[Update 10/21: Groundbreaking ceremony & more info on Nippon Sharyo.] I haven’t seen this anywhere else but the Rockford Register Star so far. Gov. Pat Quinn comes to Rochelle at 11 a.m. today to announce that a $35 million to $40 million railcar factory, expected to employ 250 to 350 people, will be built in…
Category: State Watch
Infrastructure Report Card
The American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), an organization committed to improving the nation’s infrastructure, has released its 2009 report card on the condition of America’s infrastructure. It graded 15 areas from Aviation to Wastewater for a national GPA of D, and estimates it will take $2.2 trillion over the next five years to bring…
235 Quinn Staffers Get Pay Raises
According to NBC Chicago.com, 235 of Governor Quinn’s staff received pay raises averaging 11% this year. Of the 235 who received a pay raise in 2010, 225 of them received more than a five percent pay hike. Those rewarded with a fatter check include a labor relations expert whose pay increase is more than $5,000,…
Brady’s Conflicts of Interest
The Chicago Trib reports that Bill Brady, Republican candidate for governor, almost certainly has benefited from votes he’s cast as a state senator. In 2003, the state legislature gave the local government authority to take land for sewers along Curtis Road east of Brady’s property. A final vote to enact the law occurred Nov. 4,…
Brady & His Tax Returns
While the hoo-ha over State Sen. Bill Brady’s reluctance to disclose his tax returns is understandable — we are the transparency crowd here, after all — I also understand his reluctance under the circumstances. Additionally, the actual content of the returns don’t concern me much. We all are careful to pay only what we have…
AG Madigan on the City of DeKalb
I saw this in person and have not watched all of the video. For anyone who wants to hear exactly what AG Madigan said about the City of DeKalb withholding the names directly, it should be on here, maybe about twenty to twenty-five minutes into the video.
DeKalb Resident on Lt. Governor List
Our own Kay Shelton’s been added to the list of persons under consideration for the Democratic Lieutenant Governor nomination. Go Kay!
Crook County, Again
Leave it to Crook County to have a system of do nothings wasting more tax dollars. Besides road maintenance, townships are supposed to have programs that help the poor. In Crook County, however, it looks like the politicians help themselves:
SB 189 > Public Act 096-0542
Gov. Quinn signed Senate Bill 189, the upgrade to FOIA. The full text can be read at this link. It takes effect January 1, 2010. It seemed to take him a while to get around to signing it but I see that his office created a new Web site which is here: http://accountability.illinois.gov/. This is…
Illinois & Stimulus Transparency
[Updates 8/2: Handy ARRA map w/links to state summaries and Illinois’ ARRA site.] We love Good Jobs First because it’s taught us about development subsidies and TIF. This week, GJF released a report rating the quality of each state’s disclosure of its use of funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The…