1. - Dem observer - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:23 pm:

   Wow. We know Rich Daley has never pulled a double cross. He’s also never changed his mind. What a leader!




2. - Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:24 pm:

   come on, if you were alive last year and paying even just a little attention to quinn, you know that he has serious credibility issues. i hope daley isn’t feigning surprise here.

   mike madigan held a press conference on the subject of quinn’s credibility problems last summer, and recently came back to it when he openly questioned the MGT Push fiasco that hynes was able to exploit during the primary.




3. - VanillaMan - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:31 pm:

   How much is Chicago’s share of the $300 million? What are we talking here? $150 million? More?

   Perhaps Mayor Daley shares the late Mayor Washington’s opinion of Mr. Quinn?




4. - George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:34 pm:

   Imagine if Quinn had taken the Tribune’s suggestion and cut them by twice as much!




5. - Chipolcon - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:40 pm:

   I guess the Mayor shouldn’t have whacked the Governor a couple of weeks ago when he said that there is no way the state can raise taxes in this economic environment. Can’t have it both ways Mayor.




6. - Reality Check - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:50 pm:

   Mayor Pope is right when he says “This is basically a tax shift, and what it will do is force the localities to increase taxes, because we’ve already taken the fat out of the cost of delivering services at the local level”.

   But he’s wrong on this: “The state needs to take a very serious look at the expense side of its ledger,” Pope said, adding that his village has laid off 15 percent of its workers in the past two years.

   Memo to Pope - the state’ll see your 15 percent cut and raise you. It has cut 25 percent of its workforce since ‘02.

   In other words, expenses have already been slashed. It’s time to boost the revenue side of the ledger.




7. - Anon - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:52 pm:

   This is going to be classic quinn. He will drop that idea like a hot potato, probably within the next 24 hours. He’s much more comfortable borrowing than he is making hard decisions and antagonizing people like the mayor.




8. - Reality Check - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:52 pm:

   VM: How much is Chicago’s share of the $300 million?

   I believe about $75 million - the city has about a quarter of the state’s population so it would absorb a like figure of this cut.

   Put another way, every city would lose about $25 per capita under this proposed reduction; for Chgo that’s roughly 3 million times 25 bucks.




9. - TJ - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:53 pm:

   Mayor Daley to Gov. Quinn - You fool! How can you break a promise you made to me?!? Don’t you know that I outrank you?!?!?!?!




10. - Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:54 pm:

    rich, what did you take issue with in my post that you deleted? the part about it being wrong to raise taxes during a recession?

    i’m sorry but this is econ 101! if people aren’t working then your tax revenues, in this case the income tax revenues, will be down and nowhere near your projections and thus you won’t be able to balance a budget.

    city of chicago used to rely on a real estate tax as a stream of revenue, but with the fall of the real estate market so went that revenue source on which the city depended.




11. - George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:08 pm:

    WCW - your hero Paul Vallas would raise taxes.




12. - George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:09 pm:

    “if people aren’t working then your tax revenues, in this case the income tax revenues, will be down and nowhere near your projections and thus you won’t be able to balance a budget.”

    Finally! WCW finally figured out why we have a budget deficit!

    Let the record show, Rich. 3:54 PM on 3/8/2010. Will County Woman acknowledged that Pat Quinn’s so-called mismanagement isn’t what got us in this mess.




13. - cassandra - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:15 pm:

    I imagine Daley isn’t that upset. He’s an old pol.
    This is the opening salvo of a negotiation. It’s not like Chicago city government couldn’t go on a diet. A major diet. Just like the diet state bureaucracies haven’t been on yet. But Daley would just as soon not do that.

    Why I am getting that feeling again that with all this interest group negotiating activity, it’s ye old middle class taxpayer who is going to end up
    paying and paying…




14. - Opie - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:16 pm:

    It would be easier to take Oak Park’s Village President seriously if he weren’t behind a “living wage” ordinance in the Village. That will increase costs to the Village. And if he’s cut “fat” - when is the butcher shop going to cut the gristle from the bloated Village? The massive costs associated with non-essential Village services are staggering. Local governments are also hurting because of gigantic benefit costs - namely health insurance and pensions.




15. - Reality Check - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:17 pm:

    Check this letter in today’s Trib replying to their bogus no-tax editorial.

    As if the writer had ESP regarding today’s developments, he makes a very strong case for a state tax increase to help Chicago’s city budget:

    Many people who might pay a few dollars more in income tax per paycheck prefer that to the damage the current situation is doing: bus and train schedules slashed, hundreds of teacher layoffs looming, library hours reduced, a severe police shortage even as young people die by violence and the city’s budget in extreme difficulty due to shortchanging by the state.

    The editorial ignores important business climate factors, other than taxes, that would be helped by
    reforming the revenue system: the quality of schools and universities, the safety of neighborhoods, the physical infrastructure, the health system and the predictability and stability of the fiscal system, including whether it unduly pressures the local property tax.

    Polling and history show that, while nobody likes to pay higher taxes, people appreciate honest leadership in a crisis and support a balanced approach. We already have had severe cuts and are borrowing aggressively; we will get as much help as possible from the federal government. We also need significant revenue to complete the balance and navigate out of the crisis with a sounder future in store.

