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Editorial: Want a low-stress job with lots of time off? The state of Illinois says it wants to recruit YOU!

Posted in BOHICA, Chicago Tribune, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Education, FUBAR, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, OP/Ed, Pension Funding, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions, Village Director of Administration, WTF on January 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

People walk the halls Jan. 8, 2025, at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield. | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

The state of Illinois is seeking employees who don’t want a 40-hour workweek.

A cringey commercial you may have seen recently boasts that working for the state can mean five weeks off in your first year on the job, with flexible hours, a hybrid setup and good work-life balance, all while enjoying a 37.5-hour workweek.

This sounds like a sweet deal. Also one unavailable in most other full-time careers.

We know of course that some state workers toil long and hard at their jobs. Still, the state’s clueless ad leans into the worst critiques and caricatures of government work, maybe in an effort to appeal to a post-COVID-19 workforce that resents being called back to the office.

“What do you want from your career?” asks a voice at the start of the commercial. The faux potential recruits don’t then talk about their ambition or their desire to serve or to make Illinois better.

They talk about how much time off they want. Seriously? That’s the message?

We don’t take issue with people earning fair wages, getting breaks and having good benefits, but the commercial is tone-deaf. And it’s hard not to be miffed when you consider how state worker benefits compare with those the people paying taxes are getting.

An open administrative role for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity pays up to $126,000 per year, and an open nurse position posted online in Elgin pays up to $102,000. State workers also retire with better benefits than the average Illinoisan. The maximum annual Social Security benefit for those in the private sector retiring at 62 for 2023 was just $30,864, while the average starting pension for career workers participating in the State Employees’ Retirement System is $52,920 (many state workers also get Social Security for private work, and some have retired as early as 55).

Read more here.

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Allstate to raise Illinois homeowners insurance rates by 14.3%

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Economy on January 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

People search through the remains of their burned homes on Jan19, 2025, in Altadena, California. They said they plan to rebuild. | Mario Tama/Getty

By Robert Channick | Chicago Tribune

As California smolders in the wake of devastating wildfires that burned 12,000 homes and left billions of dollars in damage, insurance rates are set for another double-digit rise 2,000 miles away in Illinois.

Climate change-related weather events roiling insurance markets across the U.S. may well connect the dots between California and Illinois, according to industry analysts.

Allstate is increasing homeowners insurance rates in Illinois by 14.3% beginning Feb. 24, according to a filing with the state last month. The rate hike applies to a “portion” of Illinois customers, with some seeing lesser increases or no changes, an Allstate spokesperson said Monday.

“While more frequent, severe weather and higher repair prices have increased insurance claim costs, customers continue to get competitive prices with Allstate and can save money by bundling home and auto,” Allstate said in a statement.

In its filing, Northbrook-based Allstate said nearly 248,000 customers in Illinois will be affected by the 14.3% homeowners rate increase next month.

Last year, Allstate raised homeowners insurance rates in Illinois by 12.7%, while State Farm implemented a 12.3% increase in May.

Read more here.

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Editorial: New York’s congestion tax is no model for Chicago

Posted in Chicago Tribune, OP/Ed, Taxes, Traffic on January 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Devices used for congestion tolling hang above traffic on a Manhattan street in New York on Jan. 5. 2025. | Seth Wenig/AP

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | Chicago Tribune

Chicago traffic rivals New York City for worst in the nation. A report from Inrix consultants released on Jan. 5 shows Chicago commuters spend a whopping 102 hours a year in traffic. For comparison’s sake, commuters in Los Angeles rack up 88 hours, with Bostonians losing 79 hours per year to traffic congestion. Globally, only Istanbul has worse traffic. Our toddlin’ town has a bigger traffic problem than London.

Congestion has, of course, been made worse by seemingly endless (and ill-timed) construction projects that disrupt the flow of traffic in and out of the city that do little to improve travel times. Given that the administration of Mayor Brandon Johnson is hunting for new revenue anywhere and everywhere and that New York began congestion pricing on Sunday, we weren’t surprised when Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez said on X:

“Congestion pricing makes sense as it helps lead to less congestion on streets, and if we model it in a way that is funded by those who come into the city, it helps fund road maintenance and safety.”

Ald. Vasquez forgets that Chicago isn’t New York, and neither is our traffic, which is most problematic on the expressways and main arteries, not in a South Loop business district, which was almost devoid of traffic, human or vehicular, during the first part of rush hour on Monday morning. Scarily so.

