Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s insistence that Chicago Public Schools receive more than its fair share of state education funding is putting any stopgap budget deal at risk.
With the chance for a full-year 2017 budget deal all but dead,...
Puerto Rico is bankrupt: Is your city or state next?
By Andrew Collins
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
Cracks in the dam
“A new crack has appeared in the dam that restrains a great lake of federal, state, and local debt from inundating the country.”
So...
June 13, 2016
"Now is not the time to play political games. Now is the time for us to summon the courage to let Mike Madigan and House Democrats know that there is a line over which they will not...
After Puerto Rico’s collapse, is your city or state next?
By Jon Cassidy / June 6, 2016 / News / 9 Comments
This island of 3.6 million is losing residents, who are fleeing massive government...
In Illinois, the idea of “compromise” has become synonymous with “passing the buck.”
Whether it was former governors Jim Edgar, George Ryan, Rod Blagojevich or Pat Quinn, politicians always seem to have ended up striking deals with House Speaker Mike...
Working on A Dream
Chicago’s West Side is a war zone. But the casualties can’t be measured by body counts alone.
Dreams die, too, and the American Dream has all but vanished in neighborhoods such as North Lawndale, Garfield Park and...
ALLOWING MUNICIPAL BANKRUPTCY MUST BE PRIORITY FOR ILLINOIS
MARK GLENNON June 7, 2016
OPINION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnGExrTcRcs
In the dozens of articles you probably read in the last few months about our fiscal crisis, what’s the universal omission? A solution.
No analyst, officeholder or commentator has...
Regularly scheduled spring session ended on May 31st, but the State of Illinois remains in an unprecedented financial situation. We return to Springfield this Wednesday.
Still No Budget
As I’m sure you know by now Speaker Madigan attempted...
Vague Promises of Debt Relief for Greece
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD MAY 30, 2016 NY Times
The Greek Parliament building last week. CreditAngelos Tzortzinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
European leaders congratulated themselves last week for reaching an agreement to provide more loans to...
On a single day in 2011, Illinois lawmakers introduced and passed the largest tax hike in modern state history in a matter of hours.
And on May 25, 2016, House Democrats introduced and passed a 500-page budget billin 90 minutes.
Something...
