Category: Politics
-
The Rahm Situation, Part II: The Sword
He who lives by the sword dies by the sword. — Matthew 26:52 Surely it is folly to suggest that Rahm is getting any less than he fully deserves. When you live your life in politics and have so playfully toyed with so many peoples lives as he has, things just have a way a…
-
The Rahm Situation, Part I: Enforce the Law
The surest way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. — Abraham Lincoln While editorial boards, talking heads, and policy wonks from near and far are condemning the recent Appellate Court decision removing Rahm from the ballot based on emotion, there has been little discussion in the media as to what…
-
Wall Street Partying in Davos, We Suffer
I realize this is not a local issue but I can’t help myself: JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s profits last year were the highest in the bank’s history, and Citigroup Inc. returned money to the U.S. Treasury and reported its first full- year profit since 2007. Governments have so far opted against breaking up or levying…
-
Bankruptcy an Option
From yesterday’s NYT: Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers. … Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. … But proponents…
-
Big Tax Hikes Result in Less Revenue
Last year, voters in Oregon voted to raise taxes on the highest income earners in the state, giving Oregon the highest tax rates of any state in the nation. It hasn’t worked out too well for Oregonians, according to the Wall Street Journal: In 2009 the state legislature raised the tax rate to 10.8% on…
-
Wisconsin ‘Open for Business’
Wisconsin is open for business. In these challenging economic times while Illinois is raising taxes, we are lowering them. On my first day in office I called a special session of the legislature, not in order to raise taxes, but to open Wisconsin for business. Already the legislature is taking up bills to provide tax…
-
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…
-
Yes Virgina, People Flee High Taxes
The results of the 2010 Census are coming in and show: First, the great engine of growth in America is not the Northeast Megalopolis, which was growing faster than average in the mid-20th century, or California, which grew lustily in the succeeding half-century. It is Texas. Its population grew 21 percent in the past decade,…
-
Meeks unsure who’s a “Minority”
Mayoral challenger James Meeks scrambled Thursday to put out a political fire touched off by his suggestion that only African Americans should be eligible for city contracts set aside for minorities and women. (Full story here.) Of course the Reverend knows what a minority is. It’s those who will vote for him. No one else…
-
Aldcreature’s Son Get 100k+ job at Water
The son of former Ald. Bernie Hansen 44th has been promoted to a $103,632-a-year job in the city’s Department of Water Management — six months after he was put on unpaid leave for a DUI arrest that stripped him of the driver’s license he needed to do his job. Paul Hansen was a $97,760-a-year assistant…