    —John Bouman, president, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Chicago




16. - George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:19 pm:

    The problem, Cassandra and others… is that local government is already severely in the red because of the drop off in sales taxes, property taxes, and other revenue sources.

    They are already looking at a pretty lean diet, and this just is the tofu on top of the salad.




17. - PalosParkBob - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:26 pm:

    George, I volunteered and donated to Vallas in 2002, and bit my lip on the tax thing.

    I supported him because he knew how to MANAGE and LEAD, and he wasn’t completely sold out to the unions or Daley’s patronage system at that time.

    I guess I had faith and hope that he could take a meat axe to state waste, and save enough that a tax increase wouldn’t be necessary.

    I had hope that if he was elected, he’d look out for the people and attack the root cause of the problems that he made progress with at CPS and in Hizzoner’s budget office.

    Besides, given the choice between Blago, Vallas, and Jim Ryan, who also supported tax increases, it was selecting the lessor of one imperfect candidate and two evils.

    After the Dem party elected Blago, it drove me to become a Republican because the GOP was in complete chaos after George Ryan and several dozen of his “friends” were brought to justice.

    The power vacuum made the GOP the last, best hope for fixing this state.

    Unfortunately, the Kjellanders and Cellini’s stepped into the void and made it ALMOST as corrupt and incapable of fixing things for the people as the Dems.

    I strongly believe that Daley isn’t at all as powerful as what he appears.

    No question that what he says is law, but a lot of financial andpolitical interests are pulling his strings harder than ever before, and I think it’s really driving him potsa.




18. - One of the 35 - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:28 pm:

    George speaks the truth. Local government has been prudent and responsive to the downturn in the economy and the resulting decline in revenues. Layoffs have been numerous, furlough days implemented, capitol projects postponed and abandoned, and public safety services scaled back. Compare the local government response to the state response which says, “we can’t do anything until afer the next election”. Problem is there is always another election.




19. - Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:35 pm:

    cassandra, i agree with you to an extent about chicago going on a diet. while i find myself in disgareement with daley more often than not, i will admit, and have admitted, that he is an effective public administrator in many ways.

    but my concern are the other munis in illinois that took action last year and made painful cuts and are still suffering. they’ve suffered enough and i just don’t think it fair or good of the quinn administration to hold smaller governments to a higher standard than it holds itself.




20. - Dem observer - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:37 pm:

    Chipolcon is right.

    Daley says “don’t raise taxes and don’t cut me.”

    And you wonder why we’re in this mess?




21. - Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:45 pm:

    george,

    vallas would have done the reasonable, intelligent and respectable things first such as:

    - made massive cuts (starting at the executive level, where they should always start, in other words he would’ve led by example)

    -foregone the patronage political hiring spree as a matter of principle

    -given the people of illinois some STRONG and REAL reforms at the executive level.

    -he would have worked with the GA to secure passage of the tax increase—giving everyone the political cover needed in the process.

    vallas has a track record as a proven problem-solver and leader, not problem-starter (read: cutback amendment).




22. - Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:48 pm:

    ===vallas has a track record as a proven problem-solver and leader, not problem-starter===

    Yeah. He and Daley got along soooo well.




23. - George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 5:01 pm:

    I liked the magical political cover part, too, Rich.




24. - Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 5:11 pm:

    george, i realize quinn wasn’t paying attention last year or listening to lawmakers, but et tu?

    the political cover was in making substantial cuts and getting real reform (executive level). lawmakers told him what they needed to make his tax increase happen and quinn didn’t listen to them. but truthfully speaking a 30-year + career politician should never have needed to been told in the first place!




25. - wordslinger - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 7:13 pm:

    Like every other Oak Park trustee or Presidente, Pope has delusions of being a Congressman or judge. Not going to happen.

    An Oak Park lecture on cutting spending? Too much. Forgive the silly man.

    Cut us some slack, though; Oak Park did produce Phil Rock, and he was about the smartest banana in the bunch for a long, long time.




26. - wordslinger - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 7:24 pm:

    Now that the Olympics are gone, Daley has to give up on his TIF slushfund. Is that too much to ask?




27. - fed up - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 7:27 pm:

    Is it really a surprise anymore when Quinn says one thing and then does another. Quinn cannot be trusted or believed he learned this from his running mate Blago tell the legislature and mayors one thing and then do whatever you want.




28. - dznuts - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 9:57 pm:

    The argument made by some here is that if the local government percentage declines, and simultaneously, the state income tax increases, that the local services previously cut or eliminated would be magically restored. Not gonna happen. Any additional revenue gained by the state by reducing the percentage paid to local governments, will only go to pay back interest on short term borrowing for state debts. Let’s not have this debate turn into Daley or Quinn — it’s also about small towns like Herscher, Auburn, Rochelle, McLeansboro and all the other communities who rely on that state reimbursement to fund existing services like fire and police and sewage management.

    Quinn is a tough position here and no one wants cuts and no one wants more taxes, but let’s be intellectually honest here: this isn’t a shell game. It’s taking money from local governments to pay back the short term loans that are frankly going to decimate state government unless something major is done. Frankly, an income tax increase is also only going to do the same thing. The first $13 billion in any new money has to pay the debt. Let’s not pretend it’s going to be used for anything else.

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