Illinois Gov. Pritzker forced to make budget cuts

 Closing the year for many people means holiday presents, and good times, but for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker the holidays will be a grim reminder of the failure to pass his graduated income tax proposal to raise an expected $3 billion dollars to shore up the sagging finances of his state, and in particular to help pay public pension, but that fell flat after a highly financed campaign against it by billionaire hedge fund and CEO of Citadel, with ads falsifying many claims, such as taxing retirement income, and was roundly defeated by voters in November.

Pritzker, himself a billionaire, spent more than $56 million, and still lost, with only 46.7 percent of the vote, in a battle of billionaires, and which The Chicago Tribune Editorial page belittled him as being lazy and as the old trope goes, a “tax and spend” Democrat.

Not one to lie down and roll over, he shot back: “I’ve reached out to the General Assembly, in particular to the Republicans, because they have a special responsibility here, having worked so hard to defeat the fair tax, to step up to the plate, tell us how they’re going to balance the budget, given that we have a $3.9 billion deficit, and you know about half of that has come from structural challenges that the state has.”

“Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, took aim at Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, and Speaker Michael Madigan, saying in a statement the three were “repeatedly warned about the dire shortfalls in the fantasy budget that relied upon the passage of the graduated tax and a ‘fingers crossed’ hope for a federal bailout.”

“Instead of living within our means, they attempted to trick voters into raising taxes, and were sorely rejected by Democrat, Republican and Independent voters across the state,” Durkin’s statement continued, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Taking the city will not be easy for Pritzker who put an excess amount of political capital in the effort, and now with the state facing much needed dollars, he announced a week ago that there was going to be $711 million in reductions, only the beginning to fill the $3.9 billion deficit or the current fiscal year which has overjoyed some of his critics who have long called for state hiring freezes, unpaid furlough days and a reduction for retirement funds for one year, among other ideas.

For many of those ideas, they seem more like graduate school exercises rather than reality based ideas, that don’t take into account those living on the expectation of state payments, and as we have all seen from the past, temporary reductions in payments can quickly be like the ghosts of Christmas past coming back to haunt us.

On the chopping block for many is a reduction in social services which we’ve seen before with the Bruce Rauner administration that left many of these agencies begging, or being forced to limit or end services for battered women shelters and drug and alcohol treatment centers, to name but two.

The Belleville News Democrat reported that “Having gotten wind of possible cuts months ago, southwestern Illinois agencies have already started planning for more bad news in the near future.

It won’t be the first time Renae Storey, vice president for the southern region of Children’s Home and Aid, will have worked through a fiscal crisis. She remembers the budget impasse under Gov. Bruce Rauner and how it affected the statewide child and family advocacy nonprofit.”

“We know that cutting any part of human services will be detrimental to families, and it will be detrimental to the state budget because more costly alternatives would probably happen later,” Storey said.

They also  reported that “One of the organization’s programs, for instance, has reduced the number of St. Clair County children going into the juvenile justice system each year from 90 to 10 since 2005. The cost of one year in juvenile corrections costs $160,000, whereas Redeploy Illinois costs roughly $10,000 per child.

“We know there may be cuts coming, but we’d like to have a seat at the table so we can help inform the lawmakers and the governor’s office about how important these services are,” Storey said.

That request should be part of the effort in planning the cuts, along with lawmakers on both sides of the political divide to make a good part effort to minimize the pains of budget cuts.

Of course, the blame game is part and parcel of politics, and with some justification on the part of Pritzker, and his critics who are in a “told you so” mode that gives little and takes much.

The governor has said that he will negotiate with unions on $75 million in personnel cuts, and we can only hope that level of cooperation will continue.

While this has much traction from some, like Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association, others disagree, notably Roberta Lynch, the executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who said according to the Chicago Sun Times “it is grossly unjust to suggest that frontline state employees who have already sacrificed so much in our current public health crisis should bear an outsized share of the burden of fixing the state’s fiscal crisis as well.

“Moreover, it is counterproductive in the extreme to target these employees at a time when the need for state services and the demands on state government are greater than ever.”

With a reduction of about 10,000 fewer incarcerated people, projected savings are expected to net $25.4 million, but as reported “the remainder will come from $45.6 million in operational and grant reductions to corrections, Illinois State Police and other agencies.”

On the federal level, Pritzker, like many states hit hard with a loss of revenue from Covid 19, had hoped for help from Congress, that Republicans had fought tooth and nail describing them as “bailouts” a political ploy for attacking blue states.

