·
August
numbers show growing State general funds revenues. Through the first two months of Fiscal
Year 2014 (July-August 2013), general funds revenues are up $444 million
compared to the same time period in FY13. “General funds” are the funds
replenished by the State’s largest taxes, such as sales and income taxes, which
pay for much of the operating expenses of State government. Budget experts pay close attention to general
funds trends because these are the monies that cause pain when they fall short,
as with outstanding debts to health care providers that have billed the
State. The new numbers are included in a
summary presented to the General Assembly by the Commission on Government
Forecasting and Accountability (CGFA).
Most of this growth is attributed
to a $397 million one-time transfer from the Income Tax Refund Fund. A
surplus had built up in the fund, which was transferred by law to the General
Revenue Fund. Sales tax receipts have also performed better than
expected, growing by $108 million in the first two months of FY14.
Personal income tax receipts are up by $68 million compared to the same period
in FY13. Continued growth in revenue receipts over the remainder of the
fiscal year will be necessary to support spending levels contained in the FY14
budget bills, as these bills (which were signed into law by Gov. Quinn) have
appropriated all of the $35.446 billion estimated to be available for the
fiscal year.
Chicago
·
City Council committee moves bill to
abolish Chicago gun registration law. In Illinois’ largest city, owners of
legal firearms have been required since 1968 to register them with city police
and to report their loss if stolen. The
registration has to specify the identity and type of the gun being registered. The registration requirement was enacted in
Chicago as a response to widespread rioting in that year, as well as the
assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F.
Kennedy.
Universal gun registration has
traditionally been opposed by gun-rights advocates as a possible precursor to
confiscation of one or more types of guns.
For example, if a hypothetical future law were to outlaw the private
possession of so-called assault weapons, the existence of a universal gun
registry would inform law enforcement of where are the guns to be
confiscated. On Tuesday, September 10,
the city council’s Public Safety Committee approved a new ordinance to abolish
the registration law.
Recent court decisions have
strengthened the status of the federal Second Amendment, and sharply reduced
the power of Chicago and other municipalities to enforce local laws that
restrict gun rights. This Chicago
ordinance is seen by gun-rights advocates as a partial response to this
changing picture.
Downstate
·
Illinois State Fair counts 961,142
attendees for 2013, a 10-year record. The Fair was held in Springfield from
Thursday, August 8 through Sunday, August 18.
The attendance numbers, announced in late August, were up 5 percent from
August 2012 and were the highest for the State Fair since 1.2 million were
counted in 2002. Changes in attendee
counting practices led to a sharp decline in 2003 and following years. The 2013 State Fair “Sale of Champions,” a
series of fundraising events in which prize-winning animals are auctioned for
junior producers and agricultural education programs, raised $222,650, with
records set in seven individual animal categories. In 2014, the Fair will be held on August 7
through 17.
Economy
·
More Illinoisans working for
foreign-owned firms. New figures released by the Quinn
administration indicate that the number of Illinois employees working for
foreign employers and foreign-owned firms actually increased by approximately
25% during the Great Recession, from 280,000 to 350,000. The increase came at a time of widespread job
losses and stagnating overall job creation in Illinois, with the Prairie State
repeatedly posting unemployment rates above 9 percent (this rate was 9.2
percent in July 2013, the most recent month for which figures are
available).
Illinois remains a job center for
global logistics, with airport, railroad, and highway infrastructure converging
in the Chicago metropolitan area. Many
foreign-owned firms, especially firms exporting goods from Europe or Asia to
the United States and Canada, look to Illinois as a centralized distribution
point.
Energy
·
Preparations continue for fracking
operations in southeastern Illinois. The Illinois Oil and Gas
Association offered a presentation to Southern Illinois business leaders on
Illinois “fracking” opportunities in Effingham on Saturday, September 7. With thick beds of the kind of shale looked
for by oil and gas geologists, southern and southeastern Illinois is fertile
ground for horizontal drilling operations that use the high-volume
sand-and-water technique known as “fracking.”
Engineers in other states, such as North Dakota and Texas, have learned
to fracture previously impermeable shale layers to extract the hydrocarbons
locked within.
Local officials, in southeastern
Illinois localities such as White County and its county seat of Carmi, are
preparing for the challenges to public infrastructure that will come with
fracking operations and the associated movement of workers and heavy off-road
vehicles. Representative David Reis,
who represents a large section of the potential “fracking belt,” helped write
the State’s current fracking bill and get it enacted into law. The law was signed in summer 2013 as P.A.
98-22.
Gambling
·
Illinois’ 10 licensed riverboat
casinos announce plan to move from 22-hour days to 24-hour days. The proposal was announced by the Illinois Casino Gaming
Association on Tuesday, September 10.
Illinois riverboat casinos’ move to keep the lights on 24/7 elicited
concerns from some advocates, who asserted that round-the-clock slot machine
operations could create an incentive to some compulsive gamblers to nurse a
particular machine. Casinos say they
must respond to current State law allowing 24-hour slots operations at licensed
truck stops. Slot machines at truck
stops were legalized under the new Video Gaming Act, which swung into full
operation in 2013. Ten riverboat casinos
offer large-scale gaming floors throughout Illinois, with five casinos located
in metropolitan Chicago and five Downstate.
