My Blog

Category: Politics

  • Rosemont Homeowners get $3,000

    [S]uburban Rosemont is offering its homeowners $3,000 grants. The village may not have landed the big casino, but it has lots of commercial development and relatively few residents. Mayor Brad Stephens likens this year’s grant — the village has parceled out money for 15 years in a row — to a “dividend” a company would…

  • BGA on the Size of the City Counsel

    The BGA is not the first, nor the second or third, to write about reducing the size of the city counsel.  But in this story here they do a better job than just about anyone I’ve seen. The wrap-up is equally important.  These ideas need champions who will talk about them and bring them to…

  • Meeks vs. Tax Law

    Meeks says he’s long been mindful of the rules laid out by the Internal Revenue Service, but it’s clear he chafes at restrictions that prevent churches and other charitable groups from endorsing and contributing to political campaigns. “I am running for office, and you know that. … I can take all the money I want…

  • Little do to in Property Tax Battle?

    In an article with technical problems over at the Sun-Times, Terry Savage writes under a headline, “Little you can do in property tax battle”: While home values are down, many homeowners are shocked by the increases in second-half-of-the year tax bills. Fingers are pointing at the assessor’s office, the Cook County Board and the state’s…

  • Berrios Puts Family on Payroll

    Just days into his tenure as Cook County assessor, Joseph Berrios has hired his son and sister to work for him. … Carmen Berrios, the assessor’s sister, is director of taxpayer services at Berrios’ new office. She is making about $86,000, the same salary she made at the Board of Tax Review, where she headed…

  • How Can the Park District be Broke?

    Park visitors may soon see advertisements on Chicago Park District property such as lifeguard stands, garbage cans and tennis courts, as officials look for ways to plug a $22 million hole in next year’s budget. (Full story here.) The Chicago Park District owns Solider Field; that big ugly thing many Second Ward residents can see…

  • You Owe $11,647, & That’s Just for Pensions

    Part 1 of 2 on just how completely broken the City’s pension system has become. Chicago’s public pension funds are teetering on the brink of insolvency in large part because city officials and union leaders repeatedly exploited the system, draining away billions of dollars in the last decade to serve short-term political needs…. As a…

  • City Pension Funds Poorly Managed

    Part 2 of 2 on just how completely broken the City’s pension system has become. Trustees of Chicago’s failing public pension funds have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into highly speculative investments that not only have failed to realize outsize returns but also saddled them with underperforming, long-term assets that can’t be sold off,…

  • They Don’t Want You to Know

    I bet you have no idea how many shootings there have been in Chicago this year. Me either. And it’s not because I haven’t tried to find out. About two months ago, I started reporting on crime and public safety. In light of the on-again, off-again handgun ban and Supt. Jody Weis’ insistence that there…

  • Rahm’s Residency Issue

    Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel was twice purged from the city voter rolls in the last 13 months but was reinstated by election officials, who allowed him to vote absentee in the February primary even though he did not live at his North Side address. (Full story here.) This is not a comment, up or…