In particular schools need those federal bucks, and as the governor had noted earlier, “Our schools and our public safety and health care deserve more investments, not less.” 

Unfortunately, the $2.3 trillion bill passed on Monday did not contain the contentious state and local money that Pritzker wanted, and some voices from Washington are doubting that the incoming Biden administration may be capable of getting it passed either.

With a nearly $4 billion budget deficit for 2021, there is also a projected deficit of $4.8 billion in fiscal year 2022, with a slight reduction to $4.2 billion by FY 2026, in no doubt caused by the continuing pandemic; but, also a continuing backlog of bills projected to increase from an approximate $10.1 billion for FY 2021 to $33 billion, over the next five years.

Pritzker plans to borrow another $2 billion from the Federal Reserve’s municipal liquidity fund, which was created to help governments, after earlier borrowing $1.2 billion from the program and repaying $200 million, Bloomberg News reported, and the Tribune reiterated.

“The state had originally authorized borrowing $5 billion from the program. Loans must be repaid over a three-year period, and state officials had planned on using new federal stimulus funds for state and local governments to repay the borrowings.”

Even these may have had their day since Sen. Pat Toomey, R.Pa. wants to do away with them saying their time has come and gone. As MSNBC reported “Toomey said he fully supported the wide-ranging credit programs launched by the central bank in March in response to the burgeoning pandemic. But he contended that they should be wound down at the end of December and congressional approval must be required again before restarting them.”

In defense he added, “I voted for that. I supported that because I thought we were in such an emergency. We are clearly not in a financial crisis at this point."

Such “Cassandra” like moves like his were prevented by Democratic leaders fearing that President Biden might lose a resource, while others questioned what Toomey designated as a crisis.

Needles to say 2021 for Illinois finances will be at a crisis point, and we hope that both sides of the aisle can work together to create a plan, now that the graduated tax horse has left the barn.

Lightfoot pushes for a tax dependent budget

 

Going it alone seems to be the theme for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget address on Wednesday where she has laid out a plan to address a $1.2 billion deficit for the nation’s third largest city, and in an atmosphere of tension and anxiety over the devastation that has wreaked havoc on the city’s economy from Covid; but, also one that has suffered losses in previous administrations, especially for obligated pension payments.

The biggest item is the $94 million property tax increase making the one from her predecessor, and for some dwarfs Rahm Emanuel, of $55 million but a redrafting to a federal index may reduce the pain.

Adding in the refinancing of $500 million in city debt and taking $30 million from city reserves to preserve Chicago’s bond rating makes for some intense work from Ald. Gilbert Villegas, Lightfoot’s floor leader to get 26 votes from a city council that has often been at loggerheads with her, make his work all that difficult.

The silver lining is that eliminating 1,000 vacant city jobs, along with layoffs of nearly 500 city employees, will not come till March as she hopes for a Democratic victory from Joe Biden and a changed Congress that is willing to chip in to make the city staunch its hemorrhaging of cash.

Seemingly, that is only the beginning, and as the Chicago Sun Times noted, “Declaring a record $350 million tax increment financing surplus to generate a $189 million windfall for the Chicago Public Schools, but snatching back $55 million of that money by shifting pension and crossing guards from the city to CPS,” ratchets up the criticism, that Lightfoot is bound to receive for her efforts.

Unpaid furlough days for city employees, in the thousands, that are non union, is a neat effort that preserves jobs, and is a corporate move, may garner her some points, but not much, as she will no doubt face public ire, and some from Chicago Police Department, who is already railed against her for her handling of the lootings that attended the mostly peaceful protests in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.

450 police officer positions are also vacant, and there is sure to be political payback by Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara whose willingness to opine on any weakness is now standard.

There is some willingness from labor to help her identify cuts on the city payroll and Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter has promised help in identifying  where, and how, the cuts can be made, and also according to the Times, “We’re talking about identifying big money to help them close the gap in lieu of laying off or furloughing anybody. If we propose more than what they need for that, I’m happy to let them figure out where else they can help the city budget, once we get the workforce stuff under control.”

To add to the pot, the mayor has proposed an increase from a nickel to 8 cents, for a per gallon gas tax, which has raised the hackles of Chicago Teachers Union Stacy Davis Gates who said it would hit working class families, “in the middle of a pandemic when people aren't taking public transportation is tone deaf.”

