Tag: Madigan

Illinois Unemployment at 9.1%

Unemployment across Illinois rose to 9.1 percent in August, the third straight month of increases in the state, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday. …

Unemployment in July was 8.9 percent. Increases in the unemployment rate in June, July and August followed nine months of slow but steady declines. The federal government said earlier this month that the national unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 8.1, but the decrease was thought to primarily be driven by people dropping off unemployment rolls because they stopped looking for work.

via Crain’s Chicago Business.

Not a good sign.

It’s time for Madigan, Rahm, Quinn, and the rest of the cabal to stop lining their own pockets and start balancing budgets and becoming a little more business friendly.

Do anti-business people understand that  no businesses = no taxpayers.  No taxpayers = no tax revenue.  No tax revenue = no government jobs or services?

Government in and of itself creates nothing of value.  It’s all done with other people’s money.  What about that is so hard to understand?

Beavers Indictment: Where’s Madigan?

So I understand that our unwanted and tried to be run out of town U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois has indicted Old Man Beavers.  The feds are usually pretty good about putting their case together and have a 85-90% conviction rate.  So it’s safe to say that the Hog of Cook County is going to join the long list of Chicago (specifically and Illinois generally) politicians who in the end do time.  Way to make us proud.

But has anyone asked where Lisa Madigan was when all this was going down?  Isn’t this corrupt political number six or seven for the U.S. Attorney?  How many politicians has Ms. Madigan prosecuted?  Exactly NONE.

Well ain’t that something.

Taxpayers Pay for Political Payback

Kudos to Crains on this unbelievable story:

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan cost taxpayers nearly half-a-billion dollars by blocking repeated efforts to restructure McCormick Place bonds and finance a much-needed second hotel at the convention center, a Crain’s investigation finds.

Between 2005 and 2010, Mr. Madigan stopped five refinancing bills, ignoring declining interest rates that would have saved hundreds of millions. At the time, he never explained why, but his reasons seem petty and political: McCormick Place CEO Juan Ochoa, an appointee of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, had fired a Madigan ally at the convention center, and lawmakers from both parties say the speaker wanted retribution.

“It was no secret that Madigan had a beef with Ochoa and wanted him gone,” says state Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano, an Elmwood Park Republican who sponsored refinancing bills in 2005, 2007 and 2009. “As long as Ochoa was there, Madigan wasn’t going to give McCormick Place anything.”

But politics may not have been Mr. Madigan’s only motivation. By holding up refinancing, the speaker also denied McCormick Place the money to build a new hotel. That bought time for clout-heavy developers Gerald Fogelson and Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. to push a controversial land swap and hotel deal with McCormick Place on property just north of the convention center. Both were then clients of Mr. Madigan’s law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner, but the speaker denies any connection.

via Crain’s.

Five Hundred Million Dollar hit to the taxpayers.  Hundreds of jobs directly in the balance.  Total economic impact of $8-billion and 66,000 jobs all used as toys by Madigan.

My question is when will someone ask our State Attorney General Lisa Madigan when she’s going to investigate a politician?