Sep 30
Continuing what I started yesterday:
| Contract/ Muni Code | Max Accumulation Sick Leave | Max Payout Sick Leave |
|---|---|---|
| AFSCME | 330 working days | 90 working days |
| FOP* | 117 working days | 90 working days |
| IAFF | 51.33 hr weekly schedule: 52 shifts 37.5 hr weekly schedule: 120 shifts | 51.33 hr schedule: 45 shifts, & equivalent for 37.5 hr schedule |
| Chp. 3/Management | 330 working days | 90 working days |
Sep 29
Chicago City Council proposes reduction of vacation time payouts:
As it now stands, departing longtime employees can get paid for up to 75 vacation days they did not take while working for the city. Under Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan, the number would decrease to 30 at the start of 2013.
[...]
The changes are in part a response to the recent vacation cash-outs taken by departing officials from former Mayor Richard Daley’s administration.For example, former Police Superintendent Jody Weis got more than $76,000 for 64 unused vacation days. Through the end of last month, the city paid out $9.5 million in unused vacation pay, according to the Emanuel administration.
How do City of DeKalb vacation payouts compare with Chicago’s? Actually, quite favorably — at least on paper. Read the rest of this entry
Sep 25
This table was part of Friday’s long post, but deserves some attention of its own.
| Per Capita Debt, City of DeKalb | Per Capita Debt, Overlapping | Total Per Capita Debt, City of DeKalb Residents |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2004 | 467.10 | 608.75 | 1075.85 |
| FY2005 | 519.82 | 623.71 | 1143.53 |
| FY2006 | 505.96 | 617.67 | 1123.63 |
| FY2007 | 470.28 | 697.11 | 1167.39 |
| FY2008 | 578.46 | 1004.14 | 1582.60 |
| FY2009 | 521.54 | 889.79 | 1411.33 |
| FY2010 | 564.31 | 1428.29 | 1992.60 |
You can find the breakdown of the FY2010 overlapping debt in this document, on p. 153.
FY2010 ended June 30, 2010. Let’s look at some of the GO bond issues since that date:
DeKalb County: $16,000,000, 10/14/2010
School District 428: $38,001,359.50, 8/4/2010
City of DeKalb: $9,320,000, 12/01/2010
City of DeKalb: $550,000, 10/5/2010 Read the rest of this entry
Sep 24
Rated PG-13 for language.
He’ll appear at the Egyptian Theatre October 6.
Sep 23
As a Home Rule community, DeKalb has no state-imposed legal limit on its indebtedness.
Non-Home-Rule municipalities (at least those under 500,000 population) do have a limit. It’s 8.625%* of the taxable value of the properties within their boundaries, and they must report compliance with the limit by computing Legal Debt Margins for their Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs).
Out of curiosity, I calculated DeKalb’s debt margin for the last few years to see if the city stays within the limit even though it doesn’t have to. Here’s where it led me. Read the rest of this entry
Sep 21
You thought they learned their lesson with the skating rink? Hah!
Sep 18
In this age when lies and prejudices masquerade as truth as never before, it can be very difficult to figure out what’s factual, and which sources to trust.
Nowhere is this more the case than in macroeconomics, yet we must decide upon which economic policies and legislation to support — soon.
One of my sources is Paul Krugman, because of what he’s demonstrably gotten right over the past four years. Krugman was one of the people to call the housing bubble a bubble, when other leading economists were claiming that the age of bubbles was past. He was able to explain to me, a child of the 70s, why hyperinflation was not going to happen this time. He correctly predicted where the stimulus would be found wanting, and that austerity measures at the federal level would lead to continued high unemployment.
Today in his blog, Krugman warns that the situation appears to be taking a turn that would make climbing out of the hole harder. Read the rest of this entry
Sep 14
An attorney who worked primarily on Tax Increment Financing (TIF) related issues for Calumet Park was sentenced in Cook County to six years in prison for overbilling the village for several years.
A state’s attorney’s investigation of [attorney Mark] McCombs was triggered in 2010 after Community High School District 218 Superintendent John Byrne started questioning McCombs about the tax increment financing district.
The lawyer allegedly responded by offering to pay the school district for Byrne’s silence. But he reported McCombs to village officials.
A subsequent review of records showed that he had billed the TIF fund for about $2 million since 2007 even though no economic development projects had been completed.
Yes, that’s right: Allegedly nobody thought anything amiss until somebody allegedly was offered hush money. So much for annual TIF reports, TIF oversight committees and the like.
Sep 13
I’ve been distracted lately from local blogging by questions of macroeconomic policy, the odds of a double dip and the latest developments in the class war.
The Panic of 1873 and the Causes which Produced It
GAO audit of emergency assistance authorized by the Federal Reserve
Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American
Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals.
Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
What are you reading? Feel free to add your own links in the comments section.
Sep 12
Oakridge, a poor town in Oregon with dreams of becoming a major destination for mountain biking, has found itself in big financial trouble.
[A]ll of Oakridge’s 3,205 residents will shoulder the costs of an unexplained $420,000 hole in the city’s budget, a figure that is sure to grow and that by itself represents nearly half of all the property tax revenue this town takes in each year. The city must borrow $500,000 against future tax revenue just to pay its bills for the next six months, after allowing its bank account to be drained, plummeting from nearly $1.4 million in 2009 to less than $200,000 in June of this year.
“That’s $65,000 a month you’re overdrawing your account,” James Affa, a member of the city’s finance committee and a vocal critic of [city administrator Gordon] Zimmerman, said at a recent council meeting. “This is an incredible amount of money.”
[...]
It’s not just a bookkeeping issue when a town of this size and in these economic straits winds up short $420,000 — or more. The city is investigating whether to raise water rates to help close the fiscal gap, to the outrage of residents who have literally screamed at city officials in recent meetings that they can’t afford rate increases when Social Security hasn’t seen a cost-of-living increase in three years.
The shortfall developed on the watch of a city administrator who admits he should have done things differently. He has not resigned, and Oakridge residents have initiated a recall process against the town’s mayor and three city councilors who refuse to fire him. The recall election will be held next month.
No matter the outcome, residents will probably not find out what happened to the money. There are too many gaps and discrepancies in the information even to finish the 2008-9 audit.