The Council is the testing point, and as seen before in previous budget discussions and other proposals, she lacks the so-called “rubber stamp” of prior administrations, and already we have this: “I have concerns about the borrowing, as well as the cuts, what they’ll mean for services,” said West Side Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, who chairs the council’s Black Caucus. “Without question, we need greater investments in violence prevention. We’re facing a difficult situation, but we need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Labelling the property increase as “modest” might seem to be disingenuous in a city that is already taxed to death, say some, and some will say that her other efforts might not be enough. And, among them is Ald. Maria Hadden of the 49th ward who said that she wants to see more cuts and more money taken from city reserves.

Her remarks to the Chicago Tribune, “acknowledged Lightfoot’s argument about the “modest” property tax increase but said it would hurt many residents who live in apartment buildings in her ward. About 70% of her ward’s residents are renters.”

Hadden also said: “I’ve got some concerns about the property tax and the gas tax, in particular, thinking of so many of the folks who live here who would really be hit by these things.”

Lightfoot seemed optimistic and said, “Some had predicted that this budget would be predicated on hundreds of millions of new property tax dollars. Not so,and emphasized, “And for the average Chicago home valued at $250,000, you will pay just $56 additional dollars for the whole year. That’s right, just $56 new dollars per year.”

Raising taxes is not at the top of any lawmakers agenda and there are those that say, despite her optimism, that she should not propose them. And, there are some that want her to wait for a new Congress, and president, to get federal money, but as we have seen from 2016, there are surprises.

“The proposed budget calls for $185 million in property tax and revenue increases that undoubtedly will place further strain on already struggling families and businesses, particularly small businesses,” said Jack Lavin, president & CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. “Employers and families cannot afford new taxes that will slow down business growth, which ultimately stunts hiring and impacts residents and consumers throughout Chicago,” reported WBEZ.

For a city long held with clout, there are a  myriad of contracts, and some have praised Lightfoot for taking the plunge and reviewing them for elimination, or review.

“These are literally hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, locked up in what has effectively become hundreds of de facto sole source contracts in perpetuity,” she said.

An increase in job cuts was always on the table and “Lightfoot’s 2021 budget proposes to cut 1,921 city workers from the budget, a third of which are in the police department. This will save more than $91 million and city officials say many of those positions are already vacant. The mayor is also planning to force workers to take unpaid days off, but did not provide specifics,” they added.

Scrubbing each corner may be a long sought goal and the mayor does display some courage in even beginning to tackle this duty.

Those who have looked for a defunding of the Chicago Police may be disappointed that she has not taken sharper cuts, but she defends her actions in the interest of crafting a more diverse police force.

“If the city reduced staffing levels for rank-and-file officers, veteran officers would be given preference and the younger, more diverse class of cops would be cut, the mayor warned, the station reported.

“I am also fully aware of the complicit role that police departments dating back to our earliest times have played in brutally enforcing racist, Jim Crow laws, and depriving Black and brown people from achieving our full rights as citizens,” Lightfoot said. “But I do not believe that having fidelity to this essential work of bias-free policing requires dismantling our police department.”

Tying the property tax increase to the federal consumer price index is an idea championed by some in the past, and Lightfoot gets kudos for this effort at fair increases, but the Tribune opined that raising taxes in a city that already has property owners paying high taxes and high sales tax, and even a shopping bag tax, is this adding to the litany of woe, say critics.

Progressive council members, like Hadden will prove to be a source of pain for Lightfoot, as their agenda calls for more bread and butter deals to help those on the margins and rejects regressive tax measures (seen before by former mayor Rahm Emanuel) and pointedly said in part from an editorial from the Times: “We reject any attempt to raise revenue through regressive measures. Measures such as a property tax hike and increasing fines and fees for ticketing, towing or garbage should be reexamined in favor of more progressive options.”

Pritzker's Fair tax proposal is not fair say opponents

Illinois voters began early voting statewide Wednesday, and on the ballot is a proposal for a graduated income tax to replace the current flat tax, a campaign promise of Gov. JB Pritzker to help add  $1.2 billion to the state revenue stream, partly to fill the deficits left by pension obligations, and other indebtedness.

The proposal has received a great deal of support from the governor and progressive groups to level the playing field, so that billionaires, including Pritzker himself, pay the same amount as service workers.

Supporters also see the move as a change to economic equity and increased contributions to the local economy, by an increase in consumer spending, and to support the household budget for families and individuals to meet basic expenses, such as rent, mortgages and food.

Those in opposition, including many chamber of commerce, and mainline professional organizations see it as a job killer and a punishment for innovation, and that its passing will lessen not only economic investment, and flights to other states.

