The sad state of Illinois - Property Taxes

Using the: smartasset.com/taxes/illinois-property-tax-calculator . See Illinoisans pay among the highest property taxes in the nation, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation

The 448 Gateshead Dr, Naperville, IL 60565 house is comparable to mine in Plymouth. We have 3,300 sq feet, and it is 3,000. The tax calculator did not get my taxes exactly right - mine are $ 6,266. Naperville looks to be comparable to Plymouth. Taxes are $ 4,000 higher.  See Bestplaces city compare

Illinois - a Romney win?

In Illinois, Santorum’s Chance at Nomination Is Slipping Away

 Excerpt:

Illinois had appeared to offer Mr. Santorum a chance at a breakthrough. Instead, unless the polls are very wrong, it may represent a breakthrough of sorts for Mr. Romney – by far his biggest delegate grab and margin of victory in a Midwestern state so far. If Mr. Romney wins Illinois by that margin, it will take the political equivalent of the Bartman ball to cost him the nomination.

Comment: Santorum keeps calling Romney a weak candidate but if that's so he's weaker!

Illinois: "Imagine California without the sunshine, New York without the cultural elan"

The Chicago Expulsion Act of 2011

Excerpt:

Chicago pols control almost all seats of power in Illinois. Gov. Pat Quinn, House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Secretary of State Jesse White are all Democrats from Chicago. So was former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who this month was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption, including trying to sell President Obama's vacated seat in the U.S. Senate. Consequently, as Mr. Wooters says, a lot "of the money that we have down here goes up there to bail out Chicago."

In 2008, lawmakers in Springfield cobbled together a $530 million rescue package for Chicago's transit system, which was on the brink of collapse because of sky-high labor and legacy costs. Just this week they pushed through $300 million of tax credits for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange and Sears to prevent the businesses from fleeing to lower-tax climes. Both Indiana and Ohio have been aggressively poaching Illinois businesses, especially since January, when lawmakers raised the state income tax to a flat 5% from 3% and the corporate tax to 9.5% from 7.3%.

Comment: I basically hate the state. I hate driving in Chicago and avoid it the best I can. There is not one region of the state that I find appealing. You couldn't pay me to live there.

Income taxes not "playing in Peoria"

Caterpillar CEO's letter talks of leaving Illinois

Excerpt:

The chairman and CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc. is raising the specter of moving the heavy equipment maker out of Illinois.

In a letter sent March 21 to Gov. Pat Quinn, Caterpillar chief executive officer Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four other states have approached the company about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.

"I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote in the letter obtained Friday by the Lee Enterprises Springfield bureau. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business and I'd like to work with you to change that."

Comment: Caterpillar is HQ'd in Peoria. On the phrase Will it play in Peoria?

Illinois - another Democratic party fiscal mess

Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can’t Stop Digging Hole

Excerpt:

For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.

Then there is the spectacularly mismanaged pension system, which is at least 50 percent underfunded and, analysts warn, could push Illinois into insolvency if the economy fails to pick up.

States cannot go bankrupt, technically, but signs of fiscal crackup are easy to see. Legislators left the capital this month without deciding how to pay 26 percent of the state budget. The governor proposes to borrow $3.5 billion to cover a year’s worth of pension payments, a step that would cost about $1 billion in interest. And every major rating agency has downgraded the state; Illinois now pays millions of dollars more to insure its debt than any other state in the nation.

“Their pension is the most underfunded in the nation,” said Karen S. Krop, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. “They have not made significant cuts or raised revenues. There’s no state out there like this. They can’t grow their way out of this.”

Comment: Name the states dominated by Democrats: New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois .... and they are all in fiscal crisis

Galena, Illinois trip

Comment: Kathee and I just got home from a short trip to Galena, IL. We stayed two nights at a Hilton in Dubuque, Iowa. Friday we visited Galena historical district and the Ulysses S. Grant Home. We also visited the Mines of Spain in Iowa. Last night we dinned at Timmerman's Supper Club overlooking the Mississippi. We drove back from Dubuque all along the Mississippi river up to I-90, then across I-90 to Rochester and then home.

Illinois: “Land of Greased Palms”

Illinois has long legacy of public corruption - At least 79 elected officials have been convicted of wrongdoing since 1972

Excerpt:

The state, Cook County and its governmental seat, Chicago, have a long history of corruption by elected and appointed officials.

The culture of corruption dates back to the late 19th century, when a gambling-house owner named Michael Cassius McDonald created the city's first political machine, establishing a model in which officials would distribute contracts, jobs and social services in exchange for political support, according to a scholarly history of organized crime in Chicago by Robert Lombardo, a sociology professor and former Chicago and Cook County police officer.

Its persistence was documented in Sept. 7, 2006 by the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported that at least 79 current or former Illinois, Chicago or Cook County elected officials had been found guilty of a crime by judges, juries or their own pleas since 1972. The paper provided this tally of the tarnished: three governors, two other state officials, 15 state legislators, two congressmen, one mayor, three other city officials, 27 aldermen, 19 Cook County judges and seven other Cook County officials.

The article noted that so many aldermen had been jailed that the newspaper ran a front-page-story in 1991 when the year passed with none being indicted or convicted.

The ranks of imprisoned pols include three former Illinois governors — George Ryan, Dan Walker and Otto Kerner Jr.

Ryan, a rare Republican in the heavily Democratic state and Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s predecessor, is serving a six-year prison sentence after being convicted in April 2006 on racketeering and fraud charges. A decade-long investigation began with the sale of driver's licenses for bribes and led to the conviction of dozens of people who worked for Ryan when he was secretary of state and governor.

Illinois Governor in Corruption Scandal


Excerpt:

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, called his sole authority to name Mr. Obama’s successor “golden,” and he sought to parlay it into a job as an ambassador or secretary of Health and Human Services, or a high-paying position at a nonprofit or an organization connected to labor unions, prosecutors said.

He also suggested, they said, that in exchange for the Senate appointment, his wife could be placed on corporate boards where she might earn as much as $150,000 a year, and he tried to gain promises of money for his campaign fund.

If Mr. Blagojevich could not secure a deal to his liking, prosecutors said, he was willing to appoint himself.

“If I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself,” the governor said in recorded conversation, prosecutors said.

Comment: One has to wonder how much Barak Obama knew about the plan to sell his Senate seat. Update: Obama: No contact with Blagojevich on Senate seat

Update 2: Or did he? Questions Arise About the Obama/Blagojevich Relationship

But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.

While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a "kingmaker," Axelrod said, "I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

...

There are no allegations that President-elect Obama or anyone close to him had anything to do with any of the crimes Gov. Blagojevich is accused of having committed.

In fact, there are indications that Mr. Obama and his team refused to go along with the "pay to play" way Blagojevich is accused of operating, offering only "gratitude" if the governor appointed his friend Valerie Jarrett to take his U.S. Senate seat, much to the governor's chagrin.

But there remain questions about how Blagojevich knew that Mr. Obama was not willing to give him anything in exchange for the Senate seat -- with whom was Blagojevich speaking? Did that person report the governor to the authorities?

And, it should be pointed out, Mr. Obama has a relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, having not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, but having served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house.

That 2002 endorsement came at the same time that Axelrod had such serious concerns about whether Blagojevich was ready for governing he refused to work for his one-time client.