Illinois Editorial Roundup:

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in Illinois

March 16, 2020

Chicago Tribune

Another coronavirus rise: Your anxiety, your inactivity and your fridge. Here's what to do.

You're worried about coronavirus, both as a health peril and a financial threat. You're out of sorts because you've joined the emergency work-from-home brigade. Nothing feels certain, except your powerlessness. You seek solace and companionship from a friend you don't often see during normal work hours: the refrigerator.

We're with you, fellow work-at-homers. Except pardon us as we head to the kitchen for some leftover ribs from last night's takeout that'll make a comforting second breakfast.

Now back to the theme of health and wellness during a national crisis. Beyond the life-and-death risks of COVID-19, dealing with this pandemic is upending all aspects of life as you knew it. News reports are freaking you out. You're anxious about your own health and family members'. Long-planned events, from spring-break trips to children's birthday parties, are imperiled. Options for coping feel limited, but, yes, the fast-food drive-through is open.

These ripple effects of coronavirus are real, and signs of stress are normal: excessive worry, irritability, insomnia, an increase or decrease in energy, having difficulty giving or accepting help, wanting to be alone, an increase in use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Those are some of the impacts, according to a federal government fact sheet with the alarming headline: 'œCoping with Stress During Infectious Disease Outbreaks.'ť

A few deep breaths and we'll continue. The best advice we're seeing starts with acknowledging the strange reality of the moment, taking all precautions possible to keep yourself and family members safe, and doing what you can to protect the public at large by contributing to the defeat of this virus. That's why we're all social distancing - yet the isolation contributes significantly to stress. You've suspended contact with friends and co-workers. It's just you, your TV and your anxiety-inducing social media feed.

So let's talk about caring for yourself. We endorse the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's self-care advice, which suggests taking breaks from monitoring the news and obsessing over social media. Come back later to chicagotribune.com; we'll have updates for you. Other sound advice we've collected:

ˆ· Take care of your spirit. Keep in touch with friends. Meditate if that helps. Unplug and unwind with other activities you enjoy. Read for pleasure (perhaps avoid zombie lit).

ˆ· Take care of your body. Drink plenty of water and cut back on alcohol consumption. Keep to a normal schedule of waking and going to bed, and get plenty of sleep. 'œMaintaining some kind of schedule can be really impactful in a positive way for our mood,'ť Andrea Graham, an assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Tribune.

ˆ· No, really take care of your body. Eat healthy. Slap yourself before scarfing down five cookies while reading tweets. Watch it with fatty food that may feel soul-satisfying but adds pounds. Instead, dive into exercise. Do what you can and do it daily, whether it's stretching, walking or jogging.

Remember, there's no coronavirus on the running path. Going there will shed some calories, clear your head and lift your spirit.

The coronavirus crisis is real. So is the stress. Take care of yourself.

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March 15, 2020

The (Champaign) News-Gazette

Flat failure on property taxes

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas recently made an announcement that deserved far more attention than it received - both for what it says about the present, and more ominously, what it portends for the future.

Pappas disclosed there are 57,515 property owners who need to pay their property taxes to avoid foreclosure at a May 8 tax sale.

'œThat is exactly 17,000 more than last year at this time,'ť she said.

There are, obviously, a variety of reasons why so many property owners in that county are behind - a 42 percent increase compared to this time last year. One can write them off to forgetfulness and administrative errors of one kind or another.

But those are issues that are not new. So is there something else at play here - like property taxes that have become so onerous people can't pay them?

Pappas wants the Legislature to extend the payment deadline to avoid mass foreclosures. But that's just putting a finger in the dike, because the property-tax problem is only going to get worse.

That's one reason why the abject failure of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's property-tax task force is, even if not surprising, so disappointing.

Last year, in an effort to persuade some legislators to approve putting his proposed progressive-income-tax constitutional amendment on the November 2020 ballot, the governor promised that a legislative task force look at the problem of rising property taxes and propose solutions.

That's a time-honored ruse - give us a high income tax and we'll lower property taxes - that Illinois politicians have employed. But they usually go through the motions, producing platitudes and bromides that end up on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

Facing a Dec. 31 deadline, the 88-member task force demonstrated its lack of zeal by doing virtually nothing, then failing to meet it.

This week, the chairman of the revenue committee in the Illinois House stated the obvious - there will be no report and no recommendations for improving the situation.

Two factors are at play. Our legislators simply aren't up to the heavy lifting that's required to effectively address complicated issues. Further, the state's property-tax problem is hugely complicated, to the point that it would probably take a complete restructuring of the tax system in Illinois that would cause political complications for our re-election-focused legislators.

Republicans on the property-tax task force came up with their own set of proposals to ease spending pressure on local taxing bodies, like eliminating unfunded mandates and eliminating and/or consolidating local units of government.

Democrats essentially ignored them while complaining that there is 'œno one real solution'ť that is 'œgoing to offer one-size-fits-all relief.'ť

'œ... you have all these ideas that come together, and no one can gain a majority to author a finalized report,'ť said state Rep. Mike Zalewski, chairman of the House revenue committee.

There are reasons for that.

Property taxes are imposed by local units of government, of which there are far too many.

To ease the burden on local governments, the state would have to both lower the locals' costs while providing them with more revenue. So far, the state shows little interest in doing either to any significant degree.

As a consequence, spend-happy legislators want to raise taxes to support their policy while local officials rely on a steady stream of property-tax increases to meet their obligations.

That's all well and good until property owners can't take it anymore because they don't have the financial resources.

Is that what's happening in Cook and the collar counties? Is so, when will the contagion spread downstate, where property taxes are already high and constantly going higher?

If anything is obvious about this state and its massive fiscal woes, it's that the governor and legislators simply won't act until circumstances are so bad that they have no choice. That's why it's one tax increase after another.

There's a breaking point. Pappas' announcement should serve as a warning that a property-tax apocalypse is coming, perhaps sooner than those in charge anticipate.

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March 12, 2020

(Arlington Heights) Daily Herald

Added scrutiny will help keep tollway, other transportation agencies in line

Officials at the Illinois tollway may feel a bit defensive about a new state Senate committee set up to scrutinize transportation agencies in the state.

Good. The tollway's hiring practices -- not inappropriately described as "bizarre" by one state lawmaker -- demonstrate an agency clearly in need of some political management therapy.

But it's important to note that the tollway isn't the only object of the Urban Modal Transit Oversight Committee's attention. State Sen. Laura Murphy, a Des Plaines Democrat who is spearheading the effort, says the group's mission will be to help leaders and the public learn more about the operations of specific agencies.

"I'm a believer that sunshine makes everything look better," she said.

This added sunshine will be valuable whether the agency be Metra, the RTA, the CTA, Pace or any of the transportation bodies in Illinois and the suburbs that serve hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents and oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and taxpayer spending. At the same time, it certainly won't hurt for the agencies to be aware of the additional scrutiny.

Of course, it's with good reason that the committee will begin by taking a look at management of the tollway. Within its first year after being reconstituted from a tollway board and administration entirely replaced because of questionable contract and hiring practices, the new tollway leadership exploded out of the gates with an inappropriate conflict-of-interest vote by its new chairman, and its new executive director, Jose Alvarez, hired nine former colleagues from the Chicago Housing Authority at salaries totaling more than $1.3 million.

Tollway officials contend the hiring is perfectly appropriate and the individuals hired are well-qualified for their positions. But especially considering the checkered history of insider hiring, contracts and other activities at the tollway, it is well within the public interest for lawmakers to closely follow what's happening there and ensure that its management practices don't simply slide back into old habits.

Murphy is right to observe, too, that this extra level of oversight doesn't have to imply wrongdoing by anyone or be investigative in nature. It will be "a forum to learn and exchange information," she said.

"We hope it will provide an avenue for people to voice concerns and for (transportation) departments to let people know about their operations," she said.

The tollway, it already appears, will have plenty to offer on both sides of that equation. Other transportation agencies likely will, as well. It's good that a forum will exist to identify problems and provide immediate rationale for decisions and actions that could arouse old suspicions.