Author: Jimmy
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Gas Tax at Work
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The twice-monthly Lundberg Survey has found the price of regular gasoline has risen about nine cents a gallon over three weeks to $3.08. … Lundberg says the highest gas price in the country was recorded in Chicago at $3.35 a gallon. The low, $2.73, was in Salt Lake City, Utah.The survey…
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Parking Meter Analysis
So Monday is the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board review for the Second Ward candidates and as I was having breakfast this morning I got to thinking. How bad really was the parking meter deal? So I started poking around to find out. Ten minutes later I was shocked!! Based on this story here I estimated…
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State Dems Press Ahead on Tax Hikes
Gov. Pat Quinn and top Democrats are pressing forward on a major income-tax increase and a $1-a-pack hike in cigarette taxes. The personal income tax rate would rise from 3 percent to 5.25 percent, Senate President John Cullerton said this evening. The amount tracks with what the Tribune reported today. After four years, it would…
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Media Drops Ball on Taste Proposal
Chicago aldermen responded coolly Tuesday to a lone bidder’s proposal to charge Taste of Chicago patrons a $20 admission fee — and up to $65 for tickets to a music stage that draws the biggest-name talent to the lakefront festival. (Full story here.) This is the whole story; $20 admission & $65 concert tickets. Completely…
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Truism
Someone sent me this quote today as part of a longer email: It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. — Thomas Jefferson I can’t help but thinking that the debt we have created for…
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Gratuitous Spending at CPS
An independent investigation into spending by Chicago Public Schools’ board presidents has uncovered more than $800,000 in questionable expenses in recent years, including thousands spent at lavish restaurants and hotels at a time when teachers and the district’s rank-and-file were being asked to cut expenses. (Full story here.) It’s worth the click to read this…
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Unions vs. Taxpayers – Part 2 of 2
Also from the New York Times: Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics. … But in some cases — mostly in states with Republican…
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Unions vs. Taxpayers – Part 1 of 2
From the NYT a few days ago: Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy. In California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey, states where…
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Illinois’ $13 Billion Deficit Took Years to Produce
The legislative session that began today as the House convened will take aim at a budget deficit of at least $13 billion, including a backlog of more than $6 billion in unpaid bills and almost $4 billion in missed payments to underfunded state pensions. The fiscal mess is largely of the lawmakers’ own making, and…
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Abu Dhabi Shares Profits From Parking Meters
In fact, a Chicago News Cooperative investigation has found that investment arms of the oil-rich Abu Dhabi government hold more than a 25 percent stake in the company that privatized the city’s 36,000 parking meters. German financial company Allianz also has a large minority interest, and the remaining 50.1 percent is held by partnerships assembled…