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Chicago Tribune: Vote No: Bulldoze Illinois' diabolical 'Safe Roads Amendment'
No, little voter, you cannot term-limit the Illinois lawmakers who’ve ruined this state’s finances; the politicians don’t want that. Nor can you stop legislative leaders from gerrymandering their members’ district maps; the Illinois Supreme Court says that injustice is OK. But if the pols of both parties won’t let you do something good for you, they will let you do something good for them and their friends:
They want you to enshrine in the Illinois Constitution a perpetual payday for their loyal donors in road-building and organized labor. You could say they’ve all got this thing — this proposed amendment — and for them it’s … golden!
The stated aim of the amendment — it’ll be on your Nov. 8 ballot — is to prevent state and local governments from using transportation revenue for non-transportation purposes. Sounds fine, to a point. But the diabolical effect is that contractors, and the unions whose members they employ, would have constitutionally guaranteed dibs on future billions of state and local revenue dollars.
Chicago Tribune: CPS begins new school year with same old problems
A list of familiar pressures confront Chicago Public Schools as more than 300,000 students return to classrooms Tuesday.
For the second September in a row, there’s no accord on a teachers’ contract, and the Chicago Teachers Union is pushing the possibility of a strike as early as next month. School budgets are typically tight, and officials again are counting on money from Springfield to prevent another round of cuts.
RRStar: Larry Morrissey says he won't run again for Rockford mayor
Three-term Mayor Larry Morrissey will not run again for the city’s top job in 2017.
Morrissey, 46, an independent who has been mayor since 2005, made his announcement this afternoon at City Hall.
“I’m just ready to move on to another chapter of my life,” Morrissey said in an interview before the announcement. “It’s not so much about being tired with the job, but I think there is an opportunity for me to take the experience I have and continue to do the kind of work I’m passionate about.”
Chicago Tribune: Land of Lincoln members may file claims against failed insurer's estate
Members of soon-to-be-shuttered Land of Lincoln Health will be able to seek cash from the insurer’s estate, the Illinois Department of Insurance has confirmed.
Whether those members will actually wring any money out of the estate, however, is unclear.
The insurer, which is on the state’s Obamacare exchange, will cease coverage at the end of this month following financial woes, forcing its 49,000 members to find health coverage elsewhere. What’s more, the money members with individual policies have already paid toward deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums won’t count with their new insurers — in some cases costing members thousands of additional dollars this year.
Daily Herald: Batavia planning $1.25 million downtown land buy
Batavia would pay $1.25 million for the Larson-Becker Co. factory at 106-118 N. River St., under a measure the city council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday night.
According to a memo in the council’s meeting packet, the city would use the site’s parking lots to provide temporary parking during the construction of the planned One North Washington Place development a block away.