"AT WHAT POINT DOES A BUDGET SHOWDOWN BECOME A FISCAL MELTDOWN?"

 

It is not only the General Assembly who is working overtime this summer -- A+ Illinois organizers and advocates of A+ Illinois are working overtime themselves, reaching out to legislators in their district offices, urging them to support an increase in education funding. 

 

You can advocate for comprehensive education and fiscal reform too!!  Call your Representative and Senator and tell them to pass a comprehensive school funding and fiscal plan that:

• Increases school funding and quality so that every child has access to a quality education,

• Restores Illinois' fiscal health, and

• Ends Illinois' over reliance on property taxes to fund schools.

Fiscal Reform in the News...

It's not only advocates, organizers and everyday citizens who are urging our state leaders to get something done this year around fiscal and education reform -- folks from the media are also calling on legislators to work together to fix Illinois' broken fiscal and education funding system.  Click on the links below to read two articles that recently appeared in the press:

• Ducking blame for budget impasse is capitol priority, Daily Southtown, by Rich Miller, 6/18/07

• Legislature's small-minded failure, Chicago Sun-Times, by Cindy Richards, 6/6/07

 

"At what point does a budget showdown become a fiscal meltdown?"

 

That is the question posed by Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes to his Assistant Comptroller of Fiscal Policy, Rick Cornell.  The answer to this apocalyptic question is quite disconcerting.  In a memo to Comptroller Hynes, Rick Cornell writes that "a fiscal meltdown would begin July 9, and a full-blown crisis would ensue, by any standard, toward the middle of July."  Click here to read the memo and learn more about the troubling impacts that would occur in the event of a budget impasse.

 

Read an article from yesterday's State Journal-Register, What if there’s not a budget? Comptroller’s office predicts ‘meltdown’.  

 

NORTHWEST ILLINOIS: LOCAL LEADERS COME TOGETHER TO DISCUSS THE REGION'S FUTURE

 

Last Wednesday, local leaders in the Quad City area came together at a Community Forum to discuss issues of workforce and economic development and strategies to ensure that the Quad City region has a strong economy and skilled workforce moving into the 21st century.  The Forum, The State of Working Illinois: Opportunities and Challenges, was a great success, with roughly 45 participants in attendance and an extensive panel of local leaders, representing diverse interests.

 

Chuck Stewart, executive director of the Workforce Development Board of Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer Counties, opened the meeting with a BIG call for increased collaboration between folks working in the areas of business, education workforce and economic development.  Chuck spotlighted some good collaboration efforts that have been occurring in the region and he called on his partners to continue this collaborative work.

 

Following Chuck's opening remarks, Ralph Martire, the executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, delivered a presentation on the State of Working Illinois report, which outlines key trends that have taken place in the Illinois economy over the past couple decades. Included in the presentation was specific economic data trends for the Northwestern economic region, which consists of Rock Island, Mercer, Henry, Bureau, Putnam, LaSalle, Lee Whiteside, Carroll and Jo Daviess Counties.  Among the regionally-specific data points that were presented are: 

• While Rock Island County experienced an overall decline in population (-4%) between 1990 and 2005, the county witnessed a substantial increase in its Latino population, which grew from 5.4% to 10.3% during this time. 

• Also discussed during the Forum was the region's employment industry composition.  Between 2001-2003, the region lost 19% of its manufacturing jobs (a total of 6,664 jobs); however, manufacturing still comprises 15.1% of the region's total employment, which is higher than the state average of 12.3%.  Through 2014, Rock Island County is expected to see its greatest job growth in the services: professional & business, education & health, and leisure & hospitality.

• Through 2012, only 22.8% of the new jobs projected for the region will pay more than the current state annual average wage of $38,139.  This means over 77% of the new jobs in the region will be lower paying – in all likelihood driving down median income in the area – tracking statewide trends.

• By 2004, 12.2% of Illinoisans were below the national poverty line, as were 17.7% of the state’s children under 18 years of age.  According to 2005 data, the poverty rate in Rock Island is 13%, and 24% for children under 18 years of age.

Click here to download CTBA's State of Working Illinois PowerPoint presentation.

After the State of Working Illinois presentation, panelists went on to discuss the greatest workforce and economic development needs in the Northwest region.

• A big theme that was echoed repeatedly throughout the day was the need for collaboration and coordination.  Panelists pointed out that current workforce and economic development efforts in the region have been trapped in a "silo mentality;" that is, many folks are doing good work in their specific fields of expertise, but there lacks a system in place that can link together these distinct efforts.  Members of the panel urged businesses, the K-12 education system, the community colleges, workforce developers and others to work together so as to coordinated efforts and initiatives.

• Given that the region hurdles the Illinois and Iowa boarder, panelists urged folks to take advantage of bi-state opportunities and collaboration efforts.

• Unemployment is a problem in the region's minority communities.  There was a call for city planners to do a better job to target business development to minority communities, so as to spur economic growth and development.

• Another theme that was stressed was a call for innovation.  Innovation was discussed in several contexts, including school curriculum, vocational training, skill training in projected growth industries, and new ways to collaborate.

• Many panelists also talked about the under-utilization of resources that currently exist in the region, including career prep services, small business development centers, and business training centers.  The region needs to do a better job in getting the word out about, and using, these services.

