Progress Illinois

That's the number of clients Department of Human Services case worker Ebony Martin manages out of the agency's Dupage County office.  When she started there four years ago, her caseload was 900.  You can read the Chicago News Cooperative's full piece on DHS' "busiest branch" here.

And for more context, check out our post from March 2009 on the stress being felt at DHS offices across the state.  It's only gotten worse in the year since.

We weren't the only media outlet to cover the Raise Your Hand (RYH) coalition's rally yesterday. Here's some additional video shot by the Chicago News Cooperative:

In other education budget news, both the Sun-Times and Tribune editorial boards jumped all over the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) this week for suggesting that they will fight to keep in place a scheduled four percent pay increase (which will cost $135 million). But CTU president-elect Karen Lewis' position seems pretty reasonable. She says the city should provide a detailed budget before teachers are forced to choose between cuts or raises. That way, all the stakeholders can assess whether there is waste in other parts of the district, particularity in the central office bureaucracy. Ben Joravksy wrote about that issue this week, as well. 

Illinois' unemployment rate might be dropping, but it's going to take a while before the job market fully recovers, particularly for those already caught up in the vicious cycle of unemployment. Over the past few months, we've spent some time looking at programs the government could support to curb the recent explosion in long-term employment. Yesterday afternoon, the Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey summarized seven possible approaches as laid out during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the topic. If you're interested, the research is worth reading through.

The problem, as Lowrey herself suggests, is money. The U.S. Senate, as currently constituted, is not prepared to spend any significant resources on jobs programs if it will add in any way to the national debt. Just last night, Senate Republicans successfully filibustered a slimmed-down jobs bill that would have extended the filing deadline for unemployment insurance benefits. So-called "moderate" GOPers from Maine -- Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe -- have now demanded that Senate Democrats remove Medicaid assistance to state governments from the bill, despite rational economic evidence suggesting that state cutbacks are thoroughly depressing the stimulative effects of the government's new spending. Once again, it appears that Republicans are playing politics with the nation's vulnerable.

Right on the heels of our article noting the latest tax increment financing (TIF) reform activism in Chicago, the Reader's Ben Joravksy published a related piece yesterday on the newly-formed Raise Your Hand (RYH) coalition. The city's most dogged TIF reporter talked to a few parents involved in the organization, who offered more specifics about how they want to see the system changed to exempt the Chicago Public Schools from having their tax revenue siphoned off into TIF accounts.

I talked to Goldman this morning to get a clarification on RYH's proposal. While the organization originally told Joravsky that the state's TIF statute would need to be revised to exempt CPS, he now thinks it might be possible for city officials to achieve the same outcome by amending the ordinance that establishes each TIF district. 

Regardless of the level of government, Goldman believes that there won't be any action without Mayor Daley's blessing, which is why the organization is still requesting a meeting with his administration on the issue.  Joined by State Rep. and Democratic Cook County commissioner candidate John Fritchey, the coalition pressed the mayor again outside the Thompson Center this morning. Watch: