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Chicago Tribune: Emanuel on pension veto: 'Rauner just told every Chicago taxpayer to take a hike'
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday vetoed legislation that would have given Chicago more time to restore financial soundness to the city’s police and fire pension funds, a move that could force Mayor Rahm Emanuel to raise taxes yet again.
Over the short term, the bill would have reduced how much taxpayers contribute to the retirement funds by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But that delay would come at a cost of billions of dollars over the long haul. By paying less upfront, the pension debt would continue to grow.
And that’s why Rauner vetoed it.
Tax Foundation: Marijuana Legalization and Taxes: Federal Revenue Impact
- Marijuana tax collections in Colorado and Washington have exceeded initial estimates.
- A mature marijuana industry could generate up to $28 billion in tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments, including $7 billion in federal revenue: $5.5 billion from business taxes and $1.5 billion from income and payroll taxes.
- A federal tax of $23 per pound of product, similar to the federal tax on tobacco, could generate $500 million per year. Alternatively, a 10 percent sales surtax could generate $5.3 billion per year, with higher tax rates collecting proportionately more.
- The reduction of societal risk in being engaged in the marijuana trade, as well as the inclusion of taxes, will combine to reduce profits (and tax collections) somewhat from an initial level after national legalization.
- Society pays all the costs regardless of legality but tax revenues help offset those costs.
Chicago Tribune: City to release videos from as many as 100 police shootings, other incidents
City officials plan to release videos, reports and other materials next week from about 100 police incidents, including officer-involved shootings, as part of an effort to improve public trust in Chicago police, according to a memo obtained Friday by the Tribune.
The impending release of the materials comes after Mayor Rahm Emanuel‘s Police Accountability Task Force — formed as part of the fallout from the court-ordered release last November of the Laquan McDonald shooting video — recommended that videos of police-related incidents be made public within 60 days.
The materials from each incident are tentatively scheduled to be released Thursday, according to the memo issued by the city’s Office of Emergency Management & Communications. The Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that investigates allegations of excessive force against Chicago police officers, “will be responsible” for making the materials available through the task force’s website, the memo said.
Bloomberg: Budget Crisis in Illinois Spurs Trading Tax Plan That CME Hates
As Illinois grapples with a budget crisis, lawmakers are floating an old idea in their search for new revenue: a tax on trading on exchanges based in the state, including some of the biggest financial markets in the world.
The bill is in early stages and faces long odds of approval. But the measure — targeting trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange and other markets — was up for debate on Thursday at a hearing in Springfield, the state’s capital.
Speaking at the event, CME Group Inc. Executive Chairman Terry Duffy said a financial transaction tax would be a disaster for the state’s economy. His Chicago-based company, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, handles futures contracts linked to everything from key stock indexes to agricultural commodities and interest rates.
Sun-Times: Nobody should have to pay to clear record of a false crime charge
Imagine there’s a car theft ring sweeping through Chicago. One day you look up and see pictures of several acquaintances on the news. To your shock, these people who you thought you knew were actually leading double lives and devastating communities through their criminal behavior.
You hear a knock on the door. It’s the police. Turns out those acquaintances-turned-car thieves implicated you as an accomplice in their scheme. Within a 24-hour whirlwind, you have been arrested, charged with a felony and branded via public records as a criminal.
Except there’s a catch – you didn’t do it.
Bond Buyer: More Rancor in Illinois
With just days left in the legislative session, Illinois Democrats and Republicans remained dug in, offering little sign that a compromise to end the nearly year old budget standoff was near.
Republican minority leaders did emerge from a leaders meeting with Gov. Bruce Rauner expressing renewed hope of a compromise, saying Democratic leaders expressed a commitment to ramping up negotiations among several budget working groups. “The Democratic leaders now share our sense of urgency of brining this impasse to a close,” said Minority House Leader, Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs. Democratic leaders did not comment after the meeting.
The political discord had taken a turn for the worse Wednesday when House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, bypassed ongoing bipartisan budget discussions to push through a fiscal 2017 spending plan that Rauner and fellow GOP members slammed as phony and catastrophic.
Reason: Illinois Racks Up Millions in Property Seizures by Police
Cars, guns, cash, PlayStations, a forklift, and even a statue of a Mexican folk saint: Illinois police raked in an estimated $72 million-worth of seized property over the past two years, public records obtained by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union show.
Illinois has one of the more aggressive asset forfeiture programs in the country. In April, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a lead editorialcalling on the state to reform the program. The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm, gave the state’s asset forfeiture laws a “D-” grade for their lax property owner protections, low standards of evidence and expensive bond requirements to challenge seizures.
The ACLU records cover only two years, but they provide a wide-angle snapshot of what kind of property Illinois police seized, how much and where the proceeds flowed. They are also rare among records on asset forfeiture because they show the disposition of seized property.
WSJ: Illinois Budget Showdown
Editorial Board Member Collin Levy on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s fight to save the state from bankruptcy.
BND: Rauner reverses course on medical marijuana, backs expansion
Gov. Bruce Rauner has reversed course on broadening Illinois’ medical marijuana pilot program and is now supporting a plan to extend it roughly two years and add more qualifying health conditions.
Legislation filed Friday by Deputy House Leader Lou Lang adds post-traumatic stress syndrome and terminal illness to the qualifying conditions, reconstitutes an advisory board and overhauls procedures. The proposal also extends the sunset to 2020 from 2018.
Rauner has previously rejected attempts at expansion. He vetoed legislation adding PTSD.
In a statement, Lang says Rauner and GOP leaders agreed on a plan that’ll help “seriously ill individuals.” Rauner’s office confirmed his support, but declined to comment.
Democratic former Gov. Pat Quinn signed the program into law in 2013. The first sales were last year.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner, Madigan point fingers of blame as lawmakers head home for a day
Lawmakers went home Friday for a brief holiday weekend break, with Democratic leaders unable to agree on whether to send Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner a short-term or long-term budget as the administration threatened to veto either.
The day began with a private meeting between Rauner and legislative leaders but quickly devolved into the same partisan-finger pointing that has marked the nearly year-long stalemate at the Capitol and left Mayor Rahm Emanuel to joke about locking lawmakers atop the new Navy Pier Ferris wheel until they figure it out.
Senate President John Cullerton, facing trouble convincing his Democratic supermajority to jump on board a full-year, $7 billion-short spending plan muscled through the House by Speaker Michael Madigan, tried to talk the other leaders into a short-term budget instead. But Madigan turned thumbs down on the idea, as did the Republicans, who accusedDemocrats of trying to drag out the stalemate until after the November election.
AP: Illinois road plan focuses on maintenance and repair
Cement mixers and road-graders will continue to lag behind Illinois’ deteriorating roads and bridges as Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration announced a hold-the-line transportation-improvement program that focuses on maintenance.
The $11.2 billion, six-year program released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Transportation is actually rosier than expected. Transportation Secretary Randy Blankenhorn reported that a newly approved federal highway plan will add $1 billion. And a trend toward lower motor-fuel tax revenues because of more efficient automobiles appears to be reversing.
WICS: House, Senate Cancel Saturday Session
The countdown is on as state lawmakers, as of Friday, have just four days to approve a state budget.
That deadline didn’t stop state leaders from going almost a year without approving a state budget.