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Illinois lawmakers face two choices on Invest in Kids Act: support schoolchildren or support teachers unions

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, Deception, Elgin Community College, FUBAR, Harper College, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Unions on May 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Illinois-graduates-most-students-even-though-a-vast-majority-arent-reading-or-math-proficient

Thirty-two state lawmakers have stepped up their efforts to save the Invest in Kids Act, Illinois’ tax credit scholarship for more than 9,000 students.

The House members, all Republicans, have signed a letter indicating their support for the program, which, as we’ve reported, is in danger of being killed by anti-school-choice lawmakers. Lawmakers will decide this month whether or not to extend the program as part of the budget negotiation process.

Those who’ve signed the letter support the hopes and dreams of the scholarship students from low-income, working-class families. For details of the program, see Empower Illinois’ 2022 Impact Report.

Those who refuse to show their support are effectively giving in to the teachers unions, which strongly oppose Invest in Kids and are actively pushing to end the program (see IEA’s stop vouchers in Illinois).

That refusal includes House Democrats who were asked to sign the letter but wouldn’t. Given Democrats’ lockstep support of the teachers unions, it’s unlikely any would sign anyway.

The refusal also includes eight Republican House lawmakers who have not signed: House GOP leader Tony McCombie, as well as Jeff Keicher, Dave Severin, Charles Meier, Norine Hammond, Wayne Rosenthal, Michael Marron and Amy Elik. (Wirepoints is unaware of any similar letter making the rounds in the Senate.)

These unsupportive legislators should be called out because school choice should be a slam dunk for both Republicans and Democrats. As the WSJ reported Tuesday, “The program is popular with voters. In May 2021, an ARW Strategies poll showed 61% of Illinois voters approved the tax-credit program, including 67% of state Democrats. 71% of black voters and 81% of Hispanics statewide approved of the plan.”

Not to mention, states around the country like Indiana and Iowa are greatly expanding their school choice programs and making them universal.

Read more here.

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Lawmakers advance bill that would allow non-citizens to be police officers in Illinois

Posted in FUBAR, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Public Safety, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, WTF on May 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

GETTYRF_101422_PoliceBelt_Thinkstock20Images765572534

Lawmakers have advanced a measure that will soon be sent to the governor’s desk that would allow certain immigrants to become police officers in Illinois.

Current federal law prohibits a non-U.S. citizen from becoming a police offer throughout the country. House Bill 3751 looks to change that law in Illinois.

The measure states that any immigrant who the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has deferred under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals process is allowed to apply for the position of a police officer, deputy sheriff or special police officer.

The measure was amended by the Senate on Thursday and received pushback from Republican lawmakers.

State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, criticized the idea of a non-citizen being able to arrest a U.S. citizen in Illinois.

“To hand the power to arrest and detain a citizen of this state, or a citizen of any state in the United States, to a non-citizen is a fundamental breach of democracy,” Rose said. “It is antithetical to the police power of any state.”

Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, supports the bill and said during debate that history shows people from different backgrounds have been law enforcement officers for a long time.

More here.

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Bill to redesign Illinois’ state flag awaits governor’s signature

Posted in FUBAR, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes on May 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

illinois_flag-Illinois-StateFlags

“It’s dumb. We’ve got so many things to worry about, and we’re worrying about the flag.”

 

Illinois’ state flag could be headed for a makeover.

A bill that would form a commission to determine whether the flag should be redesigned and potentially pick a new design is awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature after being approved by the Senate in March and the House late last week.

“I think if you asked anyone outside the state to identify our flag, not many could,” said state Rep. Daniel Didech, a Buffalo Grove Democrat who co-sponsored the original Senate bill in the House. “There’s an opportunity to market our state and a side opportunity to engage young people in government, and there’s not many times we’ve had legislation that could do that.”

However, the initiative is not without detractors. Votes in both chambers were largely along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.

“I think this is a great example of the misplaced priorities we’re seeing this year from our colleagues across the aisle,” said state Sen. Seth Lewis, a Bartlett Republican. “Instead of focusing on really pressing issues like ethics reform … we’re talking about a new state flag.”

Russell Middleton, an architect from downstate Normal who testified against the bill during committee hearings, was more blunt: “It’s dumb. We’ve got so many things to worry about, and we’re worrying about the flag.”

More here.

