Editorial Roundup: Illinois
Arlington Heights Daily Herald. March 11, 2022.
Editorial: Time to adjust state's late fees on past-due bills, and make sure vendors get them
Two state laws requiring that interest be paid to Illinois' vendors on past-due bills need adjustments, at least
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is proposing to modify a law that has the state paying vendors interest when it's late paying bills, as well as a law that allows private investors to buy the overdue bills and collect that interest. We understand why.
The first law was created in 1993. It says if the state is past due paying a vendor, it must pay 1% per month extra in interest. That works out to a 12% APR. In the past, the vendors were not likely to get that much, because the overdue bills would be paid well within a year. That's until the past-due backlog that came with the infamous state budget impasse of 2015-17, when it got so bad that lawmakers created the 'œVendor Payment Program,'ť a way to get the bills paid with a reward to the investors paying them.
The good news about that: The vendors got their money. The bad news: It cost the state $1 billion in interest, Mendoza says, because the past-due bills climbed as high as $16.7 billion. More bad news: About $700 million of that interest went or will go to the investors, not the vendors.
Mendoza wants to lower the interest payments and phase out the investment program, saying the bills are now nearly caught up. Except they're not; there's still around $3.5 billion due, though Mendoza argues that bills out of the general fund are paid within 17 days on average.
'œThis program has allowed private lenders to loan money to state vendors, then rake in the 12% interest that state taxpayers were on the hook for with these late bills,'ť Mendoza said. She argues those investors were connected. Whether they were or not (wink wink), she has a good point.
'œI understand that the intent of the act is supposed to have a deterrent effect on budget makers that forces them to keep a budget living within its means,'ť she said. 'œHowever, I would argue that this interest expense is not penalizing state government, it penalizes taxpayers.'ť
Another good point. The huge amount of interest paid -- $1 billion, 'œpoof,'ť as Mendoza says -- only added to the big debt.
But it's true, that's how debt works. Vendors, from lawn services to the county treasurer, often impose on us regular people a 'œ1% per month late fee'ť or even 1.5%. It's not an outrageous concept.
Yet a 12% APR is a little steep. To that end, state Sen. Laura Murphy, a Des Plaines Democrat, a year ago proposed reducing that rate to the greater of 0.25% a month, for a 3% APR, or twice the annual percentage increase in the consumer price index.
The Republican running for Mendoza's job, Shannon Teresi, and others say the interest charge should remain as a deterrent to keep lawmakers from overspending in the future. And some say the Prompt Payment Act helps keep vendors from abandoning Illinois for fear of not getting paid.
In the end, yes, bills should be paid on time. When they're not, paying vendors a late fee along the lines of what Murphy suggests is reasonable. But the program that's allowing investors to collect vendors' interest only arouses suspicion and should go.
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Chicago Tribune. March 9, 2022.
Editorial: Racial disparities in police stops are easier to find than to fix
A disturbing new report from the city's top government oversight agency offers a painfully familiar conclusion: Blacks are much more likely to be stopped by police and subjected to use of force than any other racial or ethnic group, but evidence for pinning the blame specifically on racial bias remains unclear.
Similar findings led the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois to sue the city and the Chicago Police Department for alleged racial bias in the department's 'œstop-and-frisk'ť policies. That case was awarded class-action status last year.
And similar findings regarding use of force in 2017 led the U.S. Department of Justice to sue and later sign a consent decree with the city that went into effect in 2019 requiring CPD to reform its training and practices in the use of force and other areas.
In each case, reformers and community groups have acknowledged improvements in CPD's policies and practices but insist that they're not enough.
The city Office of the Inspector General's report finds 'œstrong evidence'ť that Blacks are more likely to be stopped by Chicago police than any other racial or ethnic group.
And, when they are stopped, the city's top oversight agency found, they are more likely to be subjected not only to the use of force but also to a higher level of force.
Was the apparent disparity explainable by differences other than race, one wonders, such as the differences between high-crime and low-crime districts and neighborhoods?