• There was also a call for "soft skills" training (e.g., communication and teamwork skills training) in addition to technical skills training.  Panelists said that the community must educate themselves on how the region is expanding so as to train workers in projected high growth fields.

Forum Panelists
Chuck Stewart, Executive Director, Workforce Development Board of Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer Counties
Donna Scalf, Director, Black Hawk College Illinois Small Business Development Center
Tim Wells, Vice President, Wells Fargo Bank
Vickie Fitzgerald, Dean of Instructional Programs, Black Hawk College
Stephanie Acri, Owner, Evans Manufacturing
Rick Baker, President and CEO, Illinois Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce
Maureen Hart, Director, Project NOW Community Action Agency (invited but unable to attend due to an unexpected emergency)

Read an article about the Forum in The Dispatch/The Rock Island Argus from Thursday, June 14.

The State of Working Illinois: Opportunities and Challenges was generously funded by the Grand Victoria Foundation and was a collaborative effort between the Workforce Development Board of Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer Counties, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and the Illinois Works for the Future campaign. 

SUPPORT TRANSIT FUNDING NOW!

 

Bring Illinois into the 21^st Century by supporting sustainable transit funding. The Northeast region has relied on a 24 year old funding formula that has not accommodated population growth or the loss of federal operating dollars eliminated over a decade ago. 

 

Call your legislators and Governor Blagojevich TODAY to urge them to support the funding and accountability reforms (SB 572, House Amendments 1 and 2) for the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA).   This is a good solution for the region and the state because it can reduce congestion and facilitate the movement of goods across the state and to the rest of the country.

 

These reforms will:

 

• Update the funding formula to restore fiscal health to the transit system and set it on a course for improvements and growth;

 

• Strengthen the RTA’s powers to ensure greater fiscal accountability from CTA, Pace and Metra and to evaluate performance and to improve coordination;

 

• Ensure 5-year strategic planning cycles that, among other objectives, take into consideration access to area jobs for low income communities, and;

 

• Create the Innovation, Coordination and Enhancement Fund as well as the Suburban Mobility Fund to furnish resources for demonstration projects and projects that address mobility for transit dependent populations.

 

(Legislation will eventually include reforms to the CTA pension so that expenditures are in-line with the new funding package.)

 

Every Vote Counts.  Since the legislature is now in an overtime session, every bill needs 3/5 majority in order to get passed out of its respective chamber.  That means that your support is more important than ever.

 

To contact your state Representative and Senator, click here.  To reach the Office of Governor Blagojevich, call (217) 782-0244 or (312) 814-2121.

 

Learn more about the issue and show your support:

• Hear from the Chair of the House Mass Transit Committee, Representative Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) about the legislation, go to www.juliehamos.org.

• Attend a press conference tomorrow in Springfield hold by Transit Futures, a project of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (for more information go to www.transitfuture.org).

• Join  a rally on behalf of transit: the Transit Riders Alliance meeting 6/23, 9:00 am at DePaul University, Chaddick Institute, 243 S. Wabash Ave., 9th Floor, Chicago, IL ( go to www.savechicagolandtransit.com for more information).

• Learn more about how transit is funded and planned, take a look at the primer, Transit Uncovered.

For more information, contact Dia Cirillo at 312-332-6522 or dcirillo@ctbaonline.org.

 

EVENT FOCUSES ON THE ROLE OF YOUNG LEADERS IN THE REGION'S FUTURE

 

The Community Renewal Society, a progressive, faith based organization that works to eliminate race and class barriers, will be holding the Community Renewal Future Summit this Thursday, June 21. The Summit will revolve around a series of intergenerational conversations that will focus on the role that younger leaders can play in shaping the region's future. Among the guest panelists are Silvia Rivera (General Manager, Radio Arte), and Silvia Puente (Director of the Metropolitan Chicago Initiative for the University Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies).

 

Panel topics include:

• Black, Brown and Everything in Between: Breaking Down the Walls that Divide
  Confirmed panelists: Kay Barett, (Poet, Educator, Activist), Abel Muhammed (Head of the Latino ministry for the Nation of Islam), Prexy Nesbitt (internationally known speaker on African issues, global education, US Foreign Policy and racism), Sylvia Puente (Director of the Metropolitan Chicago Initiative for the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies)

• White Allies: Connecting Beyond Race and Place
  Confirmed panelists: Miguel Morales (Puerto Rican Cultural Center), Jeff Pinzino (Program Officer, the Woods Fund of Chicago), Melinda Power (West Town Law Office), Jane Ramsey (Executive Director, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs), Juan Thomas (Aurora Township Clerk)

• Faith Organizations, Social Justice and the New Millennium
  Confirmed panelists: Omar McRoberts (Assistant Professor, University of Chicago), Abdul Malik Mujahid (Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago), Father Pfleger (Pastor, St. Sabina Catholic Church)

• Developing the Next Generation of Leaders
  Confirmed panelists: Alfredo "Freddy" Calixto (Executive Director, BUILD), TJ Crawford (Chair, Local Organizing Committee, National Hip Hop Political Convention), Silvia Rivera (General Manager, Radio Arte), Tracy Van Slyke (Project Staff Member, The Media Consortium)

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $7 for students, seniors, and low income admission. The event will be held at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business 5807 S Woodlawn on June 21^st 1:30-5:30pm.  Click here to purchase tickets.