Quiet Down Peasants!

An unjust tax?  In Cook County?

• With gangland shootings becoming an every-day occurrence in Chicago, the Board of Commissioners in surrounding Cook County is trying anew to tackle the deadly problem -- with another tax.
  
  But already, some are questioning whether the move is more about making a statement than addressing the violence.
  
  Under the new law, Cook County is charging an additional $25 tax on every handgun sold inside county lines.
  
  Gun shop owner Fred Lutger said this fee targets legal gun buyers, and not the gangsters responsible for many of Chicago's homicides.

Well, you know Preckwinkle wouldn't want to actually tax gangbangers. They don't have jobs, they don't have futures, and they have a lot of guns, so it wouldn't make sense to ask them to come up with money.

But Joe Schmo taxpayer? Get the money from him.

Of course, Econ 101 comes into play here - something Preckwinkle never studied:

• Opponents of the law, though, warn that the tax could backfire -- by driving buyers and even businesses out of Cook County.
  
  Preckwinkle said she would be "astonished" if businesses actually left Cook over the tax.
  
  But County Commissioner Tim Schneider said: "I think we're astonished many times when businesses leave the county, but they do."
  
  Cook County has been down this road before. There is a tax on bottled water -- one of the highest sales taxes in the country. An increase in the cigarette tax fell dramatically short of projected revenue because tobacco store owners hoarded up the tax stamps before the increase went into effect.

Not to mention the thousand of people who just end up going over the border into Indiana or surrounding counties.  Moron politicians.

More Money Pissed Away

Why not just take piles of tax money and burn it?  At least we'd keep warm:

• On a chilly afternoon this fall, teenagers across Chicago's South Side were busy at work, earning $8.75 an hour to hand out fliers with a message of non-violence.
  
  "Our message that we're giving out today is about being healthy," said 18-year-old Lucia Eloisa. "One of the key pointers is about taking time to reflect and seek inner peace."
  
  Eloisa's part-time job was paid for by an ambitious state-funded program to keep at-risk teenagers out of trouble. It pumped nearly $55 million into Chicago's toughest neighborhoods and three of its suburbs to stem unrelenting gang violence.
  
  A four-month CNN investigation found that not only did the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative (NRI) pay teens to hand out fliers promoting inner peace, it also paid these at-risk teens to take field trips to museums, march in a parade with the governor, and even attend a yoga class to learn how to handle stress.
  
  Earlier this year, state legislators passed a resolution demanding the state conduct an audit on the program. That audit is under way.

Gee.  An audit.  How wonderful.  We'll probably hear something about it in a year or three.  

In the meantime, that $55 million could have built a second park memorializing Maggie Daley or Marie Antoinette or someone.

301

Looks like we underestimated the City's desire for money:

• If you ignored the winter overnight parking restrictions on some Chicago streets last night, you may be one of the 301 owners whose vehicles were towed for violating the ban.
  
  At least 301 vehicles were towed on the first night of the parking restrictions. The ban hours, from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m., started early today and were enforced along 107 miles of the major streets.
  
  Last year, 188 vehicles were towed on the first day of the ban, officials said.

Just based on the 50% increase in cars hooked, we're going to go out on a limb and say that the City isn't short tow truck operators.

Winter Parking Ban

If you're reading this and your car is parked out on someplace like Western Avenue right about now, and it's still in the 40 degree range, and it'll be 60 on Saturday and Sunday.....

It's a sure bet your car is/will be hooked up on a tow truck before 3 AM.

Winter Parking Rules! Betting is hot and heavy this year - the over/under stands at 200 cars towed. Last year was only 188, but Rahm really needs money this year.

Here Come the Speed Cameras

Rahm needs his money - $20 million to balance the budget:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s controversial speed cameras will get their first test next month in four locations as the city tries to determine whether the technology to catch speeding cars works.
  
  No tickets will be issued to drivers caught going above the speed limit during the testing period, which will last from Dec. 3 to Jan. 3, according to a news release Wednesday from Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Four locations for testing:

• Warren Park in the 6500 block of North Western Avenue
• Near North Montessori School in the 1400 block of West Division Street.
• McKinley Park in the 2200 block of West Pershing Road
• Dulles Elementary School in the 6300 block of South King Drive.

The only saving grace:

• ...the push to get the system in place near schools and parks hit a snag this fall because of a decades-old opinion by the Illinois attorney general that says children must be “visibly present” before school zone speed limits can be enforced.

We suppose that's why the signs all say, "When Children Are Present." Look for Rahm to have that changed at some point.

O'Hare Hostages

Just another operation targeting tourists:

• The CTA had no qualms on Tuesday about a group of riders it’s targeting to balance the budget: tourists.
  
  The transit agency wants to raise the one-way trip from O’Hare on the Blue Line from $2.25 to $5 for riders who don’t have single-day, three-day, seven-day or monthly passes. That’s part of a larger plan that also raises the costs of all passes but avoids raising the base fare of $2.25 for riders without passes.
  
  The $5 O’Hare tab would bring Chicago more in line with big cities around the country — although some cities, such as San Francisco, offer faster, cleaner rapid-transit options for the extra cost.

A fast, clean CTA? Bwahahahahahaha.

They've already murdered the convention business in Chicago by nickel-and-diming the people using McCormick Place. Now Rahm's advisers are charging people the second they land at O'Hare to even get off the property. At some point, that is going to factor into economic decisions made by the remaining conventioneers and tourists.

Rahm has $4 Million Left Over

And we're sure he's trying to figure out how to pocket it:

• Six months after the NATO summit, City Hall has hit the total button on the cost of hosting and protecting world leaders at a gathering that was historic for Chicago but a stretch for local resources.
  
  The final bill for the city of Chicago was $27.5 million, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office, with more than $20 million of it covered by the federal government.
  The remainder has been covered by some of the nearly $33 million in private donations raised by the Chicago NATO organizing committee.
  
  The private donations also covered the committee's tab for hotels for NATO guests, receptions and dinners for dignitaries, a media facility and insurance for the event. More than $10 million of the private donations was left over for the mayor to spend.
  
  Sarah Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said $4 million of that surplus remains at his disposal after recent announcements on using leftover money for park improvements.

Thousands of coppers short, millions short in pension obligations, and Rahm is spending it all on parks without any oversight whatsoever.

That makes sense.

Rahm Proposes Robbery

Remember that referendum on the ballot just last week about the City buying electricity competitively in order to save citizens money?

Rahm wants to keep it:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing a new plan to skim off some of the savings Chicago electricity customers stand to gain from lower rates expected as part of a bulk power purchasing contract, with the money going for unspecified energy efficiency projects.
  
  The mayor also wants greater control over how much of the deal a company can get.
  
  Some aldermen are skeptical, questioning Emanuel's power grab on the specifics of electrical aggregation, which allows the city to negotiate lower rates on residents' behalf. Last week, 56 percent of Chicago voters agreed with the idea in a referendum question.
  
  Now the rush is on to lock in savings as soon as possible. Emanuel wants to award the power savings deal within a month.

A month? This sounds suspiciously like the parking meter deal that Shortshanks rushed through to the detriment of taxpayers a few years back. And Rahm wants to keep the savings we were supposed to see? And under his proposal, he would have the authority to set the percentages of power that each company would be responsible for generating - or just assign all of the power generating needs to one single company, replacing the ComEd monopoly with one of his choosing.

Someone ought to ask if all that money is going to the unfunded pension obligations. We can already see what the answer would be.

CeaseFire Useless 5 Years Ago

The State of Illinois had an auditor look into CeaseFire's claims.  Guess what they found?

• The scoop in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times by police reporter Frank Main about the effectiveness of CeaseFire isn't the first time such questions have been raised about the group.
  
  Five years ago, Illinois' top auditor questioned what exactly taxpayers were getting in return for millions of dollars in state funds that were invested with CeaseFire.
  
  A 2007 report by Auditor General William Holland scrutinized $13 million in state spending on CeaseFIre and concluded no state standards existed to measure the group's anti-violence work.
  
