Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Fat Bastard’ Category

Gov. JB Pritzker was the mystery buyer who paid Ken Griffin $19M for the top 2 floors of a Near North Side building (It’s good to be the king!)

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Fat Bastard, Real Estate on November 27, 2024| 1 Comment »

The condo building, center, at 9 W. Walton St. in Chicago’s Near North Side neighborhood on Nov. 25, 2024. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

By JEREMY GORNER, and BOB GOLDSBOROUGH | Chicago Tribune

In such a polarized country, even billionaires like JB Pritzker and Ken Griffin won’t let their political archrivalry get in the way of doing business.

The Illinois governor earlier this month paid the founder of the Citadel investment firm $19 million for the top two floors of a 38-story luxury building on Chicago’s Near North Side where Griffin once resided, sources familiar with the transaction told the Tribune.

The combined purchase at the 9 W. Walton St. building represents the highest price anyone has paid this year for a Chicago-area residence, and it’s the fourth-highest price anyone has ever paid for any home within Chicago’s city limits. But it also meant that Griffin, who relocated to Florida along with his company two years ago, lost more than $15 million on the two condominiums in the real estate deal with his political nemesis.

An entrance to the condo building at 9 W. Walton St. in Chicago’s Near North Side neighborhood on Nov. 25, 2024. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

A Pritzker spokesperson would only say “the Governor and First Lady recently purchased a condo in Chicago. They love the city and Chicago has been home to them for many years.” A spokesperson for Griffin did not immediately respond for comment.

The Pritzker-Griffin rivalry goes back to at least 2018, when the Democrat largely self-funded his campaign to defeat one-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, a wealthy equity investor whose reelection bid was backed by more than $20 million from Griffin.

The battle of the billionaires escalated two years later, when Pritzker spent more than $56 million of his wealth to unsuccessfully push a proposed state constitutional amendment to switch Illinois to a graduated-rate income tax system with higher levies based on wealth. Griffin led the opposition to the proposed amendment, also spending nearly $54 million of his own money.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

This one graphic explains why Illinois is such a financial mess

Posted in Barrington Education Association, BOHICA, Commodius Maximus, Deception, Fat Bastard, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on November 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

It’s the only reasonable conclusion. Illinois politicians who continue to oppose pension reform via a constitutional amendment should be booted from office. The latest state-by-state pension report from Fitch Ratings demonstrates why.

At $172 billion,* Illinois has the nation’s biggest pension shortfall by far, the agency says. Fitch also calculates that Illinois’ pension debt as a share of its economy is the largest in the country. Either way, Illinois is the nation’s extreme outlier.

To get an idea of just how out of whack Illinois is, consider the pension shortfalls of its neighbors. Indiana’s is just $11 billion. Michigan’s, $8 billion. Wisconsin’s, $4 billion. Iowa’s, $2 billion.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have made this mess over the past few decades. They’ve doled out benefits far faster than Illinois taxpayers could ever pay for them, which we’ve documented in great detail here and here. Lawmakers continued to sweeten those benefits – like compounded colas – even as the crisis deepened. Illinois politicians were even charged by the SEC for securities fraud from 2005 to 2009 when they misled municipal bond investors about the state’s approach to funding its pension obligations.

It’s impossible to overstate just how menacing those massive pension shortfalls are to the future of this state and to the future of everyday Illinoisans. Illinoisans already pay the nation’s highest property taxes. Home values have barely kept up with inflation since 2000 – Illinois has had the country’s worst housing performance. And a net of more than 1.5 million residents have been squeezed out of the state over the last two decades. Households across the state are being impoverished and families are being broken up, in large part due to the crushing cost of pensions.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

Pritzker doubles down on rhetoric after Trump’s stronger Illinois performance

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Elections, Fat Bastard, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Village Government, Wirepoints on November 11, 2024| 4 Comments »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Americans demanded change last week. Whether they were voting for Trump or against Harris, their rationale didn’t matter. Less government interference won. So did free speech, border control, law and order, and anti-DEI policies.

The change that shook the nation was visible even in Illinois, perhaps one of the country’s most hostile media and political environments for Trump. Not only did Trump shrink the Dem margin of victory this year to nine percentage points – from 17 points in 2020 and 25 points in 2008 – he also performed better in both Chicago and the suburbs. Illinoisans’ support for Trump grew even as the media and political attacks on him, led notably by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, increased in intensity.

So with 45% of Illinois going for Trump – and Latinos and blacks and virtually every demographic breaking towards him – you would have thought Gov. Pritzker would be chastened, or at least sufficiently introspective enough to hold his tongue until the dust settles.

No way. Just look at the governor’s message to Illinoisans one day after the election:

“This morning, our most vulnerable communities woke up to new uncertainty about their future, scared that their rights will no longer be protected, and unsure whether this nation still stands with them. To women whose healthcare is under even greater threat, to our Black, Brown and AAPI communities, our LGBTQ friends and their families, immigrants and first-generation Americans, our most vulnerable Americans and those with disabilities, to all who have been made to feel unsafe and unwelcome by the Trump campaign and its allies – know that Illinois is your ally. You will always be welcome here.

