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Economy
Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
10:53am
Wed Aug 11, 2010
133 comments

Establishing The Fifth Tier

During their brief stay in Washington, U.S. House Democrats introduced legislation to create a fifth tier of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. Like a similar bill in the Senate, it would extend the maximum number of weeks of federal and state benefits available by 20 weeks in states with unemployment rates over 10 percent. (Illinois would qualify.)

The odds of passage are long. After all, no Republicans in the U.S. Senate backed the latest unemployment insurance bill, which was less expansive than this attempt. Undoubtedly, the Democratic leadership would have to carve out spending on other worthy programs to ensure the extension is deficit-neutral. But so long as the number of jobless workers far outweighs the number of job openings, it's a bill progressives ought rally behind.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
9:01am
Wed Aug 11, 2010

Mark Kirk's CBO Lies

Add another flip-flop to U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk's resume. One day after telling reporters that he would likely support a federal state aid bill, he turned tail and voted against it on the House floor yesterday.

The justification Kirk gave in a written statement was that "the Congressional Budget Office state[s] the bill added $12 billion to the federal deficit." That's just a bold-faced lie. While the second page of the CBO's score (PDF) does include one line that says the net increase in the "On-Budget Deficit" will be $12.6 billion, a footnote clearly states that the final figure "excludes savings in Titles II and III that would result from changes to programs and rescissions of funds previously designated as emergency, which total about $14 billion over the 2010-2020 period." In other words, the CBO is extremely clear that the bill will lower the deficit by $1.3 billion over 10 years.

Shame on Kirk for lying to voters. And shame on the Tribune and WBEZ for framing this CBO interpretation as a political dispute between Republicans and Democrats. The budget report is available for everyone to see. All the reporters had to do to was open it up and verify that Kirk is being misleading. Take a page out of Abdon Pallasch's book and call a spade a spade, please.

PI Original
by Adam Doster
2:20pm
Fri Aug 6, 2010
250 comments

It's An Emergency! Where Are The Jobs?

Unemployment

As the economy continues to contract, a group of Illinoisans are demanding that Congress and the nation's major financial institutions act more aggressively to protect workers and create jobs.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
11:19am
Fri Aug 6, 2010

Take The Bond Downgrade Seriously, Chicago

In a written statement issued yesterday, Chicago's Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold pooh-poohed the news that Fitch Ratings is downgrading Chicago's bond rating on billions in outstanding general obligation bonds. Saffold said the city didn't believe the decision "will have a significant impact on our long-term borrowing costs," mainly because officials at City Hall see the financial crisis as the main driver of Chicago's budget woes.

That's true enough. Like the state and municipalities nationwide, Chicago has seen its tax revenues dip sharply over the past two years. But the report underlies some fundamental problems with the city's budget practices. Fitch specifically criticized Mayor Daley's decision to use reserve funds (like those created by the parking meter and Skyway privatization schemes) to cover operating expenses over the last several years. Those operating deficits wouldn't be so high if the city hadn't siphoned off so much property tax revenue into its tax increment financing "shadow budget," either. Over 90 percent of Mayor Daley's own property tax bill, for example, is tossed into that fund instead of toward regular taxing bodies. In other words, there are reasons why Chicago's long-term outlook is "negative" while those of other cities remain stable.