Commentary: Rahm Emanuel’s Disaster for Dems
Just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Chicago erupted in peaceful but agitated protests when the long-anticipated video of a controversial police shooting was released. The video featured 17-year-old Laquan McDonald engaged in a verbal altercation with a group of police officers. The juvenile had a knife in his hand, but he was at least 10 feet away when one officer unloaded 16 gunshots into the teenager. The video shows McDonald collapsing instantly, followed by the shooting officer cautiously approaching the body and nudging it with his foot to confirm McDonald’s death. The release of that video almost simultaneously coincided with the revelation that charges would be brought against that officer, Jason Van Dyke, for the first-degree murder of a minor.
Crain's: Let's face facts: CPS is insolvent. What should happen next
Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school system in the United States, is facing what has been described as a budget disaster.
However, the word “disaster” is a misnomer.
An avalanche is a disaster. A volcano is a disaster. The natural world produces disasters as sudden events with unexpected outcomes.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner, Democrats strike deal on lottery payouts, gas tax money for towns
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Democrats on Wednesday struck a rare agreement, compromising on a plan to release more than $3.1 billion to pay Illinois Lottery winners and help cities and towns operate 911 centers, plow roads and train firefighters.
Normally, municipalities receive a share of gas tax, 911 surcharge and gambling revenue to help prop up day-to-day operations, but those dollars have been on hold due to the state budget impasse. Legislation passed 107-1 by the House would free those funds. Of the total, $1 billion for the lottery, which had stopped making large payouts because the state hasn’t had a budget since July 1.
Daily Herald: 40% of ex-judges' pensions higher than old salaries
Thousands of former Illinois public employees get more each year in retirement benefits than they were paid when they were actually working, and nowhere is that more pronounced than among the state’s former judges.
Nearly 40 percent of the state’s 789 retired judges make more money in retirement than when they sat on the bench, according to a Daily Herald analysis of the six statewide pension programs.
In 2015, 311 judges made an average of $25,304 more in retirement than they were paid in their final salaries. All told, those same judges will receive nearly $7.9 million more this year than the combined total of their final salaries.
Crain's: Iconic Lakeview store the Alley closing
Mark Thomas, owner of the Alley Chicago near the intersection of Clark and Belmont, says he will close his 41-year-old clothing store in January because revenues have dropped by two-thirds since the early 2000s, as property taxes and other administrative costs have skyrocketed. Thomas says he has agreed to sell the building and will liquidate inventory immediately.
Thomas set up shop in 1974 and at one point owned eight stores, seven of them within a few hundred-feet radius. The Alley became an iconic store in the ’80s and ’90s, drawing customers from all over the Midwest eager to browse its selection of Sex Pistols t-shirts, Dr. Martens boots and other counterculture wares.
Back in 1999, Thomas says he owned 35,000 square feet of space that generated $4.5 million in annual revenue. The Alley alone generated half of that. Today, the Alley produces between $750,000 and $800,000 in annual sales. That number, he says, simply isn’t sustainable given the coming property tax hike.
Tech Co.: Chicago Is a Top Startup Hub Thanks to 1871
Although VC funding for startups in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. is down to 183 deals, from 309 last year, Illinois still maintains the highest rate of investment, due in large part to the Chicago metro area. In fact, Chicago has accounted for more completed deals (290), than any of the states that trail Illinois, the closest being Ohio, with 282 deals completed in 2015. And a good portion of these deals could be attributed in no small part to 1871, a local Chicago digital startup incubator that has been a major reason for the increase in startups. Before they opened their doors in 2012, no one was really talking about the Chicago technology scene.
1871 was recently ranked first in the UBI Global list of top university-affiliated businesses .Over the past few years, Chicago has been building up a robust tech startup ecosystem of its very own. Organizations such as Built In Chicago, theIllinois Technology Association, and the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center has helped make networking in the digital tech world more accessible, and more scalable in terms of growth. According to Built In Chicago, between 2004 and 2008, there was an average launch rate of 25 startups per year. In 2012, there were 367 digital startups that launched, constituting an increase of 187 percent from the previous year alone.
BND: Nearly 7,000 reasons your taxes are so danged high
Florida has 6 million more residents than Illinois, yet they get by with a mere 1,650 units of government. We have 6,968. Surprise: Their taxes are lower.
Illinois taxpayers support 102 counties, 1,298 municipalities, 1,431 townships, 905 school districts and 3,232 other single-purpose districts such as mosquito control, street lights, parks, libraries, soil conservation, transit, hospital and other functions that overlap with other taxing district boundaries.
A state task force by Dec. 31 will deliver a report on how to reduce Illinois government and unfunded mandates, and how a liberal pruning can reduce the tax burden, make government work better and reduce the potential for corruption.
Chicago Tribune: Hillary Clinton calls for federal inquiry of Chicago police tactics
Hillary Clinton is calling for an independent federal inquiry into the Chicago Police Department’s tactics following the shooting death of African-American teenagerLaquan McDonald by a white police officer, her campaign told the Tribune on Wednesday.
Clinton’s stance puts her at odds with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who on Wednesday said he is against a full-blown federal probe.
Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is “deeply troubled” by the shooting last year of McDonald and the “outstanding questions” it raises, her spokesman Brian Fallon said.
DNAinfo: $70,000 For a Left-Turn Signal, And Other Prices On Aldermen's To-Do List
Ever wonder why there aren’t pedestrian countdown signals at every intersection?
Because they cost $14,000.
Coveted left-turn signals are even more expensive, at $70,000, which is a downright bargain compared with the $150,000 tab for a green alley.