Chicago Daily Observer

New York city is trying to accomplish a reform that might be of interest to us midwestern folks domiciled in Illinois. It seems that New York’s city council gets about $200 million annually in something called special “initiative” money or “member items” —a direct counterpart to Illinois state government’s “member initiative” program. Like the member initiative money received by Illinois state legislators, New York’s council members are able to take their allotment of member item revenue and spend it in district as they see fit. Apparently, unlike us sophisticated political types in the midwest, New Yorkers are getting a little worked-up over the lack of transparency and accountability in the program. According to a recent New York Times editorial, one of the main problems with the program is, now get this:
Council members actually have the audacity to dole out member item money to family members and political contributors. ... Read More...

By law, Cook county had until February 29, 2008, to complete its budget for the current fiscal year, or the lights go out. As of this writing, odds are the budget won’t get done. President Todd Stroger continues to insist on filling the county’s shortfall by increasing the sales tax by more than what’s necessary to cover its $280 million plus deficit―promising to pay any overage back to taxpayers. Opponents on the county board range from either unwilling to consider raising more than necessary, to unwilling to raise any revenue―period. All opponents to Stroger’s tax hike insist the county reform its poor Medicaid billing practices, and save as much as it can through efficiency.

Unfortunately, even if the county eliminated patronage and improved its Medicaid billing, it still couldn’t balance its budget without a tax enhancement. Meanwhile, most media coverage of the county’s budget imbroglio has focused more on the ... Read More...

The president just announced his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, which he described as a “good, solid budget”. The president went on from there to claim his proposal puts the federal government on the path to balancing its budget in the very near future―by 2012. All of this sounds quite good, actually. Who could be against solid budgets that get us closer to eliminating deficits? Unfortunately, after reviewing the proposal itself, the only verifiably good thing about it is the president’s description. The reality revealed by the numbers, however, make it impossible to characterize this budget as anything remotely sound or on its way to becoming balanced.

For instance, since when does increasing the “acknowledged” federal deficit from $162 billion in Fiscal Year 2007 to $410 billion in Fiscal Year 2008, constitute being either fiscally sound or movement towards reducing the overall deficit? Sure, the president’s proposal suggests ... Read More...

To ensure that 2008 gets off to a good start, here’s two, short-term to do lists, one for Illinois state government and the other for the feds. The to do list for the state is simple. First, the Illinois Senate has to pass the mass transit bill that just made it through the House―ASAP. That has happened. The legislation, introduced by State Representative Julie Hamos (D-18), finally creates a sustainable framework for transit funding.
Hamos’ bill contains concessions from public employee unions, and raises all the money needed to avert a transit doomsday directly from the region, ensuring folks in economically struggling downstate communities won’t subsidize mass transit in the wealthiest part of the state. The Governor, to his credit, signed the bill even though he didn’t like parts of it. His willingness to compromise to achieve a good outcome is welcome. He also decided to add an ... Read More...

Well, it may be a new year, but Cook County government has some nagging old business left to settle. There’s the not so trivial matter of passing a budget for the fiscal year that began on December 1, 2007. Being over a month into the new fiscal year without a budget is problematic, even more worrisome is the fact that negotiations appear to be at a standstill. The holdup is over how to fill a $288 million deficit—almost 10 percent of the County’s $2.9 billion operating budget.

Some critics will say so what, deriding Cook County as nothing more than a retirement home for precinct captains. Now, there’s certainly more than a little truth in that accusation. That said, the media fixation with the “friends and family” approach to patronage at the County completely obfuscates the essential services County delivers, including such basics as the criminal justice system. Then there’s ... Read More...

If Illinois state government had a nickel for every time an elected official claimed he or she was “willing to make the tough choices” needed to move the state forward, it probably wouldn’t be facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit today. Heck, in all likelihood, the state would have a huge surplus. Too frequently, however, this tough rhetoric is not followed up with action—especially when it comes to politically charged issues, like fiscal policy. This is problematic because, while the “tough decision” rhetoric is rarely translated to policy reality, the state’s fiscal mess is all too real.

Which is not to say the General Assembly is void of leadership—far from it. This past year, during the height of political sniping between the two parties, and notably, among the Democrats, a bipartisan group of legislators passed a major bill out of committee—HB750—that would have delivered numerous, long-term, comprehensive and sorely needed ... Read More...

For over 20 years now, advocates have been caterwauling for Illinois to get its act together and reform how it funds schools. Inevitably, these calls for reform include both enhanced funding—statewide—coupled with additional accountability metrics covering everything from school district fiscal practices to teacher induction and mentoring. Just as inevitably, the process stalls and ultimately comes to a crashing halt over the call for enhanced funding —because that would require a tax increase. Not just any increase, but a relatively significant one approaching $2 billion just for schools.
The magnitude of the tax increase needed to fund education statewide is such that, it begs an obvious question: Would this investment be worth it? If you’re willing to strip away all the partisan and ideological rhetoric that generally surrounds school funding reform efforts, and instead consider only facts, the answer to this question is just as obvious: Yes, the investment ... Read More...

While there’ve been no reported sightings of Chicken Little, it nonetheless appears that, from a tax standpoint, the sky is falling in Illinois. Recently, the good citizens of our state have been bombarded with potential revenue increases from almost every major unit of state and local government. So, after legislators rightly refused to pass the governor’s proposed Gross Receipts Tax, they’re considering raising revenue through a major gambling expansion to fund a capital program.

Meanwhile, the public transit system is asking for both a sales and real estate transfer tax increase, to avoid a “doomsday” series of service cuts and fair increases for CTA, METRA and PACE. Don’t forget Cook County, which is proposing numerous sales and other tax increases to avoid major reductions in healthcare services at County’s public hospitals. Even Mayor Daley of Chicago, renown for fiscal acumen, has informed voters that without new revenue, ... Read More...