Illinois is not alone with the flat tax, currently at 4.95%, and joining it are Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, Massachusetts and neighboring Michigan.

For some, the opposition’s labeling it as a job killer, are reminiscent of “trickle down economics” from The Reagan era’s budget director, David Stockman, who later discredited it.

California is an example of a wealthy state with a graduated income tax, and is more populous than Illinois, and has seen no mass exodus of wealthy entrepreneurs, or a brain drain resulting in diminished entrepreneurship.

For argument's sake, Forbes Magazine has noted that the richest of the 1 percent pay 38 percent of federal income tax, and  towards the bottom a healthy 47% pay nothing at all. And, that point is well taken when one considers that federal taxes are graduate, not flat.

The Chicago Tribune has noted that Pritzker’s plan has a majority of Illinois residents supporting it, and cites a ” A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll last February [that] found 72 percent of 1,001 registered Illinois voters backed such a change, and 76 percent supported an extra 3 percent tax on all income over $1 million a year.”

Those in opposition are predicting a doomsday scenario, including that retirement income will be taxed; a false assertion that nevertheless has hit the airwaves, in a series of television and radio ads despite a huge push from AARP stating the opposite.

A conveniently overlooked fact is that Illinois does not tax retirement income, and tax rates are not part  of the State Constitution.

While such scare tactics abound, the ballot item is a hot button issue, where the truth doesn’t lie in the middle, but rather inside the contours of self protection by many very wealthy people, including Ken Griffin, CEO of hedge fund Citadel, and a proponent and a financial contributor to fight Pritzker.

Supporters say that accepting crumbs from the table of the wealthy is not the case, and even having a table, of their own is especially worrisome in the COVID era, when so many families are working with limited funds, and face eviction, due to  job loss; and one that economic paternalism cannot protect.

Advocates have also seen this as a way towards economic redistribution, and a way to partly reduce income inequality across Illinois.

A conservative estimate, if passed, is a gain of $1.2 billion in new revenue, and without the need for more borrowing, a prediction of $5 billion, in the future, based on pre pandemic estimations.

Another goal, say supporters, is to meet the need for education funding from the 2017 reform law for school revenus, called evidence based funding, and in particular, $50 million needed for K through 12 education  to be given to low income school districts.

Those opposing say that it has nothing to do with education, but simply a move for the state to have a blank check at the ready, should a need arise, to raise taxes.

There is a huge laundry list of opposers besides Griffin, including Petco, Duchossois Group, RIchard Uihlein, of Uline office supplies, Illinois Policy Action and the Illinois Business Alliance, plus the Illinois Farm Bureau.

“The progressive tax increase is the same thing as leaving a huge bag of taxpayers’ cash at the backdoor of the statehouse and city hall,” according to Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Todd Maisch in a round table discussion in Central Illinois held  earlier this year.

Going even further is Richard Guebert, Illinois Farm Bureau president, who said, at that same meeting, “to cover all of Springfield’s spending and debt, the tax brackets and rates will have to be changed to raise taxes on the middle class and even the working poor, with higher rates starting at incomes as low as $25,000 per year . . .  the truth is that this amendment will open up every Illinoisan to tax increases.“

To be fair, Pritzker has never said that he expects the proposal would cover all state debt; but, that assertion, from his critics, shows how, in the blink of an eye, even the best intentions can quickly become political reality.

The Tribune has also noted that “Pritzker has estimated a revenue loss of $6.5 billion this budget year and next and has helped to keep the spending plan solvent with $5 billion in federal borrowing. But there is uncertainty over how to pay it back as Washington remains stalemated over giving money to state and local governments.”

Chicago needs money from Feds to stay afloat

 

When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced recently that there was a $1.2 billion hole in the city’s budget that needed to be filled, the news was met with near disbelief, and with more than a bit of shock and awe; but close observers of City Hall have seen over previous administrations that Chicago finances have been in abeyance for some time, mostly riddled with mandated pensions that had been often ignored with pension holidays and raids on the funds to provide revenue to public transportation.

What makes his unique is the depletion of sales and tax revenue from COVID 19, and the damage that it has done to economy of America’s third largest city, and while not alone the parameters of Lightfoot’s dilemma is one that has faced a myriad of cities across the country, and with 1.5 million government workers laid off, her plea, and that of Gov. JB Pritzker’s for federal help is warranted.

Congressional help is separately needed to put food on the table and pay the rent and mortgages of millions of American households across the country, but President Trump seems determined not to help Democratic cities and states, for a “bailout” an often used term when the need for help comes from these cities, even if warranted.

