QUOTE OF THE DAY
Howard Baetjer writes about Uber vs. taxis in his Freeman article “Value Creation vs. Regulation,” here’s an excerpt:
The benefits of free markets and the problems with government intervention are well illustrated by the unfolding story of smart phone-based car services such as Uber and Lyft. If we had free markets for city ride services….the preferred ride services—Uber and imitators—would thrive, and older, clumsier ways of connecting riders with cars would gradually disappear.
But we don’t have free markets for city ride services. Legislators and government bureaucrats have political authority to intervene in these markets. And the taxicab companies, whose profits—and even existence—are being threatened, are trying to use this authority to block or impede the creative destruction that is doing so much to improve the lives of city dwellers.
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Some Illinois lawmakers voluntarily giving up pay
Some Illinois lawmakers are taking matters into their own hands after the Legislature moved for the first time in years not to take furlough days to save taxpayer dollars.
Democratic state Reps. Fred Crespo, Marty Moylan and Republican Rep. Don Moffitt are among those who plan to donate to charity the minimum $3,100 in additional money they’ll see in their paychecks this year. The change comes as part of a $35.7 billion budget plan that punts on crucial spending decisions until after the November election.
“Especially in these hard times, as people are losing their homes, I think it sends a signal that we’re willing to sacrifice like they have to,” Moylan, a Des Plaines Democrat, said.
Giving back the money also could be politically helpful in an election year. Like many of the lawmakers who have opted to give back the money, Moylan is facing re-election and is a top GOP target. Not taking the extra pay allows those lawmakers to claim they’re being fiscally responsible at a time when the state budget is billions of dollars in the red.
Yahoo Finance: Fitch cuts Cook County, Illinois rating to A-plus
Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded Cook County’s general obligation rating to A-plus from AA-minus, citing challenges Illinois’ biggest county faces as it attempts to shore up its “severely underfunded” public pensions.
The county, which includes the city of Chicago, ended fiscal 2013 with an unfunded pension liability of $5.3 billion, while the funded ratio improved to “a still weak” 61.5 percent from 58.5 percent in fiscal 2012 largely due to high investment returns, Fitch said in a report.
“Meaningful improvement would require action by the state legislature, which is not expected to be back in session until the fall at the earliest, and possibly not until January 2015,” Fitch said.
Venerable drugstore giant Walgreen Co., the 113-year-old Chicago institution known for a stock and dividend as rock-solid as a utility company’s, finds itself caught up in a drama with a risk-taking European partner that may see it become a foreign company.
If Walgreen, established on Chicago’s South Side in 1901 by Charles Walgreen Sr., leaves Deerfield, it would mark another major blow to the Chicago-area corporate roster. Aon Corp. relocated its corporate headquarters to London two years ago.
The reason Walgreen might join a growing number of companies abandoning the United States? Lower taxes — to the tune of an estimated $780 million.
Chicago Tribune: CPS traditional schools see drop in funding under plan
While Chicago Public Schools officials maintain they do everything to keep budget cuts away from the classroom, the proposed operating budget for the coming school year decreases funding to 504 traditional neighborhood schools by $72 million.
The budget increases funding to the district’s 143 privately run charter and contract schools by the same amount.
The apparent disparity is sure to be among the issues raised by education advocates, parents and teachers attending three public hearings scheduled for Wednesday on the district’s proposed $5.8 billion operating budget.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Supreme Court should take up term limits amendments
It’s been more than two weeks since a proposed constitutional amendment to limit the terms of Illinois lawmakers was knocked off the Nov. 4 ballot by a Cook County Circuit Court judge.
Judge Mary Mikva said the measure — a citizens’ initiative bankrolled by Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor — “runs headlong” into a 1994 Illinois Supreme Court ruling on a different term limits proposal.
From Day One, the term limits campaign has known it would have to challenge that precedent.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