Straight away, Pritzker has returned to dividing people, not uniting them. Instilling fear, not comfort. Creating demons where none exist.

More here.

Read Full Post »

Trump’s election a factor for Illinois’ veto session

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Fat Bastard, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, The Center Square, Unions on November 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

Veto session begins at the Illinois Statehouse in Springfield Tuesday and last week’s election of Donald Trump may be top of mind.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker expects the Illinois Legislature to work on policies he said would be aimed at countering anything coming from an incoming Trump administration.

In running for the office he ultimately won, Trump promised to close the border, deport violent illegal aliens and end sanctuary cities. With the expectation the U.S. Senate and House will be in Republican control, that could mean dramatic shifts in public policy.

During a post-election news conference Thursday, Pritzker said he’s in talks with his policy advisors and with other governors on what to do around Democrat initiatives.

“So we’re gathering, I would call it, a list of things that we may need to address, maybe not during veto session, but maybe, it can be done in the new year,” Pritzker said. “But suffice to say that we have a lot of work that we’re looking at doing.”

Pritzker said some of the issues that may surface either during veto session or early next year could include reproductive rights, health care and immigration.

“I’m eager to get back to our Capitol and resume the work of the people,” said House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside. “We’ve gotten big things done in the 103rd General Assembly, and I’m looking forward to closing out this session on a positive note for Illinoisans.”

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, expects there to be “a lot of meltdowns” from Democrats during veto session.

“You’re going to see the Democrats really give a lot of floor speeches, they’re going to file a lot of legislation on the immigration issue,” Niemerg told The Center Square.

Niemerg said the election results show him that undocumented immigration is a losing issue.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

7 downstate counties vote to consider seceding from Illinois to form new state

Posted in Clown Car, Commodius Maximus, Elections, Fat Bastard, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on November 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The Illinois state flag is displayed on a building along North La Salle Street in the Loop, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

By Kade Heather | Chicago Sun*Times

Residents in seven downstate counties voted in Tuesday’s election to explore the idea of breaking away from Illinois to form a new state.

The counties join a growing number of other right-leaning downstate counties that have approved similar nonbinding measures in recent election years. The movement comes as residents’ distaste for the left-leaning policies pushed through the Democrat-led Illinois General Assembly has also grown.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump won the majority of votes in each of the seven counties that voted in favor of exploring secession in this year’s election.

The seven counties that voted to consider separating from Illinois are:

  • Calhoun County (passed with 76% of the vote)
  • Clinton County (passed with 71% of the vote)
  • Green County (passed with 74% of the vote)
  • Iroquois County (passed with 72% of the vote)
  • Jersey County (passed with 73% of the vote)
  • Madison County (passed with 56% of the vote)
  • Perry County (passed with 71% of the vote)

The likelihood of any county seceding from Illinois is extremely low. Any formal request to secede would require approval from the Illinois General Assembly and the U.S. Congress.

More here.

Read Full Post »

Democrats poised to keep supermajorities intact in Illinois legislature; McLaughlin holds a slight lead

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Fat Bastard, Politics on November 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

By JEREMY GORNER, OLIVIA OLANDER, ADRIANA PÉREZ  and KARINA ATKINS  | Chicago Tribune

Democrats were poised to defend their supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly on Tuesday but Republicans appeared set to prevent the opposition party from expanding their control.

Democrats, who enjoyed a significant funding advantage over Republicans in this election, thanks to billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker and other sources, were holding on to several seats targeted by the GOP, according to unofficial results in an election where all 118 state House seats and 24 of the 59 state Senate seats were in play.

“Our historic Democratic majority will continue to advance our vision for opportunity, dignity, and freedom for all,” House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, Hillside Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday night.

Several races remained undecided as ballots continued to be counted late Tuesday.

In the northwest Chicago suburbs, Republican Rep. Martin McLaughlin held a slight edge over Democratic challenger Maria Peterson, a former labor attorney from North Barrington, with 91% of the estimated vote total reporting.

Just after 11 p.m., votes for the two candidates were almost evenly split, according to AP.

Peterson said her campaign will wait for all mail-in ballots to come in.

Democratic campaign organizations backed Peterson with more than $300,000 in in-kind contributions, campaign finance records show.

Peterson’s campaign spent nearly five times more than McLaughlin’s during the last quarter, the records show.

Read more here.

Editorial note: As of 5 AM today with all four counties in Barrington Hills reporting a 100% count, Martin McLaughlin received 28,487 votes to Maria Peterson’s 27,563 for a difference of 924 votes.