While as The Brookings Institution has noted, “sizable reform is needed,” but the recent August Jobs Report showing that 1.4 billion non farm jobs were created has given a push not to give too much help, since the White House sees the report as proof that the economy has come roaring back, despite the view from most economists, including the Federal Reserve Bank, that the U.S. has a fragile economy, and one that has been devastated by the pandemic.

Now with the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, many are wondering if there will be even a measure of political will to negotiate with Nancy Pelosi, and the House of Representatives, even though she reduced what was once a $3.2 trillion bill, to a reduced $2.2 billion aId package; but, with the push to fill the seat as fast as he can, many are wondering if any aid will be forthcoming beyond the $300.00 of extended benefits, once the previously held $600 per week, benefit recently ended, leaving many families, as well as individuals, fearing that they might go underwater, and in some cases homeless.

In the time of growing racial unrest, across the country, laying off, or furloughing state and local employees, is also problematic, since many of these “safe” jobs, many held by Black and Brown women, (often head of household) are now threatening the family budget, already stretched thin since the March pandemic shutdowns.

Equally problematic is the threat to local infrastructures which is also threatening family income, in an area that was once, also thought safe, construction and trades. And, in Illinois, as The Associated Press reported, “first time claims for unemployment benefits totaled 23,339 last week, down from 25,478 a week earlier,” but still not at pre pandemic levels.

For Lightfoot the temptation to raise property taxes is a red hot rail that she does not want to touch, and as one local civic head noted, she can’t tax her way out of a budget deficit. But, earlier this month the mayor said, “"I can't take it off the table, but it is truly the last thing I want to do,"

While some feel that chicago should be more like other cities, for example Boston and its high property taxes as a stable source of income, then again their residents are already “educated” in that fact, but not Chicagoans.

Chicago Magazine opined that “Instead of a property tax increase, Lightfoot called for a new casino in Chicago. That’s not the most sensible solution: as The New York Times reported, “[i]n Detroit, one-fifth of the municipal budget typically comes from casino revenue. And casinos have just reopened, at reduced capacity.Detroit ranks 4th among cities whose budgets are vulnerable to the COVID-19 recession”

Lightfoot is also twining two solutions here; revenue and to regenerate, if granted, to put the casino in areas of the city that have been .underserved, and racially restricted.

Another plan is reaching out to labor leaders to allow volunteer layoffs or furloughs, seems to be naive at best, or fantasy at worst; two traits that do not fit with Lightfoot, but might be reflective of her advisers.

Overall, big cities like Chicago are taking the hit in more than one area, and the effects are near those of the Great Recession with the resultant drop in the nation's GDP has made the maxim that all politics, and money, are local.

To that effect, “A recent New York Times story ranked 41 cities based on how likely they are to suffer severe revenue shortfalls as a result of COVID-19. Using projections from National Tax Journal, Chicago ranked 11th, with an estimated decline of 11 percent. In last place (which is really first place) was Boston, with 4 percent.”

A recent report noted that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to 860,000, a historically high figure that reflects economic damage from the coronavirus outbreaK,” reported The Associated Press.

That the U.S. Dept. of Labor said that the claims fell by 33,000 from the previous week, with 12.6 million collected standard unemployment benefits, “compared with 1.7 million a year ago,” seems scant consolation.

Lightfoot also, in the vein of Pelosi, added, “plans to seek authority to appropriate $1.3 billion in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act grant funding to help struggling residents, including the city's homeless, homeowners and those in need of mental health resources. Federal guidance dictates the money must be directed to COVID-related costs, including immediate health expenses and economic and social impacts, reported local station, NBC Chicago.

In an inevitable task list, this is just the beginning of relief for the city, since there is also as the state’s economic driver, Chicago has to also proved mental health services, help manage courts and law enforcement, and in these last few months meet the cries for police defunding, a source of frustration, for those affected by police brutality, but also a necessity and major line item in the city’s operating budget.

Unlike many cities, Chicago did get permission from the state to borrow money, especially to pay its pension debt, but this also proved to be a conundrum as it waged a might battle of the budget under Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, that made things worse, before they got better.

In that former enario, “Illinois passed a law allowing Chicago to issue debt under a far more complex structure than regular “general-obligation” bonds.

With the pandemic still in full force, but less so for the city, she has to raise revenue and cut spending, and only time, (which is in short supply) can tell how successful, this can be with little to no Congressional agreement, other than another round of stimulus checks, but with a White House that balks at “bailing out” blue states, things look rough.