  On Tuesday, Main reported that after more than three months into a $1 million contract with the city, a ranking police source said the anti-violence group has "no significant success stories." The group disputed that claim, insisting it had made a dent in crime in the areas covered by the city's new anti-violence pilot program.

We're going to take issue with the Sun Times calling this a "scoop" seeing as how nothing has changed in the five years since Auditor William Holland found there were no measurable standards after Illinois burned through $13 million taxpayer dollars.

But that didn't stop Rahm from shoveling another million their way with no reporting standards nor it would seem, expectations of results.

CeaseFire Story (UPDATE)

Channel 5 News just had a teaser about tomorrow's headlines in the Sun Times.

It seems that a "police source" is revealing that CeaseFire, after receiving $1 million from Rahm Emanuel with absolutely no oversight, has exactly ZERO success stories to hang their hats on.

Gee, did anyone see that one coming?  We're pretty sure we read something about it somewhere.  Maybe one of those new-fangled "blogs" everyone is talking about.

UPDATE: And here it is:

• More than three months into a $1 million contract with the city, the anti-violence group CeaseFire has “no significant success stories,” a ranking police source said. It’s hard to evaluate CeaseFire’s mediation of gang conflicts without getting timelier reporting from the group, the source added.
  
  “You can’t wait two weeks later and tell us, ‘Oh yeah, we intervened in that.’ We need specifics and time lines,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
  
  Asked about the partnership, police Supt. Garry McCarthy said through a spokeswoman: “It’s a work in progress.”

Hahahaha.....Oh McStreetlightMarksman, you're such a card.  And you can barely see Rahm's mouth moving while he manipulates his 9.5 digits in your puppet ass to cover up the missing million dollars.

Tax "Incentives" Returned

After Daley spent millions paying companies to move to Chicago without creating a single job and Rahm has continued that tradition, what's the end result?

• United Continental Holdings, parent of United Airlines, is giving back $5.6 million in City of Chicago tax incentives.
  
  The incentive money is tied to United's 2007 move to its corporate headquarters at 77 W. Wacker Drive, along the Chicago River.
  
  Because of United's recent plans to move out of that building and consolidate its headquarters into Willis Tower where it has other operations, the airline said it was "appropriate" to return the money. However, it wasn't necessary.

If United didn't live up to the terms of the TIF handouts, it "wasn't necessary" to return the money?  What the hell is that?  It would seem that everything written about TIF money being an unaccountable bucket of cash used to bribe certain interests is coming to light.

Looks like they're keeping some other cash though:

• The giveback does not include $35.9 million in TIF money tied to a separate 2009 incentive agreement that involved moving 2,500 workers from Elk Grove Village to Willis Tower.

And buried at the end of the article? This information that almost no one will read:

• United is the fourth company to return TIF funds recently, according to the mayor's office. The others are CME Group, CNA Group and Bank of America, which together returned some $34 million in TIF money last year. CNA and Bank of America fell short of the 2,700 or so jobs each was required to keep in exchange for the tax breaks, which helped them update buildings. However, they returned the money earlier than they had to, a city spokesman said.

We imagine they kept a sizable portion of the money to defer moving costs and the like, essentially making it a risk free move for their stockholders to secure Chicago digs.  How very....corrupt.

Preview of Things to Come?

Anyone else having this problem?

• I have been retired since April 2010 after 37 years of service. Over the last several months, my wife has been seeing a orthopedic physician due to severe neck pain. He prescribed physical therapy and my wife completed 6 weeks of therapy at a facility that we have both used in the past.
  
  We got notice from Blue Cross that they weren’t paying for the therapy and that they would review the claim. Today we received notice from them that they denied the claim because they feel it was “not a medical necessity.” We thought that maybe it was coded wrong or something like that so we called the therapy place and were informed that (at least at this place) the City has been denying ALL city workers therapy claims and that BCBS should have told everyone from the beginning.
  
  So I’m wondering if anyone else has had this type of problem or is Mayor Shortstack diluting our benefits without notice?

We know retiree healthcare is supposed to end in 2013. We're sure Rahm is looking to offload any and everything he can into Obamacare.  Is this a preview?

