Chicago Daily Observer

Gov. Rod Blagojevich deserves credit for wielding his veto pen as a meat cleaver to pare massive amounts of pork from the state budget.

Republicans, given a seat at the table when the session went into overtime, deserve credit for holding the line on taxes. But the budget outcome is far from ideal.
The seemingly arbitrary method the governor used to decide which pork to veto and which to leave intact calls into question the fundamental problems in the current budget process, which allows pork to be added in huge amounts with little or no public debate, transparency or accountability.

Moreover, while the state has billions of dollars in overdue bills and already-high taxes, earmark cuts should be used to pay down bills in the name of fiscal responsibility, not to fund a massive executive-ordered expansion in government-run health care.

The major victory in this budget outcome is ... Read More...

We want the whole world to see in 2016 that we are a world-class city, an Olympic host city. To prove this, however, we need a world-class transit system. To build such a system, our rail and bus transit agencies are demanding new Chicago and suburban taxes. The biggest demand comes from the CTA.

It’s time we compare ourselves with London, the 2012 Olympic host city. How does Chicago transit compare with London transit? Chicago’s transit covers 3 million residents and London’s transit covers 7 million. The CTA has 2,000 buses and London has 8,000. The CTA has 1,200 train cars and London has 4,000. Chicago wants world-class Chicago Transit Authority ; London has world-class mass Transport for London.

The CTA is a 43-year-old monopoly. It maintains the kind of ingrown Old-Boy management and rigid unionized workforce that have driven GM, Ford and Chrysler to the ... Read More...

More Spending, Better Results?

Anyone who’s spent time in a struggling school knows that there are lots of things that could be done with more money: adding teachers, fixing decrepit buildings, offering more sports and activities, upgrading books, and so on.

Presumably, doing those things would improve student performance. This is the reasonable view made by those who lean left. Less reasonably, it’s also the emphatic view of the teachers unions and the politicians (mostly Democrats) who depend on their support.

Yet the relationship between spending and student achievement is surprisingly tenuous. True, in one famous randomized experiment (yes, children were treated like laboratory rats), students assigned to smaller classes did better than students assigned to larger classes. Obviously, money is what makes smaller classes possible.

In politics, a month is a lifetime, a year is a millennium, and 2010, when the next census occurs, is an eternity. Voters forget, situations alter, and current problems, and conventional wisdom, invariably change.
Politicians on Chicago’s northwest side are already nervously pondering, or eagerly anticipating, the impact of the next census on their respective wards. At least one northwest side white ward, probably the 38th, will be dismembered in order to create a new Hispanic-majority ward.
The city’s geographic area west of Western avenue and north of North avenue – known as Jefferson township on tax records—contains all or parts of 15 wards. It includes all of the 41st, 45th, 38th, 36th, 39th, 33rd, 31st, 30th and 35th wards, and parts of the 50th, 40th, 29th, 26th, 37th and 1st wards.
The 29th and 37th wards have black majorities and an exploding Hispanic population. After ... Read More...

Files Historic Legal Action Questioning Constitutionality.

Special to The Chicago Daily Observer

An historic request for a temporary restraining order to prevent Gov. Blagojevich from expanding coverage of the Illinois All-Kids Healthcare act to persons not otherwise eligible was filed Tuesday by a Riverside attorney who challenges the constitutionality of the governor’s action, The Chicago Daily Observer learned exclusively.

Richard Caro, Riverside attorney, filing as an Illinois taxpayer on behalf of other taxpayers, is asking the circuit court of Cook county to determine the constitutionality of a “de facto appropriation and designation of approximately $16 million” by the governor. Blagojevich vetoed the appropriation for the purpose it was enacted but attempts to use his amendatory powers to move the money to purposes for which the legislature has given no authorization.

Caro says his action does not ask the court to determine the wisdom of expanded coverage, declaring “that is for ... Read More...

Be the guest of the Chicago Daily Observer at the Chicago Premier of the film “The Call of The Entrepreneur” produced by Acton Media and the Acton Institute.

The film will premier on Wednesday September 5 at 7pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago’s Streeterville (see map).

Please contact the Chicago Daily Observer at

cdobserver@gmail.com

for a complimentary pass, or register for a $10 ticket here

http://www.calloftheentrepreneur.com/premieres/chicago_il.html