We’ve warned against congestion pricing in the past and hope it stays dead. Still, with a budget deficit looming next year and a mayor whose preferred mode of dealing with unpleasant fiscal realities is to hike taxes, revenue grabs like congestion pricing are always on the table.

We’d rather see attention paid to bringing Chicago-area commuters clean, efficient and safe public transit systems. As we’ve written many times, riders of the Metra, CTA and Pace are all too aware these transit systems are plagued with service issues and safety concerns.

Though the CTA’s budget continues to grow, service reductions and disruptions remain a reality for people trying to get back to the office. Recently, the heads of Metra, CTA and Pace warned of 40% service reductions by 2027. Though CTA has increased train service to pre-pandemic levels, it often runs fewer trains than scheduled.

Interestingly, New York allows us to watch a congestion pricing model play out in real time.

New York’s congestion pricing system took effect Jan. 5 for trips in Manhattan below, and including, 60th Street. From 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, individual drivers will face $9 tolls approaching Manhattan, while trucks and buses pay tolls up to $21. Taxis and ride-share vehicles, on the other hand, pay just $0.75 and $1.50 tolls, respectively. Those fees will be passed onto customers. This is no doubt thanks to the expensive lobbying campaigns launched by ride-share companies to give their industry a competitive advantage.

Read on here.

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Chicago Tribune features  Barrington Hills 6-bedroom home with elevator, in-ground pool: $2.8M

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Real Estate on December 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

(Ryan Hansen/Hapi Photography)

Address: 280 Otis Road, Barrington Hills
Price: $2,795,000
Listing date: Nov. 27, 2024

This six-bedroom home has six full bathrooms, one half-bathroom, hardwood floors, an elevator and an in-ground pool. The kitchen is equipped with white quartz countertops, custom cabinetry and stainless steel appliances. The living room features a coffered ceiling, and the formal dining room has wainscoting and custom built-ins. The family room has a beamed ceiling and a stone fireplace. The primary suite on the main level offers a fireplace, a private balcony and an en suite bathroom. A heated four-stall garage with a lift completes this home.

(Ryan Hansen/Hapi Photography)

(Ryan Hansen/Hapi Photography)

(Ryan Hansen/Hapi Photography)

More photos here.

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Don’t merge transit agencies

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Frau Blücher, Letters to the Editor, Look For The Union Label, METRA, Politics, Topics Of Interest, Traffic, Unions on December 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The Chicago area’s looming $730 million mass transit fiscal cliff caused by the end of COVID-19-related federal subsidies is an inflection point for northeastern Illinois. Given the importance of transit to our region’s economic vitality and quality of life, sustainable funding for transit is a priority. Any changes to the region’s transit system, considered along with sustainable funding, must be guided by fiscal analysis and best practices.

The Plan of Action for Regional Transit (PART) concluded that northeastern Illinois transit service has historically operated more cost-efficiently than most peer agencies in the U.S. In addition to reviewing potential funding sources to fill the federal subsidy gap, PART also sought to address the need for improved services through more collaboration and coordination among transit providers.

The report suggested two options for changes in transit system governance — consolidation of the Regional Transportation Authority and the CTA, Metra and Pace into one entity or an empowered RTA with the three agencies remaining intact. While consolidation may sound appealing and efficient, proponents of consolidation provide scant details while touting significant cost savings. The Northwest Municipal Conference believes that consolidation would have adverse consequences for the transit services so vital to our region.

Merging the CTA, Metra and Pace, each with its own labor agreements, procedures, debt and legacy costs, would increase overall costs for regional transit. Shifting legacy costs, specifically pension liabilities created by one of the agencies onto a new consolidated body, would not save money but would increase costs for suburban taxpayers.

The more effective strategy — an empowered RTA — would ensure fair, meaningful regional representation while fostering more collaboration and coordination among the service agencies. It would preserve the specialized focus and localized expertise of the service providers.

Talk of consolidating transit governance misdirects attention from the hard conversations that must occur regarding revenue sources and legacy costs to ensure the transit system serves the entire region in the 21st century.

The Northwest Municipal Conference will continue to raise its voice in these difficult conversations and oppose proposed consolidation efforts, which ultimately would compromise transit service for our constituents.