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Disgraceful Illinois budget process on full display as even a draft hidden from rank and file lawmakers in both parties

Posted in Deception, Ethics, FUBAR, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on May 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

illinois-springfield-capitol-and-sky

With no real understanding what’s in it, so far not having seen even a draft, Illinois lawmakers will soon vote on a budget spending about $50 billion of your money.

This portion of Hanna Meisel’s Friday column from Capitol News Illinois is a must-read:

During House floor debate, Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, renewed his request for an estimate as to when a draft copy of the budget might drop – or at least a revenue estimate for the state’s fiscal year that begins July 1.

“You’re asking me?” replied Rep. Jay Hoffman, a Democrat from Swansea who was presiding over the House chamber at the time. Hoffman’s quip elicited laughs from members, and Keicher broke into a smile.

“Funny story,” Keicher responded. “After I made my inquiry last night, I had eight members of the other side of the aisle suggest to me that they hadn’t seen one either.”

The Republican superminority is routinely cut out from budget formation, but that’s a Democrat acknowledging that most of his party, too, is shut out.

And they laughed about it.

Read on here.

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Hanging items off rearview mirror is illegal in Illinois but that could change

Posted in FUBAR, Politics, Springfield on May 14, 2023| 1 Comment »

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Illinois is one of a handful of states that bans hanging rosaries, air freshener tags or disability signs on a rearview mirror. A new bill may change that and prevent future headaches and irate confrontations with law enforcement.

“Even though it is in the driver handbook, most people don’t pay attention to it,” Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, told The Center Square. “They don’t even realize that it is against the law. The police know it is a violation. And remember, the police are responsible for pulling people over because the law says that they have to. It makes no sense.”

Ford’s bill, House Bill 2389, which would no longer require law enforcement to stop drivers with hanging objects on the rearview mirror, passed the Illinois House with bipartisan support on March 24.

In Minnesota, a police officer killed Chicagoan Daunte Wright two years ago when she stopped him for having an air freshener tag hanging from his rearview mirror. Wright got irate about the stop. The officer reached for her taser gun to subdue him. She grabbed her pistol instead, and Wright was killed.

“If the bill passes the Senate, as we expect, and the governor signs it into law, that is one less responsibility that law enforcement will have to have,” Ford said.

More here.

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More than 1,200 beds from McCormick Place COVID-19 temporary hospital go unused amid immigrant housing crisis

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Cook, County, Deception, FUBAR, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Unions, WTF on May 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The city kept 126 beds but isn’t using them. The state has 1,125 more beds from the makeshift hospital but says the city hasn’t asked for them. And the city is missing out on $30 million from Springfield to support immigrants.

Covid 1

Construction workers put the finishing touches on a 500-bed temporary COVID-19 hospital at McCormick Place on April 3, 2020. It ended up going unused. | Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune pool photo

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker stood together in April 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic to showcase the rapid transformation of an empty convention hall at McCormick Place East into a medical facility with 500 beds — and 2,500 more to be installed later.

It turned out the makeshift COVID-19 hospital wasn’t needed because existing hospitals were able, after all, to meet the demand of treating coronavirus patients. So the beds were moved to warehouses, and the facility was dismantled as quickly as it was set up.

Now, with at least 8,500 refugees from Latin America having been transported to Chicago from Texas since last August in a political tug-of-war over national immigration policy, those beds are available for use in temporary shelters.

The city kept 126 full-size beds from the McCormick Place temporary hospital. City officials say it would be difficult to set them up quickly because the beds include a mattress, headboard, footboard, bed frame and no linens.

Covid 2

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., tour the COVID-19 care facility in Hall C at McCormick Place on April 17, 2020. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

Instead, the Lightfoot administration chose to send cots for immigrants to sleep on at temporary shelters because they’re “easy to deploy and set up during an emergency,” according to Mary May, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

“At this time, it is simply not as practical to use the limited number of beds we have in storage.”

Read more here.

Related: “McCormick Place hospital’s cost to taxpayers?” “Now-closed McCormick Place COVID-19 hospital cost taxpayers $15M to staff, run”

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Daily Herald opinion: A toll-free Longmeadow Bridge would also be good for Cook, McHenry counties

Posted in Algonquin Rd, Cook, County, FUBAR, IDOT, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, McHenry, Politics, Taxes on May 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

LMP To Nowhere

Kane County officials are hoping their counterparts in Cook and McHenry counties will contribute toward the cost of the Longmeadow Parkway project and help avert charging tolls at the bridge over the Fox River. Daily Herald File Photo

Funding issues have dogged the Longmeadow Parkway traffic project in northeast Kane County virtually since its inception with a $4 million federal grant in 2005. As the $135 million roadway lumbers toward a late 2024 completion, one lingering, important question remains — how to pay off $35 million in bonds Kane County used to help with the construction and support ongoing maintenance.