By her own admission, Lightfoot says that she inherited indebtedness, both pensions, and the payment of interest from the aforementioned borrowing, yet in 2019, there was a mixed report that Emanuel had stabilized the budget.

But others noted, as we reported at that time, “All in all, the city of Chicago is in a better structural position than prior years,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, which monitors state and local finances, “but it will continue to face revenue and expenditure pressures resulting in projected growth in future deficits.”

We also quoted Budget Director Samantha Fields who remarked, before the mayoral election, that, “The city projects that spending for day-to-day operating costs will increase next year to more than $3.8 billion, an increase of nearly $50 million over budgeted spending for this year. That’s attributable to rising personnel costs and some expansions of city services.”

Of course, that is pre COVID, but what is past has become prologue, and at the time we noted that The Chicago Tribune said that Chicago “could find itself facing higher costs that were not included in the projected budget forecast. Those potentially include tens of millions of dollars for raises and back pay for police, firefighters and some other city workers whose unions are negotiating new contracts — as well as any costs added to the expense of running the Police Department as a result of a proposed federal consent decree aimed at restoring community trust in the long-troubled department.”

Those are now all on the table. And with a pending police contrat, Candidate Lightfoot said at the time complained of “the absence of costs in the report by the mayor; what she called the absence of  “specific dollars” and noting that the cost for the monitor (from the consent decree) alone might be as high as $2.5 million, with an overall price tag to implement the reforms would cost at least $10 million a year, insisting that those costs be written into the document itself.

Mark Muro writing for a Brookings blog, “The Avenue” emphasized, “If more specific numbers are desired, a new report from Moody’s Analytics warns that doing nothing to address the economic perils of state layoffs and [local] cutbacks could cost 4 million jobs in the next two years. According to Moody’s, at least $500 billion in combined state and local aid is needed.”

Something to keep in mind as voters head to the polls for the presidential election in less than 60 days.

Looting along Chicago's Mag Mile raises ire to mayor

 

Tuesday proved to be a cleanup day for downtown Chicago businesses in the aftermath of a well-coordinated looting that hit the smartest and most expensive shops in the city’s Magnificent Mile district, a result of the shooting of a young black man on the Southside, but many observers have credited it as an excuse to loot, and less concern about avenging what some saw as police misconduct, and misinformation, of what was believed to b a 15 year old boy, but in reality was a 20 year old.

Regardless of the reasons, the damage, estimated to be in the millions hit Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale, Yves St, Laurent and Gucci, and a clutch of pricey boutiques along side streets in the posh area, and a viable tax base.

It has also opened up a further discontent with the nascent administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who received a raft of bad press after the tailgating rioters on the peaceful protest in May after the George Floyd murder.

 ABC 7 News located at the corner of State and Lake streets, another area that was hit, had reporters and cameraman on the scenes as cars and vans gathered around the stores, disgorging crowds of people  to break windows and grab the goods; suggesting a well coordinated attack; and, in fact, another television station showed a screenshot of what appeared to be a Tweet saying the looting would begin at 12 midnight that Monday, and would avoid the South and West sides of the city, which are predominantly black.

While new police Chief David Brown said in a press conference on Monday that it was an attack on the police, the opposite appeared to be true, and while it was obvious that both location of the press conference and Brown leading with opening remarks, that the mayor is standing behind her man.

But, City Hall observers are wondering for how long, as this is the second attack, and many of the same damaged stores, had just recovered from the May attacks and are now boarding up again, and some including local Ald. Brian Hopkins are wondering for how long these stores and the resulting glamor will remain.

He also commented on the area’s residents, who have helped buoy the local economy after much of Chicago’s black middle class has left the city, and as he told the Chicago Sun-Times, “sense of security stolen from them. … They can’t walk out the door without risking their lives — even in the middle of the day.

Lightfoot and her team, or teams seem to be stumbling on how to handle scenes like this, and while they have been mum on who was part of the planning, it is a safe bet that she and others will face some damming and blaming in the near future, even beyond a local society columnist who in a community newspaper called her a Bolshevik.

In what was the opening salvo of words, Hopkins noted: “That is not to criticize the blue shirts on the ground. It’s to criticize the strategy and the tactical decision-making of the senior command who were unprepared for this. … They acknowledged they had intelligence that this was going to happen. Yet it happened. So, if there was an attempt to intervene at the earliest stages and to stop it, it failed. … And once it started, there was no stopping it,” the alderman said.

