illinoisreview

Paying kids under the table

by Eunice Conn

What? Minimum Wage at $3.35????? Yep! That’s what it was in 1982. I had an idea.

As my husband, Don, and I were walking to the restaurant next door to the office building we owned, I saw pop bottles, papers, junk, etc. around our building. As we were eating our lunch I told Don wouldn’t it be nice if we could hire high school kids during the Summer for about $2.50 an hour to clean up this mess. They’d have a few extra bucks, it would keep them busy and out of trouble and I’d have time to do what needed to be done, rather than be a garbage collector.

It just so happened that we were going to be in Washington, DC in a few weeks. I presented the idea to Congressman John Porter. Thus HR6319 was introduced.

What happened next really opened my eyes as to how things work in Washington.

College of DuPage Passes "Open Book" test

Now posts check register on school website

By Adam Andrzejewski, adam@forthegoodofillinois.org

The 930,000 citizens residing in the 39 communities of DuPage County can now “Google” to see how their portion of property tax dollars is funding their community college.  The College of DuPage (COD), the largest single-campus community college in the Midwest, has an annual budget of nearly $140 million.  Establishing a model for openness and transparency in regards to financial information, COD has made itself the largest Illinois education institution to post its check register online. 

Sub-prime mortgage collapses: unintended consequences

"The sub-prime mortgage collapse is another tale of unintended consequences. The crisis has its roots in the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, a Carter-era law that purported to prevent 'redlining' ---denying mortgages to black borrowers---by pressuring banks to make home loans in 'low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.'

"Under the act, banks were to be graded on their attentiveness to the 'credit needs' of 'predominantly minority neighborhoods.'...[T]o earn high ratings, banks were forced to make increasingly risky loans to borrowers who wouldn't qualify for a mortgage under normal standards of creditworthiness. The CRA, made even more stringent during the Clinton administration, trapped lenders in a Catch-22. 'If they comply,' wrote Loyola College economist Thomas DiLorenzo, 'they know they will have to suffer from more loan defaults. If they don't comply, they face financial penalties... which can cost a large corporation like Bank of America billions of dollars.'

The high cost of Illinois driving

Our Illinois lawmakers could help with the exorbitant costs we're paying at the gas pumps these days. But will they?

Now that the weather is warming up, one outside place where more conversations are ensuing is outside of cars, standing at the gas pump. As motorists pay $70 plus to put gas in their vehicles, they mentally make decisions on what they'll not do that day to make up for the output at the pumps. 

"Won't stop for lunch at an inside restaurant, I'll grab a burger instead. Won't pickup that new pair of jeans for the kids, they can wear what they've got for another month," we think. "We'll get just the basics this week at the grocery store and, well, we'll pay enough on this month's credit card bill to pay off what we charged for gas last month."

Frustrated biz owners vent in Schaumburg

SCHAUMBURG -- Small business owners in the northwest suburbs expressed their concerns for the skyrocketing cost of doing business in Illinois Wednesday afternoon as House Minority Leader Tom Cross, Republican members Dennis Reboletti and Randy Ramey as well as GOP House candidate Anita Forte-Scott listened. 

There was no polite attempt to hide the business owners' frustration.  They are ready for change, and have been for a while, they said.

"What are you going to do to turn things around here in Illinois?" the state lawmakers were asked as employers ranging from day care center owners to real estate agents to kitchen remodelers vented about high gas prices, Illinois' increased minimum wage and rising employee taxes.  These costs that have cut into their business revenues to the point that some have been forced to drastic cutbacks in their businesses.

The conversation, some feared, is a sign of the times, as consumer optimism diminishes and the "R" word is bandied around.

Truckers cry, "Don't tase me, bro!"

by Rick Beisada

"Don't tase me bro," seems to be the fervent cry of our truckers pulling into the fuel stations these days... if they can still afford to operate. Diesel fuel, the cheapest fuel to refine, has skyrocketed in price, paralyzing the trucking industry as liquid fuel started selling for prices equivalent to a king's ransom. The robber barons of the oil industry have set themselves up as the new silent partners of the truckers...the last American heroes of the highway.

Job losses, unemployment both worse than forecast

NEW YORK -- U.S. employers slashed jobs for the third straight month in March and unemployment rose to a nearly three-year high, offering the latest signs that the economy has fallen into a recession.

The Labor Department's much anticipated report showed a net loss of 80,000 jobs last month. That marks the third straight month that jobs have fallen - the longest period of decline since early 2003.

Link: Job losses, unemployment both worse than forecast - Apr. 4, 2008.

Illinois: Rich State or Poor State?

by Dan Proft

It should be required reading for every member of the Illinois General Assembly, particularly as they contemplate new and exciting ways to fleece the state's producers.

At the end of 2007, the bipartisan American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) published a study done by noted economists Art Laffer and Steve Moore entitled "Rich States, Poor States".

The study did two things. First, it provided a state-by-state economic performance ranking over the past 10 years (1996-2006). Second, it provided an economic outlook ranking, again state-by-state, based on a comparative review of 16 separate economic indicators.

Am I boring you yet? Well, here's where the information gets more stimulating:

Democrats' Illinois Job Market

by John Ruskin

GOPUSA ILLINOIS Daily Clips - March 18, 2008

GOPUSA Illinois Daily Clips for March 18, 2008 includes news and commentaries on the following topics:

• Obama
• Republican Party candidates, campaigns, and events
• Republican Party platform issues including limited government, abortion, immigration, gambling, etc.
• Illinois, Cook County, DuPage County, and Chicago budget problems and more . . .