The ultimate fallback has long been assumed to be to make the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge, the final leg of the project, a toll bridge, the only such local toll bridge in the state. Almost no one likes that option, though, and Kane County officials have said it might be averted altogether if McHenry and Cook counties, portions of which are served by the 5.6-mile roadway, will pitch in $1 million each in recognition of the fact that their constituents will benefit substantially from the traffic-relief valve running from Huntley and Boyer roads eastward to Route 62 in Algonquin.

McHenry County Board Chair Mike Buehler acknowledged the benefits in an interview with Shaw Local Media last week. While coming well short of agreeing to Kane County’s request, Buehler did note that some estimates have found motorists from McHenry County would pay $1 million a year if the bridge ends up charging a toll.

“If we’re looking at a scenario where a toll would be eliminated, I think that would be a pretty compelling argument,” Buehler said.

The argument may not be quite as persuasive in Cook County, where just a small sliver near Barrington Hills would be most affected, but then again $1 million out of Cook’s multibillion-dollar budget is substantially less noticeable than it would be compared to the much smaller revenue picture in McHenry.

And, in both counties as well as Kane, the new road is expected to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new business activity. This, of course, in addition to the parkway’s primary purpose of alleviating long years of bad traffic headaches in the region.

Read more here.

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New Board of Education sworn into office

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Barrington High School, Board of Education, Deception, District 220 referendum, Elections, Ethics, FUBAR, Illinois State Board of Elections, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Taxes, The New Normal, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, WTF on May 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

InkedNate

Barrington School District 220 hired longtime school administrator Nathaniel Rouse as the district’s first-ever director of equity, race and cultural diversity initiatives in August of 2020. Apparently, Rouse recruits Board of Education candidates HE (and presumably  his union) deems to be “sound” during school hours.

Posted Tuesday by CUSD 220:

“At the May 2 Barrington 220 Board of Education meeting, the new Board was sworn into office. New Board member Diana Clopton, along with re-elected Board members Barry Altshuler and Leah Collister-Lazzari, will all serve four-year terms on the Board.

Clopton and her husband moved to the Barrington area in 2011. They have two children who attend Prairie Campus and Station Campus. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign and a MBA from Northwestern University. Clopton currently works as an Associate Marketing Director at a bio-pharmaceutical company.”

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Kane County explores going big on lobbying

Posted in Algonquin Rd, County, FUBAR, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, Politics, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Topics Of Interest on May 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Chair, other leaders want to spend $240K

LMP

Kane County started experimenting with lobbying after the election of county board Chair Corinne Pierog. The result was millions of dollars in state funding for the Longmeadow Parkway project.

Perhaps spurred by recent success in wrangling enough state funds to wipe out the need for a toll on the Longmeadow Parkway, Kane County officials are contemplating their largest investment of taxpayer dollars toward lobbying at the state and federal levels.

Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog recently told county board members she believes a combination of state money, remaining COVID-19 relief money and cash contributions from neighboring counties will pay off the bond the county issued to pay for Longmeadow’s construction. But that’s only if $12.5 million for Longmeadow stays in the proposed state budget through the final vote.

“Fingers crossed,” Pierog told the board’s legislative committee. “I could not be happier.”

Getting that money into the state budget for Kane County is a result of lobbying efforts by Pierog, county board members and a private lobbying firm the county hired.

But the use of lobbyists by the county is a touchy subject with a history that goes back through at least the previous two county board chairs.

A previous board moved to eliminate lobbyists from the county budget in the waning tenure of former county board Chair Karen McConnaughay. Several board members didn’t like the political ties McConnaughay had with the lobbying firm the county used at the time.

Read more here.

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Multiple news outlets report, “Full cement truck falls over in Barrington Hills, hits car.” Problem is Bradwell is in INVERNESS.

Posted in Accidents, FUBAR on April 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Cement

BARRINGTON HILLS, Ill. (WLS) — A cement truck overturned in north suburban Barrington Hills, hitting another vehicle. The truck was carryng a full load of cement, according to Inverness police.

The truck struck another vehicle after falling while making a right turn onto Bradwell Road.

The truck driver was transported to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The driver who was in the other vehicle was not hurt, according to officials.

More here.

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