Wirepoints

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joined host Shaun Thompson to talk about the S&P downgrade of Chicago’s credit rating, the facts surrounding Detroit’s bankruptcy, how officials are trying everything – next up, legalizing prostitution – to stop the city from collapsing. #chicago #detroit

#Detroit is of great interest because it was once a great city that ignored its #debts, was run by incompetent people doing incompetent things, and it eventually chased out all of its #taxpayers.?#Chicago is repeating that playbook and for now, there’s nothing to stop the city’s bad trends. Keep an eye on Chicago’s taxpayers. https://lnkd.in/gFNeHYFN

The Democratic National Convention is coming to #Chicago. You can be sure both the city and all #Illinois will be showcased as progressive policy success. Wirepoints has the facts, data and analysis to explain what’s really happening here.

Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon writes in the Kankakee Daily Journal, "Most every company today has political matters pending in government that could impact the company and its workers. Both employers and workers obviously should have the right to communicate their views and hope for agreement." #Illinois

Wirepoints’ #Chicago #Crime Tracker is designed to help Chicagoans, Illinoisans and Americans across the nation see what’s really going on in the Windy City. https://lnkd.in/gmQW-St4

A smaller #taxbase, everything else equal, means less tax revenues for safety, #education, road repair and every other core #government service – or, as is typically the case in #Illinois, more debts and more tax hikes.

Wirepoints contributor Jim Iuorio breaks down the dismal jobs situation for both the nation and #Illinois. Illinois has suffered a loss of private sector #jobs as more residents continue move out and #taxes remain high.

Among the metrics considered was the state's #unemployment rate: From March 2020 through May 2024, the U.S average unemployment rate was 5.1% but #Illinois was 6.0%, ranking Illinois 45th in the nation. Illinois has consistently been about 0.8% to 0.9% above the U.S. average for the last decade.

Based on the data in this report, researchers believe office buildings in #Chicago are relatively over-assessed and should have lower values in the city’s next reassessment. Unfortunately, any such reassessment of commercial properties will shift the #taxburden to homeowners – who are also already paying some of the highest effective #propertytax rates in the nation. And that just feeds into the potential for a downtown #doomloop.