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Taxes
Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
11:15pm
Wed Feb 8
1 comment

Tea Party Speaker Praises Emanuel On Education (VIDEO)

EmanuelThe Chicago Tea Party may not like many things – taxes, Mitt Romney, even the Republican Party. But the Tea Party did like a video made by Andrew Marcus, which champions Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s education policies.

Marcus, director of the video, “A Tale of Two Missions,” produced by the Michigan-based Education Action Group, was the featured speaker at a Chicago Tea Party event downtown tonight.

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PI Original
by Matthew Blake
4:21pm
Tue Feb 7
2 comments

A New Attempt To Deal With Foreclosed, Vacant Properties

Housing

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has announced a new pilot program aimed at assisting homeowners and rehabilitating vacant, foreclosed upon properties in Cook County.

Quick Hit
by Aricka Flowers
4:30pm
Thu Feb 2
1 comment

Number Of The Week: 6,230

That's the number of jobs lost each time the state reduces general fund spending by just 1 percent, according to a new report by Make Wall Street Pay Illinois and the Alliance for a Just Society.

The four-page report, The Cost of Cuts in Illinois: Budget Cuts Hurt Families, Communities, and the Economy (PDF), found that thousands of lost jobs can be associated with cuts in state spending, which is only exacerbated by corporate tax breaks, like the recent ones given to the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the CME Group.

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PI Original
by Matthew Blake
5:53pm
Wed Feb 1

Quinn Focuses On Job Creation Programs, Not Deficit In "State of State"

Springfield

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s “State of the State” speech today optimistically focused on ways state government can spur job creation and saved a dreary examination of state finances for the governor’s February 22 budget address.

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
2:35pm
Tue Jan 31
5 comments

Turning Point On Corporate Tax Breaks?

CME Group logoThe city announced that CME Group, Inc. financial exchange elected to turn down $15 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, money.

The announcement came the same day that the Mayor’s office announced TIF reform and two other companies – CNA Group and Bank of America – also returned TIF money. Moreover, CME Group's announcement comes after Stand Up! Chicago delivered a golden toilet to the company’s downtown headquarters last week, partly in protest of their tax incentives.

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