Saturday, October 17, 2015

Most Americans have less than $1,000 in savings - MarketWatch

 

Americans are living right on the edge — at least when it comes to financial planning.

Approximately 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts and 21% don’t even have a savings account, according to a new survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted this month by Google Consumer Survey for personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. “It’s worrisome that such a large percentage of Americans have so little set aside in a savings account,” says Cameron Huddleston, a personal finance analyst for the site. “They likely don’t have cash reserves to cover an emergency and will have to rely on credit, friends and family, or even their retirement accounts to cover unexpected expenses.”

This is supported by a similar survey of 1,000 adults carried out earlier this year by personal finance site Bankrate.com, which also found that 62% of Americans have no emergency savings for things such as a $1,000 emergency room visit or a $500 car repair. Faced with an emergency, they say they would raise the money by reducing spending elsewhere (26%), borrowing from family and/or friends (16%) or using credit cards (12%). And among those who had savings prior to 2008, 57% said they’d used some or all of their savings in the Great Recession, according to a U.S. Federal Reserve survey of over 4,000 adults released last year. Of course, paltry savings-account rates don’t encourage people to save either.

Read: 5 reasons Americans are not saving money

Most Americans have less than $1,000 in savings - MarketWatch

Koch Brothers Tentacles Reach Out to Squelch Albuquerque BRT | Streetsblog USA

 

Koch Brothers Tentacles Reach Out to Squelch Albuquerque BRT

by Angie Schmitt

Albuquerque has a plan for bus rapid transit. But is it getting a fair hearing? Photo: City of Albuquerque

Albuquerque has a plan for bus rapid transit, and there’s a hired gun out to kill it. Photo: City of Albuquerque

Albuquerque, like many cities, is looking at bus rapid transit as a cost-effective way to improve mobility and create a more walkable city. Its BRT plan calls for frequent service on a center-running bus lane along Central Avenue, the city’s busiest bus route, which passes through the heart of downtown.

The city has applied for funding from the Federal Transit Administration’s Small Smarts program. With $80 million in federal funds matched by $20 million in local funds, service could begin in 2017.

But the local conversation about the project has been hijacked by outside groups with an anti-transit agenda. The most outspoken critics are a couple of men with financial ties to — are you ready? — the Koch brothers, fitting a pattern recently seen in Nashville, Boston, and a lot of other places.

The first is Paul Gessing from the Rio Grande Foundation, the group leading organized opposition to the project. The Rio Grande Foundation is part of the State Policy Network, which the Center for Media and Democracy describes as “mini-Heritage Foundations” that are “major drivers of the right-wing, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.”

Naturally, the Rio Grande Foundation trotted out professional transit basher Randall O’Toole — of the Koch-backed Cato Institute — who tweaked his anti-rail road show in this case to criticize the bus plan.

Randal O'Toole of the Koch Brothers' funded Cato Institute is trotting out the same old arguments against Albuquerque bus rapid transit. Photo: Cato

Randal O’Toole of the Cato Institute is trotting out the same old arguments against Albuquerque bus rapid transit. Photo: Cato

In the Albuquerque Journal, O’Toole said “transit will never be important in Albuquerque because Albuquerque jobs and residences are too spread out,” pointing out that only 1.75 percent of the city uses transit to get to work. (This actually sounds like a great argument for improving bus service as a means to make the city more walkable and draw more riders, but we digress). The city pointed out in its rebuttal that about 5 to 9 percent of the people living around the project rely on transit. The three bus routes serving the corridor carry about 10,000 passengers a day, or 44 percent of system ridership. Buses are frequently overcrowded and delayed during peak hours.

Despite the cartoonishness of O’Toole’s arguments, he and Gussing are dominating the debate right now, says Dan Majewski of Urban ABQ, which represents downtown residents. A group of business owners along the corridor concerned with the removal of parking spaces and the disruption caused by construction are now aligning with the Rio Grande Foundation.

“What are the legitimate concerns of the small businesses and what are the basically anti-transit concerns that are coming from outside the city?” Majewski said. “It’s really hard to distinguish what is what.”

