 Quinn Sends Education Chief After Waukegan Strike Boils Over During School Board
Meeting
Things have spiralled out of control in Waukegan where teachers have been on
strike for nearly a month … so much so Governor Pat Quinn is looking to
intervene. A Waukegan School Board Meeting Tuesday sounded more like a
professional wrestling match as members of the audience shouted over school
board members trying to conduct official business. Things got so unruly a board
member jumped down off the stage to address the roaring crowd.
The meeting ended abruptly after members of the audience chanted “We Support
Waukegan Teachers” and “Make This Right, End The Strike”.
Governor Quinn put out a press release Wednesday saying “students … need to get
back to school and … both sides [need] to work together to get it down now.”
Quinn is sending Illinois State Board of Education Chairman Gery Chico to meet
with board officials and union leadership in hopes of working towards a
resolution. It’s unclear if that resolution will be reached before classes
Thursday, the one-month mark for the extended strike.
Waukegan Mayor Vows to Work to End Teachers’ Strike
The head of the State Board of Education is headed to Waukegan where teachers
have been on strike for nearly a month, according to a press release from
Governor Pat Quinn. But he’s not the only official outside of school district
officials wanting to bring an end to the conflict. In audio from the Chicago
Sun-Times, Waukegan mayor Wayne Motley said he’ll do what he can to bring an end
to the nearly month-long strike.
Governor Quinn said in a statement Wednesday that Waukegan students can’t afford
to miss another day of school and that both sides should return to the
bargaining table and come to an agreement to get kids back to school as soon as
possible. There were reports police had to intervene in possible physical
altercations at a Waukegan School Board meeting Tuesday night.
Taxpayers on Hook for Millions to Cronus for Central Illinois Fertilizer Plant
A substantial taxpayer investment in a chemical company goes hand-in-hand with
the largest private investment in a couple of decades, according to Governor Pat
Quinn’s office. During the official announcement of Cronus Chemical coming to
the central Illinois community of Tuscola Wednesday, Director of the Illinois
Department of Economic Opportunity Adam Pollett (poe-LET) had a message for the
naysayers.
Taxpayers will be on the hook for thirty-five-million dollars in tax exemptions
for Cronus plus the planned fertilizer plant will get over twelve-million
dollars in road improvements from the Department of Transportation. That’s not
all, Cronus will also receive three-point-nine million dollars in income tax
credits over ten years, a million dollar grant for infrastructure and nearly
eighty-thousand dollars for job training programs. Cronus expects to invest
one-point-four-billion dollars for a the new site that will eventually employ
one-hundred-seventy-five permanent jobs. Quinn’s office says the planned Cronus
investment is the largest private investment in Illinois since 1988 when
Mitsubishi Motors opened in Normal.
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 State’s Use of Tax Dollars for Some Businesses Unfair, Says
Critic
Giving out tax dollars and tax incentives to some companies over
another is bad policy … that’s according to an economic researcher
with the Reason Foundation. With the announcement of Cronus Chemical
getting more than fifty million dollars in incentives over a decade
from taxpayers to set up shop in central Illinois, it’s bad and
unfair economic policy according to Anthony Randazzo (ran-DAH-zoh)
from the Reason Foundation.
Randazzo says economic success should be about good ideas,
innovation and hard working businesses showing investors what
they’re capable of and the state shouldn’t use tax dollars to quote
“pick winners and losers”. The state announced the plan to set up a
Cronus fertilizer plant in Tuscola Wednesday, something expected to
bring more than two-thousand construction jobs, over
one-hundred-and-seventy permanent jobs and over a billion dollars of
private investment.
No Refunds for Controversial Red Light Camera Tickets
No refunds for controversial red light camera tickets … that’s the
word from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The Chicago Tribune reports
the city increased the time of the yellow lights at the suggestion
of a traffic engineer, not because of the outcry of thousands of
tickets blamed on shortened yellow lights. The Tribune says Emanuel
flirted with the idea of refunding some seven-point-seven million
dollars in fines collected from the red light cameras but the city’s
transportation chief said that would not be happening.
Chicago Wants Input on Possible Taxi App
Meanwhile the city of Chicago is looking for feedback from the
public about a taxicab centralization dispatch system. A press
release from the city says the system will connect licensed Chicago
cabs with passengers through an online application … very similar to
ridesharing applications. The question the city is asking is what
capabilities and options would you like to see in a centralized
taxicab dispatch system? Feedback can be from passengers, cab
drivers, cab owners, tech companies or any resident of Chicago and
should be in by November 14th.
The Illinois News Network is a free service of the Illinois Policy
Institute.
[This
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