Less Aldercreatures = Less Waste

Almost a year ago, Northside posted this comment comparing the number of aldercreatures to those of other cities. If Rahm was truly interested in saving some real money, instead of nickel and dime-ing everyone to death, this would deserve some serious consideration:

====================

WHY TWENTY-FIVE CHICAGO WARDS? TRY SEVENTEEN.

The U.S. Census Bureau is the source of the final 2010 decennial population data for the nation's eight most populous cities. The respective number of city council members is in parentheses.

1. New York City...8,175,133 (51)

2. Los Angeles......3,792,621 (15)

3. CHICAGO...........[see below]

4. Houston..........2,099,451 (11)

5. Philadelphia.....1,526,006 (17)

6. Phoenix..........1,445,632 (9)

7. San Antonio......1,327,407 (10)

8. San Diego........1,307,402 (8)

___________________________________

TOTAL (7 CITIES)...19,673,652 (121)

3. CHICAGO..........2,695,598 (50)

Excluding Chicago, the aggregate of the seven most populous cities in the nation have an average of less than 17 city council numbers per capita.

While New York City has a population over three times larger than Chicago, they have only 51 city council members, a mean of one per every 160,297 residents. Chicago has a mean of one alderman per only 53,912 residents.

WHY?

=================

Think of the savings, not to mention the reduction in graft, crooked contracting and having to divide the corruption pie so many different ways.

Budget Oops

Can't quite bring ourselves to blame Rahm for this one - not completely:

• Chicago will borrow the $78.4 million needed to compensate nearly 6,000 African-American would-be firefighters bypassed by the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 entrance exam, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday, compounding the cost of a settlement that’s already twice as high as anticipated.
  
  Emanuel said the city anticipated the higher-than-expected tab and tucked it away into a general obligation bond issue normally reserved for infrastructure repairs and equipment purchases. General obligation bonds are backed by property taxes.
  
  Since Chicago is self-insured against most claims, settlements are normally paid for with funds set aside in the city’s judgment fund.

We will however, blame Rahm for failing to prioritize.  Spending $55 million on a park tribute while the city verges on bankruptcy? Bad idea. Along with a few dozen other instances of pretending money grows on trees.

Kill the Taste Already

It's over:

• The shrunken and revamped Taste of Chicago still didn't come close to breaking even and may never return to profitability, a top mayoral aide said Monday.
  
  Cultural Affairs Commissioner Michelle Boone said the she's "still reconciling" the cost of city services before releasing a final financial report on the revamped 2012 Taste.
  
  But, she disclosed that Chicago's premier lakefront festival costs $6 million to stage and isn't "close to breaking even." That's despite the fact that individual restaurants saw their highest profit margins in five years.
  
  Taste of Chicago was once a cash cow that bankrolled the city's other music festivals. But, Boone said it may never return to profitability.
  
  "It's very difficult to find a financial model that creates profitability for a free festival," the commissioner said after testifying at City Council budget hearings. 
  

The individual restaurants are making money but the city isn't? Time to pull the plug, hand it off to a private firm (maybe Vanecko Festivals or someone), and charge a hefty admission fee where the City could get their cut of the entertainment tax.

Public Blames Politicians

This is good news at least:

• Illinois voters overwhelmingly blame politicians for creating the state's public employee pension mess, but like elected officials, they're divided about plans to fix the problem, a new Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.
  
  The survey also found that Downstate and suburban residents oppose a major push by Democrats including Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn to gradually shift the costs of teacher retirement benefits on to local school districts outside Chicago.
  
  The issue of public employee pensions is a significant one for Illinois as well as for Chicago and the suburbs. The state has the largest unfunded pension liability in the nation, at least $83 billion. The practical effect: Ratings agencies downgraded the state's creditworthiness because of lawmakers' failure to address the problem, including a do-nothing special legislative session in August. It could cost the state more to borrow money.

If Illinois was a low-tax, business friendly state, a broader tax base would enable gradual reformation and a less painful bite at existing tax revenues. Of course, expecting Illinois politicians to make choices to cut entitlement programs and take a smaller slice of the corruption pie for a decade or two might be too much to ask.