City of Albuquerque

A busway on Central Avenue would also reduce speeding and add much-needed pedestrian islands. City of Albuquerque [PDF]

Even members of Urban ABQ have some concerns about the proposal, Majewski said. But they think the pros and cons should be discussed in an atmosphere that’s not tainted by O’Toole’s brand of propaganda.

The project is modeled after successful bus rapid transit projects like Cleveland’s Healthline, which has been credited with spurring billions of dollars in development along its route. Majewski said one of the more attractive elements of the project is that it will result in a road diet on Central, which is the most dangerous street for pedestrians in Albuquerque (which is one of the most dangerous cities for walking in the country).

Writing in the Albuquerque Journal, columnist Winthrop Quigley touched on a larger issue: the need to rethink transportation in the city and create spaces in Albuquerque that bring people together:

Our city is a collection of mostly nondescript subdivisions connected by monotonous commercial strips, a concrete desert of very wide streets and hectares of parking lots. Officials like Mayor Richard J. Berry and Councilor Isaac Benton hope to capitalize on some of our distinctive neighborhoods to create an urban environment that will attract the people who will help create our city’s next economy.

It would be a shame if the discussion Albuquerque residents want to have about their future gets drowned out by hired guns from out of town.

Koch Brothers Tentacles Reach Out to Squelch Albuquerque BRT | Streetsblog USA

Rauner, L. Madigan lawyers duel in letters – Illinois News Network

 

SPRINGFIELD — Top lawyers for Illinois’ Republican governor and Democratic attorney general are in a dustup over the governor’s office filing a “friend of the court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s solicitor general says Gov. Bruce Rauner’s staff lawyers stepped out of line when they filed an amicus curiae brief in a case now before the court, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

Rauner’s lawyers say Madigan’s office is wrong on several fronts.

The Friedrichs case is of nationwide interest to unions and right-to-work advocates, among others.

Rebecca Friedrichs and nine other California teachers who are not union members object to paying what are known as “agency fees” or “fair-share” dues.

They argue that being forced to pay dues, even those said to be directed only toward bargaining and contract administration, is a violation of their First Amendment rights of free speech and free association.

The high court announced in June it would hear the case this term, which began earlier this month. A decision is not expected until summer 2016.

On Sept. 25, Illinois Solicitor General Carolyn Shapiro wrote to Scott Harris, clerk of the court, to inform him of an “unauthorized” filing of an amicus curiae or “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Rauner in support of Friedrichs’ position.

The governor’s attorneys, Jason Barclay and Dennis Murashko, lack the authority to file such a brief, Shapiro argued.

Those attorneys “have no authority to file or order the filing of any brief in this court on behalf of the governor, in his official capacity, because neither the governor nor his attorneys have the authority, as a matter of state law, to represent the state or its officials in any court or to determine the state’s litigation positions,” Shapiro wrote.

“The Illinois Constitution provides: ‘The attorney general shall be the legal officer of the state,’” Shapiro wrote.

She cited the Illinois Attorney General Act which states, among other things, the attorney general has the power to “appear for and represent the people of the state before the Supreme Court in all cases in which the state or the people of the state are interested.”

She said the Illinois Supreme Court has, for at least a century, delegated the state’s legal representation to the attorney general.

For example, she cited the case of Fergus v. Russel, in which the Illinois Supreme Court held the attorney general “is the sole official adviser of the executive officers … and it is his duty to conduct the law business of the state, both in and out of the courts.”

She also cited the case of Scachitti v. UBS Financial services, in which the court said, “the attorney general is the chief legal officer of the state and its only representative in the courts.”

Shapiro contends “Mr. Barclay and Mr. Murashko are well aware that they do not have authority to file or authorize the filing of court documents on behalf of of the governor in his official capacity absent appointment by the attorney general as special assistant attorneys general.”

Barclay and Murashko wrote their own Oct. 1 letter to the clerk of the court and argued the solicitor general is off the mark.

