Statewide update?Sept. 27, 2011 | BGA Think Tank

September 27, 2011 ? 7:51 am

Chicago Tribune?Chicago given many painful ways to escape budget mess, ?As Mayor Rahm Emanuel prepares to present his first budget next month, Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is tossing out dozens of ways to raise more money and cut the size of city government. Many of them are politically poisonous: a city income tax, tolls on Lake Shore Drive, higher ambulance fees. Others could conceivably gain traction: making garbage pickup more efficient, cutting layers of management and making all city employees work 40 hours a week.?

• State Journal-Register?Editorial: Begin pension fix by closing loopholes, ?Question: How do you turn a $15,264-a-year city job into a $157,752-a-year retirement pension? Answer: You follow Illinois law?Closing this lucrative loophole must be only the start of a more far-reaching reform effort. No bill that seeks to address this issue will be complete without language that requires an accounting of all retirees drawing public pensions that are not calculated on their salaries as public employees.?

• The Daily Northwestern?Trustees once again seek more information on township dissolution, ?As Monday?s Evanston City Council meeting stretched toward midnight, further discussion of dissolving Evanston Township was tabled by general consensus of the township trustees. City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz recommended holding a special meeting on Oct. 24 to discuss a letter to state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) requesting advice from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan about initiating the referendum.?

• Chicago Sun-Times?Reforms pushed after county worker charged with growing pot in woods, ?In what is known as the ?resident watchmen? program, 40-plus homes and apartments are available at steeply discounted rates for forest preserve staffers who, in addition to their regular duties, agree to help plow snow, remove downed trees and report criminal activity in the area where they?re living. The program has long been seen as a home for some patronage workers whose skills are honed climbing the political ladder rather than fighting a forest fire ? but that?s all changing, said Forest Preserve Supt. Arnold Randall.?

• Peoria Journal Star?Judge rules against Catholic Charities in foster-care dispute, ?The state Department of Children and Family Services can begin canceling its adoption and foster care contracts with Catholic Charities, Circuit Judge John Schmidt ruled Monday? State officials did not renew the contracts after Catholic Charities said its religious principles do not allow it to place foster and adoptive children in the homes of unmarried couples, including those in civil unions.?

• (AP) The Southern?Rutherford, Topinka dish out pay raises, ?Two Republican statewide officeholders critical of government spending have handed out pay raises to dozens of employees during a fiscal crisis. State Treasurer Dan Rutherford has awarded 19 pay raises to staff members averaging 16 percent at the very time Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has threatened 1,900 layoffs and facilities closures, reneged on a negotiated pay increase for thousands of union workers in his administration and eliminated salaries for regional school administrators, who have been working for free since July.?

Like this:

Be the first to like this post.

Source: http://bgathinktank.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/statewide-update%E2%80%94sept-27-2011/

teamviewer eid gravity medco medco athletics athletics