Most residents are beginning to acknowledge that there might be more truth than heat to his words as the mayor’s office has not acknowledged who was part of the decision  making in May that proved to be a debacle that reached the national media.

Lightfoot reacted, “Alderman Hopkins has a penchant for letting his mouth run before he actually gets the facts,” the mayor said. CPD “got the intelligence, acted on it quickly, brought 400 officers downtown. And what we need now is not Monday-morning quarterbacks and sideline critics. What we need is to come together as a city and have a united strategy and focus.”

Name calling aside, a city already battered by the endemic and in a state with growing numbers of COVID infections, plus a budget in deep arrears, and an economy that is struggling to recover, does not need images such as people hauling off armfuls of clothes, an ATM machine, and designer handbags, not to mention flat screen televisions, from a near Northside electronics dealer, that was also robbed.

 Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said that a “major course correction on resource deployment is necessary,” along with a “deep review of police intelligence-gathering capability.”

 “Caravans and U-Haul trucks. Stolen vehicles lining blocks. Divvy bikes scattered everywhere. ... All of this was pre-packaged and ready to go. All it took was an all-systems go on social media for this thing to play out,” Reilly said.

This also has political echoes from a mayoral election that had two back women running and where only 21 percent of the electorate voted, some saying because there were no white candidates in a city long divided by race. And, it will be easy fodder to day that local black leaders, including the mayor and the State's Attorney Kim Foxx may not be able to manage the city.

Foxx has been heavily criticized for lowering the financial threshold for felony shoplifting that some shop owners have said increased the raft of shoplifting, even before the Floyd murder, with bands of youths smashing and grabbing along Michigan Avenue.

Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, faced with the shooting of another black man, 16 year old Laquan McDonald, hid a damning video with the completeness of the former state’s attorney and got  widespread anger in the black community, and even with liberal lakefront liberals, and many say that the fallout was one reason he chose not to run for reelection.

Crime may be the new snow for Chicago mayors, (a reference to the blizzard of 1979 that cost Mayor Bilandic a chance to remain in office) ) that has political implications for a voting bloc that may, or may not stand behind Lightfoot if she and Brown continue to have an inadequate plan for what may be another targeted event in a city that is boiling over with dealing with the pandemic of the coronavirus, as well as billions of dollars of indebtedness, a legacy of poor race relations, and an increasingly high cost of living, and lacking affordable housing.

Adam Skaf, a spokesman for the Magnificent Mile Association in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, now known as WWD, “We need a more comprehensive security plan from the city. We need assurance for not only our stakeholders and for visitors — as many as are possible during a pandemic — but also for the 100,000-plus residents who live around the Magnificent Mile and Michigan Avenue,” Skaf said. “It is a very scary time for them as well.”

In a related event, police were attacked they said, during a protest at Millenium Park, where police and those wanting to defund the police department met in violent clashes, but news reports vary, depending on who is telling the story, but all things considered equal there seems to be issues on both sides, and with protesters protecting themselves from expected tear gas, and police saying that they were used to hide objects of attack, and it was also determined that one policeman was hit repeatedly in the head with a skateboard, matters more than appearances warrant in the court of public opinion.

Also there were reports that a nine year old boy was injured and in the aftermath, the move to defund has gained traction. On Tuesday there was a "coalition of community and labor organizations including Grassroots Collaborative, Black Lives Matter Chicago, SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana, and Black Youth Project 100 held a rally and car caravan ahead of city budget negotiations this fall," according to their statement.

As the demands grow louder, Chicago seems to be at the crossroads for change as they noted, and added, "At Grassroots Collaborative, we demand the City of Chicago defund the Chicago Police Department and invest in community services. We have seen that the police only serve to protect the property of the white and wealthy few while brutalizing protestors who march for change. We demand the CPD budget be defunded to fund life affirming public services such as health care, mental health, housing, good jobs, restorative justice, and more " said Amisha Patel, Executive Director, Grassroots Collaborative.

 Updated 18 August 2020, CDT

 

 

Chicago schools under pressure go remote

In a swift turnabout Chicago Public Schools announced on Wednesday that they were going to begin the new school year completely remote, rather than the hybrid version it had approved with input from local health officials and a poll of parents and caregivers.

The move has the support of many teachers that are fearing a return to the classroom; especially those that are older, or have pre-existing health conditions to consider, but some are also saying that CPS, as well as Mayor Lori Lightfoot caved under the threat of a threatened strike vote from the Chicago Teachers Union, that had already decided to present the issue for a vote in their House of Delegates.

