Last week, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton said revamping the state’s public education funding formula is “the defining crisis or our time.’’

The state faces so many issues that it may be hard to define one as the most important. But Cullerton is certainly right that the way the state funds schools is unfair and makes no sense. Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has long been an advocate of simplifying the system. The foundation of Manar’s plan is that money should go to where it’s most needed.

Currently, that’s not what happens. School districts in property-rich districts can charge comparatively low tax rates and spend, in some cases, $30,000 a year for each student. District in property-poor areas have to charge higher tax rates and squeak by on spending less than $10,000 per student per year. Poor schools struggle to buy new textbooks; rich schools debate how many lanes should be in the auxiliary swimming pool. That’s only a small exaggeration.

Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state’s comptroller highlighted Illinois’ worsening finances due to the budget deadlock Tuesday as the Republican governor unveiled a plan he said would save money by changing how goods and services are bought.

Rauner is urging lawmakers to pass legislation he said will reduce the time it takes to buy products by eliminating redundant steps in the procurement process. He estimates the state could save $514 million a year that can be used for colleges and human service programs.

“All of which I as governor would like to fund. We don’t have the money today, and we haven’t frankly had the money for a long time. We need reform to save taxpayer money,” he said.

The state is already billions of dollars behind on bills.

As the state collects revenues Comptroller Leslie Munger has to decide what bills get paid and which ones get put on hold. But she says the court’s mandated spending levels are putting pressure on the state’s cash flow.

Comptroller Munger says the state is on track to spend $6.2 billion more than it will bring in this fiscal year.

Illinois’ longtime budget impasse means hundreds of senior home-care workers could see their paychecks cut in half as soon as Friday.

The state owes about $1 million in payments to Family Home Service in Chicago. Since the impasse began in July, FHS office manager Marsha Holmes said, she’s been partly relying on loans to pay employees, who make about $10 an hour. That line of credit has run out, however, and now her options are limited. Holmes is asking Gov. Bruce Rauner to end the budget battle with state lawmakers.

“We’re looking twofold,” she said. “We have employees that may be in threat of losing their jobs or not having a job at all. Then, we have a threat of seniors not having essential services for their everyday existence.” – See more at: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2016-02-03/budget-policy-and-priorities/illinois-home-care-workers-face-pay-cuts-in-state-budget-impasse/a50180-1#sthash.UjGiQS2n.dpuf

In its statement yesterday announcing rejection of the contract offer made by Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union included this:

     CPS’ uses this math to plug its budget hole:

• $200 million from the state for pensions
• $150 million from the state in a school aid formula change
• $170 million from a new local property tax levy for pensions
• $150 to $175 million from eliminating the teacher’s pension pickup and from increased healthcare costs.

That’s about $700 million. But the offering documents for CPS’s struggling bond offering say its annual structural deficit is $1 billion, and the real number is far worse if you measure pensions properly. And does the CTU really think Springfield will cough up a total bailout of $350 million annually? Never mind what Governor Rauner has said about that, it wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance of getting through the General Assembly. CTU isn’t trying to put up a real plan and many members have to see that.

Democrats are unlikely to address Illinois’ worst-in-the-nation pension crisis until the state has a budget, despite a rare agreement between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Senate President John Cullerton and calls from the governor to send him a bill “right away.”

Homeownership in the Chicago area fell last year to its lowest in 16 years, as more people continued to rent than buy out of necessity or choice.

The local homeownership rate fell to 63.9 percent in the fourth quarter after two years of steady decline, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The rate fell from 64.4 percent in the third quarter and 67 percent a year earlier.

The drop reflects the broader shift under way in the housing market since the housing crash, which shook the residential lending market and made it harder for homebuyers to get a mortgage. The local homeownership rate peaked at 71.2 percent in 2006 and was last at its current level in 1999.

Tucked away in Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool’s response to the latest setback in teacher contracts talks was a ticking time bomb for Chicago taxpayers.

Under the title “Background,” Claypool’s emailed statement disclosed that the tentative agreement unanimously rejected by the Chicago Teachers Union’s 40-member bargaining committee included a CPS promise to raise “at least $200 million in revenue.”

Officials with Chicago Public Schools said Tuesday they’re ready to cut $100 million from school budgets and force teachers to pay more pension costs after their union rejected the latest contract offer, ratcheting up the tone of contentious negotiations that have lasted over a year.

Schools CEO Forrest Claypool called the union’s rejection “disheartening” and cost-cutting efforts – including potential layoffs of support staff like teachers’ aides – necessary without a deal. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis shot back, calling the announcement the “latest act of war” and saying teachers in the nation’s third-largest district would protest this week.