added undue pressure,” said Sandack, who up for re-election in November. “It made my family uneasy and made me re-evaluate my priorities. Politics has gotten too ugly. I don’t need it, and my family doesn’t deserve it.”
Daily Herald: College of DuPage board member Olsen could fill Sandack's seat
David S. Olsen, a rising star in the DuPage County Republican Party, appears to be the leading candidate to replace 81st District state Rep. Ron Sandack of Downers Grove, who has resigned his seat citing “cyber security issues.”
Olsen, 27, of Downers Grove, already serves as vice chairman of the College of DuPage board of trustees, as a Downers Grove village commissioner and as vice chairman of the Downers Grove Township Republican Organization.
Daily Herald: Geneva OKs new TIF district, without any breaks for school district
The Geneva school district gambled and lost Monday night over getting some relief in a new tax-increment financing district in downtown Geneva.
The city council refused to consider a second counterproposal from the school board, adopted earlier that evening. It was too late, several aldermen said; the school board should have acted sooner.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Democrats looking for someone to run against Rauner in 2018
Officially, Illinois Democrats were gathered in a hotel ballroom Monday to rally their troops at the start of the Democratic National Convention, but it was a different upcoming election battle that consumed much of the focus.
The question on the minds of many delegates here was not just how to help Democrat Hillary Clinton defeat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November, but whom to run against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018.
Rauner’s name was mentioned as often as Trump’s during a two-hour breakfast meeting that featured pep talks from labor leaders and party officials, and regular reminders from the breakfast emcee, Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough, that “we need a Democratic governor.”