The governor’s lawyers say Illinois is not and never has been a party to the Friedrichs case and the governor’s office isn’t trying to change that, but only filing an amicus or “friend” brief — which they argue Rauner has every right to do.

And they say the governor clearly and within court rules filed only in his individual capacity and alongside several individual employees of the Kaneland, Illinois, Unified School District No. 302.

“The governor never represented that he filed the brief on behalf of the state of Illinois, the attorney general of Illinois, or any other elected official in Illinois,” the governor’s attorneys wrote.

Finally, they say the governor and attorney general have been at odds in both state and federal cases and remain so in a state case concerning a Rauner executive order addressing First Amendment issues similar, if not identical, to matters at issue in the Friedrichs case.

When the attorney general is in conflict with another state executive official, such as the governor, the courts have held “attorney general must yield to the other official’s choice of counsel,” Barclay and Murashko wrote, citing the case of Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education v. Cook County Board.

The governor’s lawyers conclude the “attorney general is, of course, free to file her own amicus brief in support of respondents in Friedrichs. She may yet do so. She may do so on behalf of her own office or on behalf of the state. But the attorney general cannot infringe on the governor’s ability to speak to this court, especially when…the governor and the attorney general are adversaries in active litigation on the same issue in Illinois.”

To date, nothing has become of the disagreement.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said the letters are part of the case file and docket notes distributed to the justices. Should the court have any response, it will be noted on the docket, she said in an email.

Neither Rauner’s nor Madigan’s press secretaries had any comment Friday.

Rauner, L. Madigan lawyers duel in letters – Illinois News Network

Gov. Bruce Rauner Releases Tax Returns - Story | Central Illinois, Peoria, Bloomington, Normal, Pekin | CIProud | WMBD-TV, WYZZ-TV and Boune TV

 

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released his 2014 tax returns Friday. Below is the breakdown sent from the Governor's Press Office:

Gov. Rauner Releases 2014 Tax Returns

SPRINGFIELD – Governor Bruce Rauner released his 2014 federal and state 1040’s, reflecting income and tax rates, while detailing the Rauner family’s  charitable and community giving last year.

Last year, the Rauners paid more than $18 million in federal and state taxes on income of $58.3 million for a total effective tax rate on income of more than 31%. Their federal effective tax rate on income exceeded 26%.

In addition, the Rauners and their family foundation made charitable contributions totaling more than $3.3 million.

Rauner 2014 Tax Summary:

Income on Federal Return: $58.3 million

Adjusted Gross Income on Federal Return: $57.5 million

Federal Income Taxes Paid: $15.2 million

Federal Effective Tax Rate on Income: 26.1%

Federal Effective Tax Rate on Adjusted Gross Income: 26.4%

Illinois Net Income on State Return: $58.7 million

Illinois Income Taxes Paid: $2.8 million

Gov. Bruce Rauner Releases Tax Returns - Story | Central Illinois, Peoria, Bloomington, Normal, Pekin | CIProud | WMBD-TV, WYZZ-TV and Boune TV

Chicago Woes Could End State Budget Crisis - Wandtv.com, NewsCenter17, StormCenter17, Central Illinois News-

 

Decatur – Chicago’s financial woes could bring an end to the state budget stalemate.

Governor Bruce Rauner told WAND’s Doug Wolfe while visiting Decatur Friday the problems faced by Chicago could provide the leverage needed to get the legislature to finally agree to a deal.  The state has been without a budget since July 1st.

“I’m cautiously optimistic because of Chicago’s financial challenges,” Rauner stated.  “They need help in December.  That maybe in December of January maybe there will be some incentive to compromise and we’ll get something done.”

Rauner cited Chicago’s inability to handle its pension liabilities.

“They don’t have the money to pay their police and fire pensions fully in December, he said.”

The Macon County Health Department expressed concern over the budget stalemate saying they had to layoff employees recently due to a lack of money.

Chicago Woes Could End State Budget Crisis - Wandtv.com, NewsCenter17, StormCenter17, Central Illinois News-