Here a Tax, There a Tax

Everywhere a Tax, Tax:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is considering a new tax on every slot machine and video poker game in the county as she puts the final touches on the budget proposal she will present Thursday, aides said.
  
  Owners of gambling devices would be required to buy an $800 sticker to place on each machine. Next year, the tax could generate a bit more than $1 million, a relatively small sum in comparison to the $115 million hole Preckwinkle must plug to balance her budget.
  
  The slot machine tax is in keeping with the same philosophy Preckwinkle applied last week to a potential tax on guns and bullets — a way to generate money to help the county deal with problems caused by a particular product.

Yeah, and then Preckwinkle is going to be dealing with another local phenomenon - increased unemployment.  Look at the ammo tax she's proposing - the few remaining gun shops in suburban Cook County will just close up and move out. We're sure the number is under ten.  And the sporting good stores might just stop carrying ammo at all if they aren't selling it.

The tax on gaming machines is already a losing proposition when you read this other article:

• As Mayor Rahm Emanuel pursues efforts to win a cash-generating casino for Chicago, public support for a major gambling expansion in Illinois has faded, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.
  
  The survey results show growing opposition to new casinos and video slots at horse racing tracks, contrasting sharply with a similar poll conducted in February. The latest poll findings also appear to show that voters back Gov. Pat Quinn's decision to veto the legislature's latest gambling expansion bill in August.
  
  Lawmakers have twice approved measures to allow five new gambling palaces for Chicago, Rockford, Danville, the south suburbs and Park City in Lake County, but Quinn has raised many concerns to block the measures.

Support for gambling to bail Illinois out of its problems has dropped to 43% and shows no signs of regaining the momentum it had a year ago.  Not good news for Rahm or Quinn.  Or connected investors like the Outfit.

Rahm's Budget is OK!

Everything is hunky dory - especially if you can use imaginary money!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to offer a good-news budget to City Council on Wednesday that would siphon money from special taxing districts and rely on predictions of an improving economy to balance the books, aldermen said.
  
  But while Emanuel has already said he will not raise taxes, fees or fines, the details of how he will do more with less pain were lacking in the PowerPoint presentation Budget Director Alexandra Holt made to aldermen Tuesday.

Here's where the funny-money comes in:

• This time around, Emanuel has indicated he will rely more heavily on rosier revenue projections tied to a better economy. The administration is predicting $45 million in revenue growth from its share of the state income tax and collections of real estate transfer, retail sales and hotel taxes. It is also counting on $69.2 million in higher debt collections this year, along with a projected $24 million increase next year, to close a budget hole most recently estimated at $298 million.
  
  Aldermen were shown plans to siphon off $10 million for the city from tax increment finance districts, or TIFs — in which property taxes paid to local governments are frozen for up to 23 years, with any extra collections being used at the city's discretion as a way to spur development and create jobs.
  
  To do that, the mayor plans to declare $25 million in 22 TIF funds as surplus. Of that, $5 million would go to the city, with the rest going to other taxing agencies, primarily Chicago Public Schools. He would get another $5 million from TIF accounts that have expired or that he plans to close.
  

There's a whole lot of "projections," "predicting" and "counting on" in that budget. 

Schools Make Cuts

In order to pay for the negotiated raises, they finally found fat to trim:

• Chicago Public Schools said Friday it will pay for this year’s teacher raises by reducing central office spending and restructuring debt, making no mention of closing any schools.
  
  
  The contract deal, ratified this week by Chicago Teachers Union members, added $103 million to the current school year’s budget, district officials said. Among the planned savings are curbing $4 million in professional memberships and subscriptions, leaving $8 million in non-teacher openings vacant, selling $15 million in surplus property and restructuring debt for another $42 million.

So if all this was known prior to the strike, why wasn't it done to avoid missing 8 days of school?  Oh yeah, Rahm needed a strike in order to break the CTU, but failed miserably and ended up spending how many millions on TV ads that claim he "won" some great battle with the teachers.  Major backfire there.

A Suggestion

Maybe Rahm ought to save some of that $15 million in NATO money for lawsuit payouts?

Just a suggestion.

If he hasn't spent it all on anti-teacher ads that is.