— Karen Darch, president, village of Barrington in the Chicago Tribune

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State anti-book-ban law leads some school districts to forsake grants to maintain local control

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Chicago Tribune, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, The New Normal, Topics Of Interest, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on December 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias holds his 11-month-old daughter, Alexia, and the bill signed by Gov. JB Pritzker to prevent book bans on June 12, 2023, at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, while Pritzker applauds. | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune

By OLIVIA OLANDER and JEREMY GORNER | Chicago Tribune

Starting this year, public libraries in Illinois had a choice: adopt principles against book banning or give up state grants.

A number of school districts, many of them in deeply conservative areas of south and central Illinois, appear to have taken the latter option. Administrators at some of those districts acknowledged being concerned about giving up any measure of control on what books are allowed on their schools’ library shelves.

“I’m sure there are certain politicians that want to score political points for themselves and maybe make an issue of it,” said Keith Price, superintendent of the North Clay Community Unit 25 school district in southeast Illinois. “But we feel strongly about our local decision-making here.”

The state library grants are not large — about $850 for small districts. No district that opted out of applying for funding this year received more than $4,000 in grant money during the last fiscal year, according to state records.

Dustin Foutch, superintendent at Central Community High School District 71 in downstate Breese, said his district’s leadership didn’t feel an $850 grant was worth giving up any independence in making decisions on books.

“I think there’s a concerted effort around the state of Illinois from a lot of school boards to kind of take back a little bit of control,” Foutch said.

Book bans have been the subject of intense debate in recent years amid heightened political partisanship. Democrats on the state and national level say book bans often discriminate against the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups, while Republicans have argued that some titles need to be out of the reach of children if they contain pornography or obscene imagery.

Illinois’ library measure was pushed in early 2023 by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose office administers the library grants for elementary and high schools, colleges and universities and municipalities. The Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly passed the measure mostly along party lines before Gov. JB Pritzker signed it into law shortly thereafter.

The law allows the secretary of state’s office to withhold grant funding from municipal and school district libraries if they don’t adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which holds that “materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

The law also gives libraries the option of developing their own written statement prohibiting the practice of “banning books or other materials within the library or library system.”

Illinois’ law received national attention during a September 2023 U.S. Senate hearing, where Republican senators including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina questioned Giannoulias about the measure’s intent and the potential for government overreach.

“Am I supposed to take over every school board in the country and veto their decisions about what books go into public schools?” Graham asked Giannoulias during the hearing.

Some 700 school districts statewide have regularly applied for state library grant funding in the last two years. Since the law took effect on Jan. 1, about 40 elementary and high school districts opted not to seek the funding from the secretary of state’s office for the current fiscal year after acquiring the grant money during the previous two years, according to state records obtained by the Tribune.

Read more here

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Prioritize women’s rights

Posted in Barrington High School, Chicago Tribune, Letters to the Editor on December 2, 2024| 6 Comments »

Chicago Tribune Letters to the Editor

I am a young Indian woman who was born here and strongly believes in women’s rights, which are at a critical point in this country. I believe it’s time we address the challenges head on.

From the persistent wage gap to the erosion of reproductive freedoms, women still face significant barriers to full equality. Despite all the progress we’ve made, women still earn, on average, 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. The disparity is even greater for Black and Latina women, who earn just 70 and 65 cents, respectively. These are more than statistics — they are a reality that affects families’ financial stability and limits economic growth. We need stronger laws that require pay transparency and hold employers accountable for pay discrimination.

The 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade was a devastating blow to women’s rights. Millions of women have lost access to safe and legal abortions, and this disproportionately affects low-income communities and women in rural areas who already face health care barriers.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly 1 in 4 women will need abortion care by the time they are 45. This isn’t a fringe issue — it’s a vital part of health care. Congress must act now to codify reproductive rights because every woman deserves the freedom to make decisions about her own body.

Additionally, we cannot ignore the ongoing fight for safety and equality in education and public life. Gender-based violence remains a crisis, with 1 in 3 women experiencing some form of violence in their lifetime. Legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act provides vital resources, but more funding and enforcement are needed. At the same time, Title IX protections for students continue to face challenges, putting young women at risk of discrimination and harassment in schools.

Women’s rights are human rights. Ensuring equality in pay, health care, safety and education isn’t just the right thing to do; it benefits everyone.

We need leaders who will make these issues a priority, and we need citizens who will demand it. The future depends on it.

