THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All
April 14, 2022
Good morning. Happy Thursday.
Growing up as a Lutheran in central Illinois, we always referred to this day in Holy Week as “Maundy Thursday,” while my suburban Catholic wife knows it as “Holy Thursday.” Apparently, the terms are relatively interchangeable.
Either way, it celebrates the night of the Last Supper, which leads into “Good Friday” and Easter Sunday. I hope you and your families enjoy the weekend.
I hope you’ll forward our content to your friends, co-workers, and annoying neighbors and encourage them to subscribe to The Illinoize. We need your help to continue to grow! Just click below.
And, as always, drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com with whatever is on your mind.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
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408 bills: A recap of Illinois lawmakers' moves on crime, spending and more (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Between better-than-expected revenues that came in during this current fiscal year and remaining COVID-19 relief dollars, lawmakers for the first time in decades had some wiggle room with the budget.
Several key buckets, including education, human services and public safety, also saw sizable funding increases under the new spending plan.
And let’s not forget the $1.8 billion tax relief package that was approved. This includes a one-year freeze on the state’s grocery tax, a six-month freeze in the inflationary increase in the motor fuel tax, a sales tax holiday in August for school supplies and clothes, and direct payments to people, including $50 per adult and $100 per child up to three children.
There are a few things at play here. First, it’s a lot easier to form a budget when the state’s coffers are flush with cash instead of when fighting over what are usually far more scarce resources.
But it’s also an election year. And with rising prices among the top issues for voters, it was evident that the supermajority Democrats would include a tax relief package in the budget.
There is some gimmickry involved, including a requirement that gas stations post a small sign next to each pump informing people of the suspension of the 2.2 cent increase.
When lawmakers voted to double the state’s gas tax just a few years ago, there was no such requirement to inform people of the increase. Funny how that works.
Related: Measure aimed at ending workplace bias over hairstyles on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Process April session in context of June, November votes (Shaw Media)
These bills passed by Illinois lawmakers will have direct impacts on Springfield (State Journal-Register)
State public health officials move away from ‘outdated’ COVID testing positivity rate in favor of hospital metrics (Chicago Sun-Times)
The state Department of Public Health announced Tuesday it will no longer report seven-day average case positivity rates — figures that, since the early days of the pandemic, had offered a quick glance at how rampantly the virus was spreading at any given time in different regions or across Illinois as a whole.
The change in coronavirus data reporting follows new guidelines set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which place more emphasis on hospitalizations and case rates per 100,000 residents.
Instead, the Department of Public Health is highlighting county-by-county CDC metrics that were rolled out earlier this year with indoor masking guidelines: the number of new COVID cases detected per 100,000 residents over the past seven days; the number of new COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 residents for the past week; and the percent of in-patient hospital beds occupied by COVID patients.
Related: For Chicago workers, it’s back to the office — but not back to normal (WBEZ)
Philadelphia reinstated its indoor mask mandate. Will Chicago be next? (Chicago Tribune)
700 Chicago officers are refusing the city’s vaccine mandate without consequence (WBEZ)
Willie Wilson joins 2023 race for mayor (Chicago Sun-Times)
With a $5 million contribution to himself and a burst of goodwill generated by his gas giveaways, millionaire businessman Willie Wilson on Monday joined the race to send Mayor Lori Lightfoot into political retirement after a single term.
To prove how serious he is, Wilson said he deposited $5 million into the Willie Wilson for Mayor campaign fund he created in 2018 and declared active again on Monday.
With the election less than a year away, Lightfoot has just $1.7 million in her primary political account. For the most part, big-money interests remain on the sidelines, apparently awaiting another candidate, possibly U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill.
“I’m putting my money where my mouth is,” said Wilson, who donated $1.2 million to his 2019 mayoral campaign.
During an unrelated news conference Monday, Lightfoot touted her “record of accomplishments,” adding: “There is that narrative that some like to perpetuate. But what I would say is, look at the record of incredible success through a global pandemic and economic meltdown and all of the other challenges that we faced over the last two years.”
Let’s be clear about something: Willie Wilson won’t be Mayor of Chicago. But if an African American candidate siphons enough Black voters away from an African American incumbent, he could surely be the main cause (other than herself) for Lori Lightfoot being a one-term mayor.
Related: Illinois’ newest Latino congressional district brings heavy competition, divided Democratic visions (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois breaks sports betting record with $286 million wagered on March Madness (Chicago Tribune)
In Illinois, sports bettors legally wagered a record $278.4 million during the men’s tournament this year, according to revenue totals released Tuesday by the Illinois Gaming Board. The women’s basketball tournament added another $7.8 million in wagers.
Nearly 96% of the bets were placed online, boosted by a change in Illinois law that allowed online sportsbooks to compete across the state for new customers.
The $286 million in total March Madness bets netted Illinois sportsbooks $14.3 million in adjusted gross receipts — the money kept after winnings are paid out — with the state receiving about $2.1 million in tax revenue, according to the gaming board.
By comparison, Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13 generated about $61 million in bets and $9.5 million in adjusted gross receipts at Illinois sportsbooks, according to the gaming board.
Analysts projected the amended law would boost Illinois to a record $1 billion in legal sports bets in March. Totals for the month have yet to be released by the state.
Think of how much money we saved not being able to bet on Illinois in the NCAA tournament on the betting apps. But we’re not talking about that.
Kim Foxx: I won’t ‘cut corners’ — despite crime spike — in county with long history of wrongful convictions (Chicago Sun-Times)
Amid the soaring number of shootings and murders in Cook County over the past two years, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said her prosecutors won’t “cut corners” because of pressure to tamp down crime.
In a question-and-answer session Wednesday with The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, Foxx said her office had indeed raised the bar to approving charges, noting that many of the wrongful convictions unwound by courts or her office’s Conviction Integrity Unit were the work of prosecutors and police under pressure to “do something” about crime.
“It is not lost on me any day that I am waking up in this role, that Cook County has had a long and sordid history with wrongful convictions,” Foxx said. “It is also not lost on me that a significant portion of the wrongful convictions that we have seen … occurred in the 1980s and ’90s when we were dealing with incredibly, stubbornly high instances of violence.
A recent Sun-Times report found that prosecutors declined charges in more than 100 murder cases in 2021, more than in any year since Foxx took office. Foxx pointed out police brought more cases forward for review in 2021 than in any previous year, many of them more than a decade old, but the rate at which cases were declined has remained the same throughout her tenure.
In recent years, discord between CPD detectives and Foxx’s office has spilled into public view, largely through leaks from insiders or public remarks from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPD Superintendent David Brown.
Essentially, Foxx is saying she’s not going to prosecute crime in 2022 because stuff happened in the ‘80s. I haven’t message tested it, but you don’t have to be an expert to know that it doesn’t make any sense.
SOME TOP LINKS FROM THE WEEK SO FAR
Illinois GOP Asking Gubernatorial Candidates to Sign "Unity Pledge" to Support Nominee
Top Democrat, Republican See State's Fiscal Position Heading in Separate Directions
State Rifle Association Threatening Suit Over "Ghost Gun" Bill
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