Mayor Lightfoot

It’s no secret that CTU has no love for the mayor, and in turn, Janice Jackson, the school superintendent, the former because they backed her rival, Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle, and the latter as being in cahoots with ousted former head, Forrest Claypool.

The resulting bad blood has spilled into the arguments on how and when to begin the new school year for elementary and high school students, and then there is the memory of the recent strike, where there were chants of “Lightfoot get on the right foot!” and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, coming to town and proclaiming, “We’re going to teach the new mayor a lesson!”

While those voices have receded into the background, the political winds have not abated and the harsh words of Stacy Davis Gates during the mayoral campaign also remain in memory..

To be fair, there were many understandable fears on both sides of the fence, but the specter of another teachers strike amidst the pandemic and its grip on public health, plus the increasing homicide rate would have created a public relations nightmare with the world watching, and President Trump sending in federal help, with a major tweet about the demise of a great city, for all to hear.

Sharkey’s own tweet seemed to secure the enmity: “. We have to strike or threaten to strike to be heard, but when we fight, we win.” 

Mr. Sharkey

The mayor on the other hand struck a more unified tone when she said, “The decision to begin the 2020-2021 school year remotely during the first quarter is rooted in public health data and the invaluable feedback we've received from parents and families,” said Lightfoot in a statement.

Politics aside, and that is only momentarily, Jackson has promised that the new remote learning model will be one that is vastly improved from the earlier effort in March, which faced a variety of technical and accessible issues, and that many families did not have the necessary hardware, or access, needed for remote learning.

This time there will be an emphasis on teacher training for remote instruction, plus the baselines seen with in-person learning: accountability on both sides of the desk and including attendance, to name but a few.

“CPS’ remote learning plan must vastly improve on student and family experiences from the spring, and experts on the ground — our members — must be equal partners with the district in crafting those remote learning plans,” Sharkey said.

With legitimate safety concerns, the city’s health commissioner, Allison Arwady, noted “we’ve added between 80 and 100 cases and not seen signs that turning around makes us concerned.”

Also concerned were many teachers who in a Chicago Tribune poll said some of the following in reaction to the initial news: :

“What if a student or educator dies? Or what if a 14 year old comes to school with COVID and is asymptomatic, passes it onto his best friend and kills his best friend's mom?”

“What people don’t realize, outside of actual classroom instruction, is there is a huge nurturing portion of pre K that outsiders normally aren’t privy to.”

“These students who are missing school right now will move past this. . . and may even benefit from experiencing this unusual time in history. The greatest education in the world will mean nothing to our students if they are dead.”

Many of those teachers may not have been comforted by the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci who told a collection of educators in a recent virtual town hall meeting, “In many respects, unfortunately, though this may sound a little bit scary and hard, I don’t mean it to be that way, is that you’re actually going to be part of the experiment of the learning curve of what we need to know.”

Dr. Fauci

Cross infections cannot be ruled out, and the emphasis on masks and social distancing might not have worked in the lower grades, and the probability of a hybrid model, still a possibility for Nov. 9, maybe a nod to that reality.

Of course, there are those that advocate for the role of social interaction in K through 5 classes to help them form social skills later on, and as a developmental tool, and this has been adopted by the American Pediatric Association.

The concern is still there and in some southwestern states there have been accusations that with in person learning, there might be blood on the hands of school administrators.

On the other side of the equation, a report from the National Academy of Sciences, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also underscores this point, but also said that “health risks to school personnel and students’ families,” should be take into consideration, but also that a partnership and task force should be considered to address the costs.

For Chicago with its racial, and financial polarization, not to mention that over 90 percent of the student body in its public schools are black and brown decreases the support that might be garnered in a whiter and wealthier city.

With a $700 billion deficit in the city budget, simply paying for the costs of cleaning alone, is problematic and one of the sticking points in the Congressional debate for another rescue package, is the size of the increase for state and local governments that the Republican Senate has balked at, and that the Democrats have advocated for, in situations, such as these, in dealing with the pandemic.

In a joint study the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and the University of Chicago noted that children under five years old, “with COVID-19 have a higher viral load than older children and adults, which may suggest greater transmission, as we see with respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV.”

Specifically, they noted that those children “with mild to moderate COVID 19 have much higher levels of genetic material for the virus in the nose compared to older children and adults.”

While they are careful to note that the study was no proof positive that children spread the virus as much as adults, “but it is a possibility.”