— Shriya Harish, student, Barrington High School, Barrington

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Editorial: Thanksgiving is here. Time to eat. Time to talk. Time to listen.

Posted in Chicago Tribune, OP/Ed, Politics on November 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis on politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table in 2024. | Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune (Click on image to enlarge)

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | Chicago Tribune

Vice President-elect JD Vance said a lot of things on the campaign trial, much of which understandably infuriated Democrats. Nonetheless, at one of his town halls during the election run-up, he said something that was not much noticed at the time but to which all Americans should pay attention.

“If you’re discarding a lifelong friendship because somebody votes for the other team, then you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake and you should do something different,” Vance said. “I’ve got friends who like me personally … who aren’t necessarily going to vote for me. That doesn’t make them bad people. This is my important advice. Whether you vote for me, whether you vote for Donald Trump, whether you vote for Kamala Harris, don’t cast aside family members and lifelong friendships. Politics is not worth it. And if I think if we follow that principle, we will heal the divide in this country.”

With all due respect to Vance, and appreciation for one of the few gracious moments in the bitter electoral campaign, we don’t think it will be that simple. The rivalry between America’s two political parties has devolved from differences over economic principles or international policy into deep-seated oppositional stances — a consequence, perhaps, of the decline of religious faith that has acted historically as a restraining, rooting and unifying force, especially during holiday seasons.

Even now, some Democrats rail at the media “normalizing” or “platforming” Trump; his winning a small majority of the popular vote did not, in their minds, remotely change the validity of such lines of attack, even though the recent electoral results suggest that those shrill and demonizing arguments were singularly unsuccessful and merit retirement.

There is nothing wrong, of course, with preparing to be part of a determined, resourced and successful opposition to policies that many Americans oppose. Nothing whatsoever. And there is nothing wrong with articulating hope for the future Trump administration and supporting its successes. It’s coming, either way.

But the most immediate challenge that some Americans will face on Thursday is people around their Thanksgiving table from what Vance euphemistically called the “other team.”

One strategy is for the host to ban any and all political talk, to say that comments between bites of turkey will hereby be restricted to the weather, the endless construction on the expressways or sports, although that last named is not without its perils. That’s one way to go.

But we suspect that some of the more politically minded of the celebrants then will just fester in their own juices, even as they mop up those on their dinner plate. Better, we think, to impose rules around civility and empathy and the ability to finish a sentence rather than enforce political silence. That way, you might have real conversations.

Read on here.

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Editorial: Illinois and Donald Trump are no match made in heaven. But they’ll have to work together.

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Commodius Maximus, Elections, Fat Bastard, Girlie man, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Scott Stantis on November 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD | Chicago Tribune

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker played the role of designated attack dog within the failed Kamala Harris presidential campaign and he played it with rhetorical flourish. At the Democratic National Convention, where (unlike most others) he used almost his entire speech to criticize Trump, Pritzker called Trump “weird,” “dangerous” and said he was “rich in only one thing: stupidity.”

“He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him,” Pritzker said of Trump on June 9, while President Joe Biden still was the presumptive Democratic nominee.

And that’s among the more polite things the Illinois governor said about the man the nation just elected for a second term as president. He also has described him as “a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and a congenital liar.”

Trump, of course, has responded in kind. To wit, also in June, on Truth Social: “Sloppy JB Pritzker, the Rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model, and whose family wanted him out of the business because he was so pathetic at helping them run it, has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois,” Trump wrote.

Now an inconvenient truth. Trump is to be the next president of the United States with a mandate from the American people and more likely than not sufficient majorities to push through whatever he wishes to enact. Many of those policies will have profound impacts on the people of Illinois.

Now another inconvenient truth. Trump did very well this past election in Illinois.

When all is buttoned up, Harris will almost certainly have beaten Trump in the Land of Lincoln by less than 9 points.

In 2020, by contrast, Biden won Illinois with 58% of the vote to Trump’s 41%, a 17-point margin. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Illinois with 56% to Trump’s 39%, also roughly a 17-point margin. Illinois remains a reliably blue state, but with a margin now only in the single digits. Trump sliced away nearly half of the prior Democratic presidential candidate’s advantage even though we, like many others, stated many times that his personal behavior and convictions meant that he was no longer qualified to be president.

Read more here.

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“Are we there yet?”

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Elections, Politics, Scott Stantis on November 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune

Source

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