THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All
September 20, 2021
Good morning.
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YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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A state divided: Vaccinated areas could soon be ‘turning the corner,’ but less-inoculated southern Illinois up against the wall (Chicago Sun-Times)
Hospitals in the southern tip of the state are still being stretched to the limit as much as they have been at any point of the pandemic. Intensive care unit beds have been filled to capacity all week in the region that has the lowest vaccination rate (37%) and the highest positivity rate (10.2%) of any in Illinois.
That means any of the 400,000-plus residents of southern Illinois who need critical care — even those without COVID-19, such as stroke victims and car crash survivors — could have to be sent to hospitals hours away to get the treatment they need.
The state has sent about 100 supplemental nurses and other health care workers to the 22 hospitals serving the region, and they’ve also secured federal approval for Veterans Administration hospitals to temporarily admit civilian patients.
“Although we are providing staffing and making sure that if someone does show up in a hospital that they can get cared for, that is only available to us on a limited basis for a limited period of time,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference in downstate St. Clair County, where only about 47% of residents are fully vaccinated.
And COVID-19 deaths continue to mount. The virus claimed 285 lives last week, a 31% jump from the previous week. Experts say fatalities typically increase for several weeks after a case spike because it takes time for those new cases to develop into serious infections.
Related: Senator Durbin said he would support mask, vaccine mandates for local government employees (State Journal-Register)
Danville Community Coalition to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations (Commercial-News)
As COVID-19 school outbreaks in Illinois climb, overall childhood virus cases fall, but questions arise about the data (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois families struggling to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic received good news and bad news Friday, with the state health department reporting the number of childhood virus cases appearing to decline the week before, while the number of school outbreaks in Illinois continued to climb.
While the Illinois Department of Public Health reported that school outbreaks across the state climbed from 128 to 206, surging 61% from last week, data tracking the overall number of cases per week among Illinois school-age children provided a more hopeful snapshot.
The number, which unlike the school outbreak tracker doesn’t differentiate based on where the child may have contracted the disease, dropped to 6,737 cases statewide Sept. 11 from 8,029 cases Sept. 4.
Still, the data appears incomplete, with key questions about how quickly and accurately state and local health officials are counting infections among school-age children, a month into the reopening of schools and amid a broader debate about how to keep kids in school while keeping them safe.
The mixed messages in the state COVID-19 data for school-age children also offered perplexing data from Lake County, one of the largest counties in the state. Illinois health officials reported Friday that more than 1,300 children between ages 5 and 17 in Lake County tested positive for the virus during the first three weeks of the school year, while the county health department has yet to report a single school outbreak.
Related: Mandatory testing for some unvaccinated kicks in Monday (Champaign News-Gazette)
Staffers at IL schools [had] until Sunday to get COVID shots. (Belleville News-Democrat)
Lightfoot plans to increase Chicago’s property tax levy by $76.5M in 2022 (Chicago Sun-Times)
Chicago’s property tax levy will rise by $76.5 million in 2022, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot will hold the line on all other taxes, fines and fees thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime avalanche of federal stimulus funds, influential aldermen have been told.
Last year, Lightfoot raised property taxes by $94 million and persuaded a divided City Council to follow that with annual increases tied to the Consumer Price Index.
On the day she unveiled the three-year financial plan that included a $733 million deficit, Lightfoot said, “It’s my hope that we will not need to raise taxes — and by taxes, I assume you mean property taxes. It’s our hope that we will not need to use that tool.”
A few hours later, Budget Director Susie Park acknowledged that Lightfoot’s declaration did not mean property taxes would be frozen.
“It is not our intention to increase the property tax for the upcoming budget. However, the CPI that was approved in the last budget remains. … I think it’s around $20 million-ish,” Park said.
It turns out that neither declaration was quite accurate.
Related: How will Lightfoot answer a $2 billion question? (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Obviously, city of Chicago finances are a trash fire that would make Mrs. O’Leary’s cow blush, but I believe we’ll start to see local taxing bodies starting to take a long look at policies and programs in coming years, especially as federal stimulus dollars dry up. That means higher property taxes, which makes everyone unhappy.
Some of our top links from last week:
Conservative Group to Attempt to Expand Illinois Recall Provision
Business Groups Say Energy Bill Hurts Manufacturing, Commerce
Amid Allegations of California Residency, Sullivan Provides Documentation of Illinois Home
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