Unfortunately, despite the 'œstrong evidence'ť in the data it offers, the IG report doesn't say. It sticks to strictly to its data-collection role and leaves conclusions to the rest of us.
Nonetheless, the report, which looks at incidents from Oct. 17, 2017, through Feb. 8, 2020, offers data that show the frequency of stops and use of force were more likely to align with the race of the suspect than with the crime rate or other factors in the police districts in which the stops took place.
Citywide, when a police stop led to the use of force, more than 83% of the incidents involved a Black person, the IG's report says, a racial tilt that remained generally consistent regardless of the district's proportion of Black residents.
In the Near North police district, for example, where Blacks made up only 7.9% of the residents, they made up 73.5% of police stops, In Auburn Gresham, where Blacks are a 95.9% majority, they made up 97.2% of the stops.
On a given investigatory stop, Black people were subjected to a search of their person 1.5 times more frequently than non-Black people, and also subjected to a pat-down 1.5 times more frequently than non-Black people.
Citywide, white people were either underrepresented or proportionally represented - relative to their share of police stops - in being subjected to the use of force.
By contrast, Hispanic people were found to have higher odds than non-Hispanic people of facing a higher-level force option in most cases of subjects who were reported to have used deadly force.
As concerning and even alarming as some will find such statistics, it sounds like old news to seasoned police reformers and community leaders. It's reassuring to have suspicions confirmed but more study is needed to determine the true nature and depth of the suspected bias and, yet more importantly, to develop effective solutions.
Some community leaders understandably persist in calling for community-based solutions and city leaders should take heed. Cooperation between police and the neighborhoods they serve has been hard to come by after years of suspicion and resentment on both sides.
Police stops and interrogations can and should be an effective tool in crime-fighting. But when unfair racial or ethnic disparities lead to growing mistrust for law enforcement, even from crime victims and potential witnesses, only the criminals benefit.
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Decatur Herald & Review. March 11, 2022.
Editorial: Disappointing manner to part ways
VIPs lined up early in the morning on March 6, 2020, boarding a 6 a.m. jet flight from Decatur to Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
Upon their return, the group arrived to a crowd of supporters, catered hors 'd'oeuvres from the airport's Red Barn Kitchen restaurant and members from the Lutheran School Association band played outside near the runway.
The arrival of SkyWest's jet service to Decatur was the successful conclusion to a years-long effort, an effort that included disappointments and missteps and repeated attempts to secure the service.
The thought that day was, at last, a city the size of Decatur had a victory.
SkyWest has filed a 90-day notice of termination of service at the Decatur Airport due to pilot shortages within the aviation industry. SkyWest is to continue service from Decatur until the Department of Transportation supplies a replacement.
SkyWest's arrival here was a victory here in the same way it was a victory in cities like Clarksburg, West Virginia; Dodge City, Kansas; Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Rochester, Minnesota; Mason City, Iowa; Cape Girardeau, Missouri and Paducah, Kentucky.
All of those cities are losing SkyWest access as well, for the same reason.
SkyWest also cited the pilot shortage last month when announcing scheduled changes to its flights in Decatur. SkyWest has been turning off services to cities around the country for months.
The start of SkyWest's service in Decatur was March 2020. Decatur flight VIPs included Rep. Rodney Davis and Decatur Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe. After the airport ceremony, they both went to a roundtable discussion at Crossing Healthcare. Health experts and officials were meeting to discuss the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
That day, a sixth case was confirmed in Illinois. Within 10 days, the country essentially shut down.
The airline industry is one of several clearly and deeply affected in the COVID-19 aftermath. Similar to service workers and teachers, a break from business as usual may have sparked second thoughts about becoming or remaining a pilot.
Any number of reasons could also be added to a list of blame. Has there been a public reevaluation of air travel? Is there an ongoing examination of career paths, leading people away from certain careers after they've been experienced? What other industries will be affected in unexpected negative ways as we slowly distance ourselves from the coronavirus?
Those questions weren't occurring to anyone in March 2020. We can only hope to look back on this moment as a temporary slip.
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