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Chicago Tribune: Madigan plays double dare as session deadline looms
On a single day in May more than a quarter century ago, House Speaker Michael Madigan used his power to pass a state income tax increase entirely with Democratic votes and without any foreknowledge by Republican lawmakers or a GOP governor.
“It is bold. It’s audacious. And it might even be diabolical,” then-Gov. Jim Thompson said of Madigan’s move.
That’s back when Illinois politics — and the campaign cash and rhetoric surrounding it — were a much tamer game between Democrats who ran the legislature and Republicans who controlled the governor’s office.
Sun-Times: Property tax flexibility to fund teacher pensions OKed by Senate
A bill that would give the Chicago City Council the power to raise property taxes to fund its teacher pensions met approval in the Illinois Senate on Friday.
The education bill includes a provision that lifts the property tax cap to allow Mayor Rahm Emanuel to do what he has long promised to do: raise property taxes by $175 million for teacher pensions. That was part of the teachers’ contract that was rejected by the Chicago Teachers Union’s 40-person bargaining unit. Emanuel first made that promise more than a year ago.
After a 20-minute debate, in which many Republicans requested more time to review the complex bill, the Illinois Senate voted 31-19 to approve the measure. It must now be passed in the Illinois House as the clock ticks to a May 31 deadline.
Fox Chicago: Cars line up for blocks for Illinois vehicle emissions test
Long lines stretching for blocks were seen Friday as Illinois driver scrambled to get their vehicles tested before the end of the month.
Before June 1, drivers must pass an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency vehicle emissions test before they can renew their registration.
The Verge: Someone's trying to gut America's strongest biometric privacy law
For years, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act has been a headache for any tech company working with facial recognition. It’s a simple law, requiring a person’s explicit consent before a company can make a biometric scan of their body. In the eight years since the law was first passed, those scans have become a central part of products like Google Photos, Snapchat filters, and Facebook’s photo-tagging system. All three companies are currently facing lawsuits for allegedly violating the Illinois law, producing biometric face prints without notifying Illinois citizens.
Now, Illinois’ law is facing sudden and quiet changes that would dramatically reduce its power.
Yesterday, Illinois State Senator Terry Link quietly proposed a revision to the biometrics act, attached to a long-delayed bill concerning unclaimed property procedures. Under Link’s revisions, the bill would be limited to “data resulting from an in-person process whereby a part of the body is traversed by a detector or an electronic beam.” That conveniently rules out scans from preexisting photography, and — if the revisions become law — would end all three lawsuits in a single stroke.
Fox Illinois: Lawmakers Rush To Pass Bills As End Of Session Nears
The final days of session are upon us as lawmakers rush to pass bills and come to an compromise on the budget.
Lawmakers are continuing negotiations in working groups, but leaders still seem very far apart on what a budget deal should look like.
Crain's Chicago: Why rage against the minimum wage when fast food can automate the kitchen?
In the middle of a recent trade show, all eyes were on a robot that gripped a fry basket, dipped it into an empty deep fryer and pulled it back out, shaking off the imaginary grease.
The android stood in the front of the display for equipment manufacturer Middleby, offering visitors to the National Restaurant Association convention at McCormick Place a glimpse of the potential future of restaurant kitchens—a future that is either dystopian or liberating, depending on your point of view. Middleby doesn’t sell such devices now, but the Elgin company offers plenty of other equipment that automates kitchen tasks and reduces the need for people.
As restaurant workers start taking home higher pay, courtesy of a wave of minimum wage legislation, Middleby is betting that its ovens, drink dispensers and other machines will become more attractive to restaurant companies. So while the Fight for $15 movement and higher minimum wages are giving operators fits, for Middleby they add up to a big opportunity.
Greg Hinz: Is Mike Madigan starting to lose his stuff?
For many a decade now, the Memorial Day weekend ritual has been much the same in Springfield: House Speaker Mike Madigan decides what budget mix will best serve his political interests and rams it through, daring the Senate and governor to stand in his way.
That secret-sauce formula still may have its magic. The Senate and governors have a long history of usually caving. Lots of things still are occurring in the Capitol as I write this.
But it appears this time that Madigan’s odds of winning are less, maybe substantially less, than they usually have been. The sauce has lost some of its zing. Signs are growing that the era in which the speaker’s tail wagged Springfield’s dog is seeing its limits.
Points and Figures: Transaction Taxes, Now Being Debated In Illinois
Why do politicians always want to get between people and their money? I was listening to an Uber X driver last night. She was at wit’s end. She had no job prospects and she was losing everything. She didn’t want to go on government assistance. Uber gave her a way out. This isn’t the first time I have heard a story like that.
Yet, politicians in cities and states all over the country want to tax innovation andprotect cronies.
How is this related to a transaction tax? Because politicians in the US Congress and now in the state of Illinois want to get between people and their money again. They are doing it so they can redistribute money to their cronies. The taxes aren’t going for “public good” despite what anyone says about them.
WSJ: Illinois Budget Standoff Nears One-Year Mark
The state of Illinois is approaching a one-year anniversary without a budget and lawmakers in Springfield are scrambling to find common ground ahead of the end of the spring legislative session May 31.
“I’m here all weekend, I’m encouraging the members of the general assembly to stay here all weekend,” Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Friday in the capital. “We know change is hard…but it is essential that we stop kicking the can.”
Illinois has $7 billion in unpaid bills, the lowest credit rating of any state in the country, and it is the only state without a spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1. Mr. Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature have little to show for the 11 months of on-again, off-again negotiations.
Mike Flannery: Madigan pulls plug on budget negotiations
The political meltdown in Illinois’ State Capitol took a new, vindictive turn Friday.
House Speaker Mike Madigan killed Governor Bruce Rauner’s hope for a “grand compromise” on a budgetand pro-business reforms.
The two sides met just long enough in the governor’s office to make clear how deeply they disagree.