Read Full Post »

Pritzker’s new budgets forecast $3 billion to $5 billion deficits, make property tax relief from millionaire-tax ballot referendum unlikely

Posted in 220, BOHICA, Clown Car, Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Fat Bastard, Girlie man, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, News Media, OP/Ed, Organizations, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on November 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Photo courtesy Maria for 52 Facebook page

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

On Tuesday’s Nov. 5 ballot there’s a nonbinding referendum that asks voters if they want the state to tax millionaires a 3% surcharge on the money they make over and above $1 million. In exchange for agreeing to target millionaires, Illinois voters can expect property tax relief, the referendum reads, though the referendum is noncommittal as to how much relief, if any, it would actually provide. The state says the 3% surcharge on millionaires will give the government about $4.5 billion in new revenues.

For the state to provide property tax relief, however, it would have to actually take some of those new tax revenues and commit them to property tax relief. And that’s where Illinoisans should be highly skeptical, we warned a week ago: “Given the upcoming budget deficits…there won’t be any money left over for tax relief.”

Sure enough, it only took a few days for Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his budget office to announce that billion-dollar deficits are on their way.

Pritzker’s team on Friday released its five-year budget forecast and said it expects a whopping $3.2 billion deficit for next fiscal year (2025-2026), a $4.3 billion deficit for the following year, and $5 billion-plus deficits in each of the years 2028 through 2030.

Those deficits effectively swallow up the revenues of the “millionaire’s tax,” leaving little to nothing for property tax relief. The administration would have to raise income taxes by another $4 billion-plus to provide both property tax relief and cover the deficits. How far down into middle-income brackets would Illinois politicians have to hike income tax rates to get that all money?

Not only do the above deficits make the referendum a farce, but they are a major contradiction to the praise the governor has heaped on himself for managing the state’s finances over the last few years, in particular during COVID.

How can the wheels be coming off the bus now, when the national economy is humming along, interest rates are going down, and the governor has managed to “balance budgets”?

There are two big answers to that question. The first one is that Pritzker never actually fixed any problems. No spending reforms. No pension reforms. No tax relief. None.

The second answer to that question is that the governor and his Democratic supermajority used the windfall revenues from the covid bailouts to pay down the state’s bills, and then poured the rest into new spending (more on that below).

The covid bailouts were massive. More than $70 billion was given in loans and grants to businesses. Illinoisans got $30 billion in stimulus checks. State and local governments received more than $30 billion. Billions more went to health care and a host of other programs. All that money also had the knock-on effect of supercharging the state’s tax revenues.

It was all that money, and not Pritzker’s efforts, that covered up all of Illinois’ structural spending problems. Now the covid money is gone and reality is back.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Illinois faces a $3 billion shortfall in 2026, a new report shows

Posted in BOHICA, Clown Car, Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Fat Bastard, Immigration, Pension Funding, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Transparency, Unions, WBEZ Chicago, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on November 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

If the projections hold true, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker could face difficult financial decisions, from increasing taxes to cutting spending. | Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times

By Dave McKinney | WBEZ CHICAGO

The relative financial calm that has marked Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s six years in office may soon be coming to a close as his administration Friday forecast a more than $3 billion budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.

That marks a major departure from years when the state would post budget surpluses on his watch and presents the governor with a painful set of potential solutions at the same time he contemplates whether to seek a third term in 2026.

Without new revenue or spending cuts, Pritzker’s budget office estimates a $3.17 billion budget shortfall at the end of Fiscal Year 2026, which would be mid-2026 as the gubernatorial election is in full swing.

To confront the problem, it’s not clear whether the governor and Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate would favor tax or fee increases; spending cuts; delays in paying state bills; use of the state’s $2.2 billion rainy day fund; or a combination of those choices.

“While a daunting challenge to balance spending pressures in the face of a flat revenue outlook, the governor remains committed to taking steps to further improve Illinois’ fiscal position and address any potential budgetary shortfalls that may arise – as has been done every year since he took office in 2019,” the governor’s budget office said in a statement attached to the forecasts. “The ability to fund new programs will be severely limited.”

Republicans pounced on the new set of budget numbers.

“This guy’s spending like a drunk sailor for the first six years of his governorship. Here we are,” said state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Rose said the appetite of Illinois taxpayers to shoulder tax or fee increases is “about zero.”

“But that doesn’t mean that the supermajority, progressive, left Democrats won’t do that anyway,” Rose said. “I mean, have you talked to anybody going to the grocery store recently?”

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Village Board of Trustees meet tonight

Posted in Agendas, BACOG, Board of Health, Building Department, Clown Car, Dumb and Dumber, Economy, Elections, ePacket Agendas, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Fat Bastard, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, Fundraisers, Heritage and Environs Committee, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Legal Expenses, Mówimy po polsku, OMA, One Barrington Hills, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Police Pension Board, Politics, Property Taxes, Resident Spotlights, Riding Club Commission, Roads & Bridges Committee, Taxes, Transparency, Unions, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Director of Administration, Village Engineer, Village Government, Village President, Village Treasurer, Yabba Dabba Doo, Zoning Board on October 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their regular monthly meeting this evening beginning at 6:30 PM. Topics on their agenda include:

A copy of their agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »