Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Possible changes to the current Illinois pension system, as proposed by the bill, include shifting teacher pension obligations onto school districts, raising the retirement age and capping cost of living adjustments.
In an effort to curb the state's budget woes without bailing on current Illinois public sector pension obligations, a press release announced Illinois lawmakers Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) and Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) introduced House Bill 6258 in Springfield today. "The pension debate has featured too much finger-pointing and progress has been disappointingly slow," Biss said in the release. "This bill contains ideas drawn from business, labor, and civic groups as well as our colleagues in the General Assembly. We believe that it is a roadmap for solving this problem in January..." Changes to the state's public employee pension policy, as proposed by the bill inlclude: “Daniel and I understand this is a difficult issue for all of us, …
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Seventeen of 23 election contests will have primaries.
Campaigns for the March 20 Illinois primary and Nov. 6 general elections started to come into clear view today after the deadline passed Monday to land a space in the ballot for all races except United States Congress. Of the 23 campaigns in the North Suburban Patch reading area, candidates will square off in primaries in 17 of those races for either the Democratic or Republican nomination. In three cases, primaries will take place between members of both parties. In the contests for six offices, either the Republican or Democrat has no opponent however party leaders can still choose a nominee. “We have a lot of outstanding candidates,” 10th Congressional District Committeewoman and Moraine Township Democratic Chair Lauren Beth Gash of …
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Task force of municipal officials drafts white paper for state senator to turn into legislation.
When state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) called a meeting in July to bring municipal officials and ComEd executives together to resolve some of the problems arising from severe summer storms, Glenview Village Manager Todd Hileman asked to attend. Little did Hileman know he would be volunteering to head a task force examining ComEd's response to outages. On Tuesday, he and others presented the results of their work during a news conference sponsored by the Northwest Municipal Conference in Chicago: a white paper that Garrett hopes to turn into legislation to hold ComEd accountable for its actions. More storms, more problems Hileman served on a similar task force three years ago after an earlier series of storms and thought some …
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Governor's veto spurs Garrett, May, Nekritz and Biss to pursue tighter screws on ComEd.
When ComEd appeared Monday before the Highland Park City Council for the third time since June 27 to address reliability issues, its advocacy for the smart grid legislation--previously prevalent--was missing. One reason the ComEd’s “smart grid” legislation may not have come up is because Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the bill, which had an estimated cost to ratepayers of $2.6 billion, hours earlier. Lawmakers could override Quinn's veto when they return in late October. Highland Park officials took up the issue later that day during their council meeting. Mayor Nancy Rotering wrote last month in Patch that the hearing, which featured ComEd executives, would be much anticipated in light of the utility's push for Illinois Senate Bill 1652 and its …
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
After a summer of big power outages, state reps look for answers.
Dissatisfaction with answers from ComEd at a hearing of the Illinois House Public Utilities Committee Tuesday in Highland Park is causing members of the General Assembly to rethink their support for legislation favored by ComEd. Earlier: ComEd's Legislative Support Evaporates State Rep. Karen May (D-Highland Park) arranged the meeting in the northern suburbs after more than 1.2 million ComEd customers were left without power in the aftermath of storms June 21 and July 11. Twelve members or substitute members of the committee heard ComEd President and Chief Operating Officer Ann Pramaggiore tell a gathering of more than 200 people at the Highland Park Country Club the company was prepared to make changes. Watch the video above.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Representative chastises utility for its infomercial of smart grid legislation, proposes revisions to hold company accountable.
Accountability for ComEd may be no further away than the promised veto by Gov. Patrick Quinn of the utility’s cherished smart grid legislation. State Rep. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) invited representatives of ComEd to a Town Hall meeting Monday in Glenview and chastised his guests for promoting the legislation. He then explained how revisions could alleviate many of the frustrations expressed by the more than 150 people who overflowed the Police Station. Related: ComEd Can't Pull Plug on Residents' Anger One purpose of the meeting was to have ComEd explain its efforts to restore power after massive storms the past two months that left more than 1.2 million people in Chicagoland without power for days. The intention was also to let the …
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Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Legislature passes budget; pension reform will wait.
An Illinois state budget that will reduce spending by approximately $3 billion from the last fiscal year passed the state Senate Monday night and will go to Gov. Patrick Quinn for his signature. The spending plan is $1 billion less than Quinn originally proposed. The total budget package for the 2012 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is $59.1 billion, according to information provided by state Senate President John J. Cullerton’s (D-Chicago) office. Despite the cuts, local legislators felt the process was painful but more open and bipartisan than in the past. Debate was difficult but it produced the best possible results in a difficult economy, state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) said. “You may not agree with the outcome, but there…
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
We crunched numbers, watched the wires and stayed up late. Here's what happened in the 2010 midterm election.
- ELECTIONS
- A.M. Cole
-
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The results are (mostly) in. If you were following along with us and our live-blogging of the election returns, you know it was an interesting evening. If you're just joining us, here's what happened... Gubernatorial race At 1 a.m. the gubernatorial race was too close to call with thousands of ballots left to be counted. Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn leads by about 8,000 votes as of Wednesday morning but Republican Bill Brady has not conceded. Both candidates came forward and spoke to their supporters. Around 12:07 a.m., Brady said that all votes and voices were going to be accounted for. "We're going to make sure the process is done right," he said. And, at 12:58 a.m., Quinn emerged from his hotel room. "The people have won and I …
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Eight national and state legislative candidates stood before a crowd of hundreds Monday night and told residents why they should vote for them.
A "great experience"—that's what Joel Pollak had to say about Monday night's candidate forum at B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield. The republican candidate is running against Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the 9th Congressional District. In total, eight candidates attended the forum. Invited but not in attendance was U.S. Congressional candidate Bob Dold (R) and State Legislative candidate Hamilton Chang (R). According to event organizers, Dold had conflicting engagements (he appeared on Sean Hannity's 8 p.m. Fox News talk show) and Chang was running late. The forum gave each candidate the opportunity to address voters. In their opening remarks, all U.S. Congressional candidates present, including Pollak, Schakowsky, and Dan Seals (D) who is…
Gary
2:38 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
Willie, that's a great idea. Let's take it one step further. Take whatever each State employee put into the retirement system and use the same calculation they use to calculate our Social Security benefits, and tell them they have to live with that. They keep complaining they don't get Social Security benefits. Fine... let's move them over to our wonderful plan. If it's good enough for the rest … more ›