The Downstate riverboats are located in Alton, East Peoria, East St.
Louis, Metropolis, and Rock Island.
Guns/Concealed Carry
·
In “People v. Aguilar” decision,
Illinois Supreme Court upholds Second Amendment rights of Illinois residents
and strikes down Illinois’ unlawful use of a weapon (UUW) law.
The decision by the State’s highest court, filed on Thursday, September
12, relies heavily on a key federal appellate court decision from 2012 that
applied the federal Second Amendment to Illinois. The federal “Moore v. Madigan” decision was
one of the elements leading to the enactment, in June 2013, of the State’s new
concealed carry law. Under concealed
carry, Illinois residents will be able to obtain a license to carry a firearm
on a public street or in a motor vehicle.
The September 2013 “People v. Aguilar” decision applies this
principle to Illinois criminal law. By
striking down key sections of the State’s UUW law, it directs the Illinois
General Assembly and Illinois law enforcement to prioritize Illinois gun rights
and to refrain from infringing them except under narrowly crafted circumstances
aimed at achieving essential elements of public policy.
·
Gun owners express concern about new
State Police rules. After carefully reading new rules released
by the Illinois State Police, the designated State agency with responsibility
for implementing the new concealed carry rights law, concerned gun owners began
to raise questions this week about what they see as time-consuming and
unnecessary hurdles placed in the way of trained and experienced gun owners who
already know how to shoot safely and want to apply for a license to exercise
their right to concealed carry.
Under the new rules, no one will be allowed to be a concealed
carry instructor unless they demand that all of their pupils receive at least 8
hours of additional firearm safety instruction; and most future pupils will be
required to take 16 hours of firearm safety instruction. The cost of this instruction is expected to
be many hundreds of dollars for each applicant and is expected, should these
rules stand, to be a severe disincentive to persons who would otherwise apply
for a concealed carry license.
Health Care
·
House committee to hold hearing on
Medicaid reform. The hearing by the House
Appropriations/Human Services Committee will be held on Tuesday, September 17
in Chicago. The subject will be the
Quinn administration’s compliance with laws requiring various Medicaid reforms
be implemented to slow down exponential growth in the expenses of the
system. Medicaid covers an increasing
share of the total medical expenses of Illinois; more than 60 percent of
patients in residential care, such as nursing homes, are enrolled in the
program. As their future adequate care
depends upon the program being operated in an efficient manner, the Committee
will look into ongoing questions of Medicaid reform implementation,
particularly the progress being made in scrutinizing the eligibility of
existing Medicaid patients for continued enrollment in the program.
Recent actions by the Quinn administration have raised questions
about the ability of the State to carry out the promised reforms. The FY14 budget was prepared under the
assumption that these reforms would be made and savings would be found in some
health care areas to balance the soaring health care expenditures in
others. The House Republican Caucus’
point person on Medicaid reform, Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Westmont), is taking
the lead in preparing questions for this hearing. The hearing was publicly announced on Monday,
September 9.
Housing
·
New foreclosure notices plunge in
greater Chicago on year-over-year basis. The decline in
foreclosure notices in August 2013, reported by private-sector RealtyTrac, was down
59 percent from August 2012. The owners
and occupants of 6,674 properties received these legally required notices,
which constitute commencement by a creditor of a legal action intended to
reclaim possession of a real property that is in default in its payments on a
mortgage or other debt. The RealtyTrac
numbers were publicly reported on Thursday, September 12. The sharp drop in these foreclosure notices
indicates that pressure may be easing on owners and occupants of properties
throughout greater Chicago, including homes and other residential
property. Reports from real estate
professionals indicate that property values may have stabilized after the sharp
declines associated with the crash of 2008-12.
Similar news has come forth in comparable cities throughout the
United States, and in some metropolitan areas property values have begun to
rise sharply. Property values are
reported to be buoyant in some areas of the U.S., particularly on the East and
West Coasts. Illinois property values
continue to lag nationwide trends in a pattern associated with the overall
economic and job-creating underperformance of the State.
Jobs
·
400 jobs scheduled to move from Gurnee
to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kenall Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer
of commercial lighting, credited recent changes in Wisconsin state tax law for
the pending announcement. Kenall’s decision
was reported by Crain’s Chicago Business
on Wednesday, September 11. Enacted in
2011, the new Badger State tax schedule is expected to reduce Wisconsin-based
manufacturers’ income tax rates from 7.9% to 0.4% over a multi-year
period.
In contrast to Wisconsin, the Illinois General Assembly in 2011 enacted a “temporary” income
tax hike that increased rates paid by Illinois corporations from 7.3% to
9.5%. The 2011 Illinois corporate income
tax rate, which includes a personal property replacement tax that is
distributed to local governments, is significantly higher than the comparable
marginal rates paid by businesses in neighboring states such as Indiana, Kentucky,
Missouri, and Wisconsin.