QUOTE OF THE DAY
AP: Illinois’ next pension issue: Police, fire funds
After addressing Illinois’ own employee pension crisis, lawmakers now face an equally challenging task with the state’s cities, as mayors demand help with underfunded police and firefighter pensions before the growing cost “chokes” budgets and forces local tax increases.
The nine largest cities in Illinois after Chicago have a combined $1.5 billion in unfunded debt to public safety workers’ pension systems. Police and fire retirement funds for cities statewide have an average of just 55 percent of the money needed to meet current obligations to workers and retirees.
A bi-partisan legislative report in 2013 showed that funding levels for police and fire pensions outside Chicago dropped 20 percent between 1990 and 2010, though many are improving since the worst of the recent economic downturn.
Bond Buyer: Chicago Prepping Up To $1 Billion of Revenue Borrowing
Chicago is readying up to $1 billion of water and sewer revenue bonds to fund work on the aging systems, buoyed with a funding boost from steep rate increases.
The city intends to sell in the coming months about $475 million in new money water revenue bonds and another $100 million in refunding bonds for savings. It also will sell in a separate transaction about $325 million of sewer revenue bonds with an additional $100 million refunding piece. The refunding components are dependent on interest rates.
The city’s finance department introduced ordinances at a City Council meeting this week authorizing the issuance. The Finance Committee is expected to review the ordinances later this month. The full council must approve them. The city has not yet announced the financing teams.
The Atlantic: The States With the Fastest-Growing Wages Are Controlled by Republicans—Coincidence?
In 37 states today, the governor’s office, senate, and house are all controlled by the same party, whether Democratic or Republican. As Grover Norquist said in our interview at the Atlantic Economic Summit last month, Washington might be paralyzed, but one could see which policies work (and which don’t) by studying the states where one party has the opportunity to enact its full agenda with limited opposition and measure its effect.
Our states have long served as “laboratories” of democracy, as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis put it. Thanks to polarization, it seems, we have something like control groups in our great national experiment.
So don your lab coats and let’s investigate. The Bureau of Economic Analysis recently released its full report on state-by-state personal income growth. The big-picture news is that every state’s income grew slower in 2013 than in 2012, mostly because Social Security taxes went up as the payroll holiday came to an end. Woof.
Forbes: Bitcoin Could Strengthen The World Economy If Washington Doesn’t Destroy It
Sometimes our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. In the case of Bitcoin, the decentralized nature of the network plays to both sides, creating great freedoms, which in turn create great opportunities for rogue players. If you’re one of the “76 percenters” who don’t have a clue what Bitcoin is, you can read my introduction to Bitcoin Basics here. In short, Bitcoin is a disruptive technology that has the potential to transform the global financial services industry and raise the standard of living for all. Through decentralized cryptography, Bitcoin eliminates the need for banking intermediaries, significantly lowering transaction costs and could liberate poverty stricken economies around the globe by providing access to capital to the one-third of humanity that is excluded from the financial world. However, some of the most transformational innovations of Bitcoin have been exploited by bad actors. These nefarious players give Bitcoin a negative reputation. This reputation leads to perception and perception becomes reality, especially in the nation’s capital and among regulators.
With decentralization at the core of the Bitcoin culture, there are few leaders in the industry providing any explanation to the regulators or the public about the scandals that have plagued Bitcoin, how Bitcoin works, and how it can benefit consumers. Additionally, Bitcoin faces a highly uncertain regulatory environment in the U.S., with multiple government departments and agencies working in an uncoordinated fashion. The regulatory risk Washington could impose on Bitcoin threatens the seamless payment system of those it could benefit most, people who don’t have access to banks and small businesses. The recent guidelines published by the IRS on digital currencies that contradict the FinCEN guidelines on virtual exchanges are a perfect case in point.
Chicago Sun Times: Education gaining steam as top issue in governor’s race
We’re in the third week of the gubernatorial campaign and the drumbeat out of the Gov. Pat Quinn camp is unmistakable: education, education, education.
After laying out in his budget address a five-year blueprint to dedicate $6 billion in education funding as well as promote a birth through five program, Quinn last week pushed for a $50 million increase in the state’s need-based financial aid program for higher education.
The campaign also last week dispatched running mate Paul Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO, to hit GOP challenger Bruce Rauner for wanting to lower the state’s income tax — translating that into Rauner favoring “draconian cuts” in education.
Chicago Tribune: Unemployment benefits manager who had employees do his homework out of job
A state unemployment benefits manager who coaxed his subordinates and supervisor to do his college homework on taxpayer time has been fined $2,500 and no longer holds the job, officials said Thursday.
Clyde Redfield, 63, a former manager who made $71,000 a year at the Illinois Department of Employment Security, directed at least five of his employees to complete his school assignments as he worked toward a management degree from Benedictine University in Lisle, according to a report by Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza.
Redfield attended evening classes from 2008 until he graduated with a bachelor’s in 2010, a university spokesman said.
Chicago Tribune: Paid Sunday parking may return in some Chicago neighborhoods
Folks who have become accustomed in recent months to not feeding the meters on Sundays in a host of North and Northwest Side shopping districts could get a bit of an unpleasant surprise next month.
In response to requests from five aldermen, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is calling for the restoration of paid parking in areas where merchants have said free parking on Sundays makes it tougher for customers to find a space when visiting their stores and restaurants.
The step comes nine months after the City Council approved Emanuel’s request to make Sunday parking free outside downtown as part of a larger revision to the much-maligned 75-year parking meter lease done under former Mayor Richard Daley. When those changes were made, several wavering aldermen were told paid Sunday parking could be restored quickly if that’s what they wanted.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
