State loans Chicago $15 million to replace crumbing water system (Chicago Sun Times)

EXCERPT:

January 16, 2013 – Mayor Rahm Emanuel has already doubled water and sewer rates over four years to replace Chicago’s crumbling water mains, 900 miles of them a century-old. Now, he’ll be able to do that work even faster and more cheaply, thanks to a $15 million, low-interest loan from Gov. Pat Quinn’s $1 billion Clean Water Initiative. The city has tax-exempt bonding authority, but interest rates on the state loan are 1 percent lower, according to Water Management Commissioner Tom Powers.

Link to Full Article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/17613523-418/state-loans-city-15-million-to-replace-crumbing-pipes.html

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Emanuel announces Chicago Midway privatization advisory panel (Crain’s Chicago Business)

January 11, 2013 – Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today the formation of a seven-member expert advisory panel charged with overseeing the privatization of Midway International Airport. The committee will help explore a potential public-private partnership at Midway International Airport, according to a City Hall statement. Learning from former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 2008 bungled parking meter deal, which leased the city’s parking meters for 75 years and approximately $1.2 billion, Mr. Emanuel wants a shorter lease and more restrictions for the Midway deal, stipulations that may not appeal to investors.

Link to Full Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130111/NEWS10/130119948/emanuel-announces-midway-privatization-advisory-panel

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Hospitals’ have pension problems too (Crain’s Chicago Business)

EXCERPT:

January 4, 2013 – Already caught between flattening revenues and rising costs, many hospital CEOs are confronting a looming pension fund gap. The University of Chicago, which includes the university and the medical center, and Resurrection Health Care Corp. were among the most underfunded pension funds for hospitals in the country, according to a study of 550 health systems by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, based on 2010 financials. While U of C’s and Resurrection’s retirement funding has improved, they are part of a group of five Chicago-area hospitals and health care networks whose pensions are less than 80 percent funded and are considered at risk of default, according to federal regulations.

Link to Full Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130105/ISSUE01/301059976/hospitals-pension-problem

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Source: Crain’s Chicago Business

Chicago City unions brace for panel’s report on retiree health-care crisis (Chicago Sun Times)

January 10, 2013 – Union leaders are bracing for an explosive new report on Chicago’s $800 million retiree health-care crisis that could set the stage for higher contributions from 35,000 retirees, reduced benefits or a lethal mix of the two. On Friday, a retiree health-care commission appointed by former Mayor Richard M. Daley and overhauled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel will deliver its long-awaited report, less than six months before a 10-year settlement agreement that calls for the city to share costs with retirees is due to expire. Union leaders fear Emanuel will use the threat of retiree benefit cuts and increased contributions as leverage to achieve pension reforms.

Link to Full Article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/17483995-418/city-unions-brace-for-panels-report-on-retiree-health-care-crisis.html

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel launches Midway privatization plan (Chicago Tribune)

December 21, 2012 – Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration will explore the possibility of privatizing Midway Airport (A2 – 167562GC5) but will take a shorter-term, more tightly controlled approach than was employed by former Mayor Richard Daley’s team on the city’s first go-round. Chicago’s last try, a 99-year lease that would have brought in $2.5 billion, died in 2009 when the financial markets froze up. The city’s latest intentions are expected to be formally announced Friday, ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline for deciding whether to retain a slot for Midway in the Federal Aviation Administration’s airport privatization pilot program.

Link to Full Article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-1221-midway-20121221,0,7080003.story

Emanuel not inclined to go back to free water for non-profit groups (Chicago Tribune)

December 13, 2012 – Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday that restoring free water service to churches and non-profit agencies as some aldermen suggest would reverse a campaign promise he’s fulfilled. “I pledged in the campaign that we were not going to give away free water anymore to the cost of $20 million to the taxpayers,” he said. “I said that (had to) come to an end. They were getting something that the residents of the city of Chicago were not getting. So I said, ‘We’re not going to do that.’”

Link to Full Article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-13/news/chi-emanuel-not-inclined-to-go-back-to-free-water-for-nonprofit-groups-20121213_1_free-water-smaller-non-profits-water-conservation-plans

Many Chicago suburbs borrowing big — and taxpayers could end up paying the price (Chicago Tribune)

December 9, 2012 – Glenwood Mayor Kerry Durkin knows the dangers of gambling with taxpayer money: A reminder looms just across a bank of trees from Village Hall. Taxpayers in the south suburb have long had to subsidize a golf course that officials bought more than a decade ago. And to try to lessen the losses, the town recently doubled down, borrowing big again to build a new clubhouse. That borrowing — coupled with plummeting property values — pushed Glenwood into a growing list of Chicago-area cities and villages with debt levels once barred by state laws meant to safeguard taxpayers. Though much public attention has focused on soaring state and national debt, the increase in local IOUs has sparked worries that the next generation in some communities will face crushing tax hikes.

Link to Full Article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-09/news/ct-met-debt-rates-20121209_1_municipal-debt-property-values-taxpayer-money

Heartburn for Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial HealthCare (Crain’s Chicago Business)

December 3, 2012 – Northwestern Memorial HealthCare has suffered its first quarterly operating loss in at least four years, a nearly $24 million setback that reflects the dual challenge of flattening revenue and rising expenses faced by even the largest hospitals. Anchored by an 894-bed medical center in Streeterville, the two-hospital system lost $23.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, compared with operating income of $6.4 million a year earlier, according to new financial statements. Quarterly operating losses are rare for health care networks the size of Northwestern, with revenue of $1.70 billion in the year ended Aug. 31. Diverse revenue from hospital admissions, outpatient procedures and doctor’s office visits typically makes the biggest systems immune to short downturns.

Link to Full Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20121201/ISSUE01/312019978

As Mississippi River level drops, prices could rise (Chicago Sun Times)

December 3, 2012 – There’s a serious water shortage on two of America’s great rivers. The Missouri and Mississippi rivers are at the center of a drought-related bind that could further drive up food prices for shoppers and slow the delivery of bulk commodities like road salt and fuel in and out of Chicago. Already approaching historic lows, the Mississippi River is now dropping lower because it’s purposefully receiving less water from the Missouri River. This is part of a government-mandated process that aims to sustain water levels in the Missouri River basin, which stretches from Montana to St. Louis.

Link to Full Article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/16701695-420/as-mississippi-river-level-drops-prices-could-rise.html

Here’s why Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is in meltdown (Crain’s Chicago Business)

November 29, 2012 – Once again, Illinois lawmakers are kicking the can down the road this week on pension reform, failing to take up the subject in their fall veto session. “Wait until the lame-duck session in January,” we’re now being told. “We’ll tackle it then.” Maybe. If, for instance, all that recent buzz is right about Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan running for governor in 2014, her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, will have reason to get this subject out of the way as soon as possible. But I remain to be convinced that real action is afoot. And I got a true reminder of why a few days ago when Kevin Huber, the executive director of the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, came by to chat.

Link to Full Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20121129/BLOGS02/121129786/heres-why-chicago-teachers-pension-fund-is-in-meltdown