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NBC 5 Chicago: Illinois Worker Pay Battle to Resurface in Court, Legislature
The question of whether to continue paying government workers during Illinois’ budget stalemate will surface again this week as a court takes up the state attorney general’s motion to halt payments and lawmakers consider a threat by Gov. Bruce Rauner to veto one of two proposals to keep them going.
A judge in St. Clair County on Thursday is scheduled to hear Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s request to end paychecks until the state breaks its nearly two-year-long budget gridlock.
Bloomberg: Watch What Indexing Does for Public Pensions
The unfunded liabilities of public pensions are out of control across the country. My state, Illinois, is the most severe case, with only 40 percent of those liabilities funded.
Given the magnitude of the problem, and the political and legal obstacles to fixing it, it remains tempting to underplay the importance of straightforward financial changes that could put the funds on much more solid ground. Worsening the problems of public pension systems nationwide is that they have proved to be poor investors. Standard and Poor’s recently released a study showing that about 75 percent of pension funds’ vehicle of choice — actively managed portfolios — underperformed their benchmarks.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been poured into wildly expensive hedge funds with little understanding and abysmal results. That has proved to be a colossal mistake — one that some states have been trying to rectify in the last few years.
Belleville News-Democrat: Illinois’ big pile of woe needs a big stack of fixes, but tower is shaking
Maybe The Grand Bargain is coming together. Maybe there is really a chance that Illinois after 18 months will again have a budget and actually reform portions of how it does business.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recent visit to the News-Democrat was an exercise in caution compared to past visits — he would say little about political opponents or potential for change. In the past he has been almost strident in his opinions and prognostications, but it almost felt as if he were holding his breath and didn’t want to upset a delicate balance.
Peoria Journal-Star: Legislation from Sen. Dave Koehler would make it easier to spend federal funds
As spring turned to summer last year, officials at Peoria’s airport kept a cautious eye on the calendar.
Each day that ticked by without a permanent — or temporary — state budget in place delayed the start of a project to replace most of the concrete parking apron outside the gates for airlines at the Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport.
NBC 5 Chicago: Emanuel's New Infrastructure Projects Could Create 40,000 Jobs
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the next phase of his sweeping infrastructure plan Thursday, vowing to add 40,000 jobs through a variety of projects—including an “express rail” to O’Hare International Airport.
“If you build it, jobs will come,” Emanuel said during a speech at the Chicagoland Laborers’ District Council Training & Apprentice Fund.
WBEZ: CPS Paying For Re-Enrolled Dropouts, Even If They Cut Class
The cash-strapped Chicago school system is overpaying by as much as $10 million for its new fleet of for-profit alternative schools for dropouts, according to a WBEZ analysis of a Chicago Public Schools audit.
The school system pays these half-day schools based on enrollment, but a recent audit found that just 44 percent of their 3,000 enrolled students are coming to class.
Chicago Sun-Times: 71 percent of Chicago cops’ street stops are of blacks
The number of street stops by the Chicago Police Department has plummeted by 85 percent in a year, but African-Americans continued to account for the vast majority of those detained and frisked, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
That’s the case even though African-Americans were no more likely to be found with weapons or drugs than people of other racial backgrounds, the Sun-Times found by analyzing data on stops collected by the department for the first time in 2016.
Peoria Journal-Star: Sales tax revenue will pay off Washington's Five Points construction loan
The city issued a $5 million bond in 2006 to help pay the $20 million construction cost of Five Points Washington.
Since then, revenue from a .25 percent increase in the city’s sales tax that went into effect in 2006 has been used to pay off the bond.
State Journal-Register: Springfield officials racing to fill $4M budget gap
Springfield city officials have a couple of weeks to come up with nearly $4 million to balance the budget for the fiscal year that starts March 1.
Aldermen rejected three tax hikes proposed by Mayor Jim Langfelder to bridge the gap, approving only a 1-percentage point jump in the hotel tax that is projected to generate $600,000.