southtownstar.suntimes.com

Handy: Education funding reform essential in Illinois

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:28:34 -0500

A September 2012 study by the Center for American Progress reaffirmed what we had known for decades — tremendous funding inequity exists between high- and low-poverty school districts in Illinois. We have the second-most inequitable education funding system of any state, largely because of public education’s heavy reliance on the property tax in Illinois. General state aid (GSA) is the state’s main funding stream to school districts, progressively funneling about $4.3 billion in state money to school districts based on a district’s ability to raise local tax money and how many of its children live in poverty. GSA is the …

Shapiro: Main arguments against gun control lack logic

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:17:30 -0500

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. In 2008, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court held that this part of the Bill of Rights precluded a governmental ban on handguns, primarily because they were the most popular kind of “arms” that people were likely to “bear.” Legal challenges to other forms of gun control are not inconceivable, but at present gun control seems a question more of prudence than of constitutional policy. What …

Reeder: State government policies stymie jobs rebound

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:34:43 -0500

Illinois has the second-worst unemployment rate of any state. At 9.5 percent, it’s two percentage points higher than the national average of 7.5 percent. Two percentage points might not seem like much on paper, but that equates to 130,000 people. That’s more than the entire populations of Peoria, Springfield or Elgin. Think about it — that’s how many jobs Illinois would have to create just to be as bad as the rest of the nation. Only Nevada has a worse unemployment rate than Illinois. And Nevada’s problems lie almost exclusively with an economy dependent on one industry, gambling. But Illinois …

BGA: Iron fists needed to hold public funds

Tue, 14 May 2013 06:57:48 -0500

Rita Crundwell’s betrayal of the public trust was staggering. For years she served as Dixon’s comptroller. And for years, because she had almost sole control over town finances, she stole taxpayer money without detection. In fact, nobody noticed until, on one of her vacations, a fill-in aide stumbled across numbers that didn’t add up. When the missing funds were tallied, we gasped: Crundwell had embezzled roughly $53 million. The betrayal and the amount of money are shocking, but not the financial chicanery itself, because fiscal controls and oversight are weak throughout local government in Illinois. Case in point: Calumet City, …

McGrath: Mother’s Day (of reckoning) coming for senators

Sun, 12 May 2013 02:15:37 -0500

“This is just a new way of living,” Stephanie Decker told an ABC News reporter. “If the worst thing that ever happened is me losing my legs, I’m good.” The Marysville, Ind., mother traded her limbs for the lives of her two children. And if she had a chance to do it again, she would not hesitate, she said. As a tornado roared toward her small Indiana town a year ago, Decker gathered her two children beneath her body. Seconds later, the funnel cloud slammed into her house, which collapsed onto Decker, crushing her legs, which later had to be …

Reeder: He’s critical of Illinois because he loves it here

Tue, 07 May 2013 02:14:46 -0500

Every once in a while someone will ask, “Scott, why are you so critical of Illinois?” My response is simple — Because I love it here. This is the state where I was born and where I was raised. During my adult life, I’ve lived in five states, and the Land of Lincoln is hands down the best. Mind you, a state is more than an amalgamation of laws and policies. It is its people and towns and natural resources and its opportunity. Much the way spouses offer suggestions to one another, my criticism of our state is done out …

Varjavand: Immigrants should respect customs, culture of their new country

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:16:18 -0500

Why do we Muslims demand that Americans accommodate, even embrace, every odd thing we do under the umbrella of religion? We seem to have a predisposition to be obsessed with our religious rites so they have an almost pathological influence over us and others. Some Muslims in the U.S. seem to have only two things to worry about — halal meat (the meat of certain animals slaughtered in the way prescribed by Islamic decrees) and the veil, or hijab (the woman’s complete hair covering). While halal meat can be found in some ethnic food stores, the hijab is visible almost …

Caterina and Gonzalez: Resetting underwater mortgages

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:10:51 -0500

Business groups with an ax to grind against the Obama administration, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, like to push the idea that “uncertainty” over government actions is the monkey on the economy’s back. As small-business owners who work in the housing sector, we don’t buy that analysis. The source of our continuing economic problems is not some vague cloud of “uncertainty.” It is, quite the opposite, the very real certainty that if we don’t do more, and soon, to hit the reset button for the housing sector, the economic recovery will …

Reeder: A guarantee that Illinois should not provide

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:28:09 -0500

Mix pension financing, constitutional law and politics and you’ll either have a recipe to cure insomnia — or the most important but under-discussed issue facing Illinois today. Illinois lawmakers are on the brink of making a mistake that could lock taxpayers in for hundreds of billions of dollars in new costs. It’s called a “pension guarantee.” Public-employee unions are lobbying hard for it so the state can be forced, by a lawsuit if necessary, to pay its full share of funding its five pension plans each year. In exchange for a small rise in employees’ retirement contributions, the unions want …

McGrath: Alleged Boston Marathon bomber: Jekyll and Hyde

Thu, 02 May 2013 08:47:32 -0500

It is not unreasonable to speculate that the three public defenders representing alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might end up filing a plea of not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Evidence that might support their claim is documented in his birth certificate. Not because of his geographical origin or ethnicity. The proof is in his age of 19. Maybe modify the plea to temporary stupidity? Being 19 is not a defense, of course. There is no excuse for a murder spree that began with killing three people and injuring about 265 others with homemade bombs and later slaying …

Reeder: Illinois income tax too high as it turns 44

Fri, 24 May 2013 06:26:50 -0500

Forty-four years ago as of last week, Illinois began collecting a state income tax. Folks from Cairo to Chicago filled out their IL-1040s for the first time in 1969, and the state began to transform. And not in a positive way. State government has ballooned during the last four decades, and the government’s thirst for more money has yet to be quenched. Just consider that when the income tax passed, the initial rate was 2.5 percent. We are now paying double that. But are we getting 100 percent better government today than we did in 1969? Today, Illinois is floundering …

Salata: Retire on your own terms

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:32:26 -0500

Most Americans are aware that they need to save for retirement. It’s a topic that’s easy to brush aside to a later date because although the subject is important, it may not seem urgent. But the longer you put off some basic retirement planning, the harder it will be to catch up later. We at the Social Security Administration would like to share with you a few important items about Social Security retirement benefits. When you decide to retire, the easiest and most convenient way to do it is right from the comfort of your home or office computer. Go …

Gallagher: Let heroes be our legacy, not tragedies

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:17:25 -0500

As we drove by the explosion site, someone warned not to roll down the windows. Even still, we could smell the unforgettable horrors of death. Eighteen years ago today, 168 people were killed, including my college roommate, when a bomb went off at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Julie Welch was 23 when she died. She was working for the Social Security Administration. We had met five years before on our first day at Marquette University. On Monday, as the news about the Boston Marathon bombings flashed across my TV, time ... stood ... still. Instantly, I was …

Reeder: Government bureaucracy and toothpaste not so different

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:24:44 -0500

As the Transportation Security Administration agent rummaged through my suitcase, she picked up my tube of toothpaste, shook her head and said “no.” The tube went sailing into a wastebasket filled with bottles of suntan lotion, cans of shaving cream and other odds and ends that the TSA considers too dangerous to bring aboard a jetliner. The tube of Colgate was 7.8 ounces rather than the requisite maximum of 3.4 ounces. I felt like giving the TSA agent a piece of my mind. But it’s not her fault. She’s just doing her job — enforcing rules generated somewhere within the …

McGrath: A reunion lesson: Encourage kids to pursue passions

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:38:25 -0500

Legends abound of geniuses who were surprisingly poor students in elementary school, such as Thomas Edison or Isaac Newton. My wife, Marianne, did not exactly have an A average at Mother McAuley High School but today is the smartest person I know (and I’m no dummy for saying so). All of which may lead some to conclude that early life indicators are unreliable. That the strengths and weaknesses of, say, an adolescent, seldom reveal what their future portends. I was able to personally evaluate that theory this past year after attending my reunion for the Class of 1963 at St. …

Shaw: Local election boards in serious need of reform

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:27:42 -0500

April 9 is Election Day for local government in Illinois, including 500 Cook County taxing bodies — cities, villages, school districts, park districts, library districts, fire protection districts and my favorite poster child for unnecessary bureaucratic waste, townships. Voter turnout is expected to be low, as usual (about 20 percent), which is one measure of the sad state of democracy in the suburbs, and a reminder that you can’t criticize your local government credibly if you don’t vote. Another cause for concern is that 1,170 of the 2,000 separate elections on the ballot (that’s 58 percent) have a candidate running …