Register to vote:  Now until February 21st.  An application can be downloaded from the web site below.

Mail Ballots that replaces the absentee ballot:  February 9 through March 15th

You may download an application or call 312-603-0946. Remember you must indicate your party preference.

Grace period for voter registration: February 22 – March 13th

Only available at Cook County Clerk offices located downtown Chicago and Rolling Meadows courthouse  Room 238.

Early voting:   February 27 through March 15 designated locations details yet to be posted

For further details go to www.voterinfonet.com

Interested in being an election judges:  Call 312-269-7984 or apply online.

These are NOT HanDI’s Endorsements

- – - – -

Cook County Democratic Party endorses Candidates on October 6, 2011

for 2012 Primary Election on March 20, 2011

Cook County Budget Deficit:

New Site Asks Residents How They Would Fix Budget Shortfall

The Huffington Post   Lizzie Schiffman   First Posted: 8/9/11 12:58 PM ET Updated: 8/9/11 02:13 PM ET

How would you fix Cook County’s $315 million budget shortfall? An interactive “Budget” section launched Tuesday on the Cook County government website lets residents take the county’s $3.1 billion budget into their own hands by adjusting current revenue and expenditure allocations to tweak the deficit total.

For example, by sliding the “government funding” bar down to half its current size and tripling the sales tax, the budget would be fixed! With the “Tell Toni” page, one can submit those suggestions to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who will review them before the preliminary budget hearing August 25.

Read the complete article here

This shock caused us to reflect outside of ourselves, outside of USA.  We were slapped into looking at this world in a different way followed by our response.

We are here this weekend at Camp Wellstone because we believe in positive change through peaceful action.  In the words of Senator Wellstone, “Politics is not just about power and money games. Politics can be about the improvement of people’s lives, about lessening human suffering in our world and bringing about more peace and more justice.”

On 9-11, the arc of the moral universe took as sharp turn.

Being here today is slowly correcting that sharp turn by bending that arc back towards justice.

To continue this bend toward justice let focus on the love.  The loving messages and conversations left by the 9-11 victims with their family.  At this time, we will observe a moment of silence that builds on that love.

The bell will sound 5 times:

• For the World Trade Center’s North Tower (1 WTC) and American Airlines Flight 11
• For the World Trade Center’s South Tower (2 WTC) and United Airlines Flight 175
• For the Pentagon and American Airlines Flight 77
• For the United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville PA where many lives were saved due to their heroism
• For the first responders of WTC lost during on 9-11 and the recovery teams working at the WTC that we continue to lose today.

CLOSING of Camp Wellstone on 9/11/2011 – Schaumburg, Illinois.

Hundreds of rescuers died alongside the people they had heroically attempted to save.  Their mission – to save lives. They understood humanity and the sacrifice to save the humanity.  Let’s take that message to Congress.  They must execute the courage that the first responders had on 9-11.  They need to serve and stand up for humanity and for what is right for this country; not for their political career.

For the first time Cook County is reporting on how it performs. The Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance in February 2011 requiring all agencies to provide quarterly reports on their performance. The STAR Report will come out every three months to tell you how well Cook County is doing, to point out where we have room to improve, and to invite you to share your ideas on how to run your county better. This report is the first that will present the facts, pretty or not.

Offices have worked since early 2011 on setting STAR goals—goals that matter to residents—and figuring out how to measure them. They were supported and trained by pro bono partners from our local business community. STAR data will set the context for the 2012 budget. In future years, STAR will help the Board and the public use data to consider budget trade-offs, directing your tax dollars wisely to achieve the results you expect.

Many businesses, the Federal government, and counties everywhere, from Harris County in Texas to Lake County Courts in Illinois already use performance management. They have reduced wait time for emergency services, reduced costs, and provided better budget information among many other improvements.

Cook County will see similar improvements thanks to the support of our employees, who are crucial to the success of STAR. Our labor partners reviewed the measures and provided more ideas, which are reflected in this report.
The STAR program consists of a few basic steps: state your goal, figure out how to measure it, report the facts, and use data to make decisions.

Check out the first quarterly reports.

Here are a few excerpts from the written summary of Corporate Income Tax Expenditure Testimony to the Joint House and Senate Revenue Committee.  The complete 6 page testimony presented by Matire is available here.

Tax breaks offered to businesses are appropriately called “Tax Expenditures”—because in effect government is spending public taxpayer money indirectly through the tax code to produce a public good or service.

In the case of a corporate tax expenditure, government allows a private sector taxpayer to retain tax revenue which that corporation otherwise would have had to pay, in exchange for that taxpayer funding delivery of a public good.

The public good that private businesses are to fund in exchange for receiving a tax expenditure is most commonly economic development in the form of job creation.

From the trough of the Great Recession (2nd quarter of 2009) through the first quarter of 2011:
(i) corporate profits are up 49.6%, the Dow Jones is up 45.8% and the S&P 500 is up 44.3%; while
(ii) median weekly earnings of full-time employees are down 1.0% and total civilian employment is down 0.5%.
• To summarize, from the lowest point of the Great Recession through the end of March 2011, corporate profits have increased significantly, accounting for 92 percent of all national income growth, but that has not lead to job creation, with total civilian employment 0.5% less on March 31, 2011, than at the worst point of the Great Recession.

• Zandi developed a simple metric for determining how certain tax breaks and/or public expenditures create an economic multiplier as they move through a state’s economy, using actual historic datasets.
• An economic multiplier, defined by economics textbooks such as Dornbusch and Fischer’s Macroeconomics, is “the amount by which output changes when autonomous aggregate demand increases by one unit.” OK, what does that mean? The definition may sound arcane, but what happens is very straightforward. Say state government invests in a new road or in bridge construction. State government initially stimulates the economy by making a direct payment to contractors, construction workers, etc. for work and economic activity that otherwise would not take place. As these individuals then spend some of the money they earn from the state on other purchases in the economy, such as food, clothing or car repairs, a portion of the initial state investment made on construction becomes additional purchases in other sectors. One person’s spending becomes another individual’s income, who in turn spends that income again on other purchases in the local economy, and so on.
• Zandi modeled how this multiplier effect works for different types of fiscal practices (spending increases and tax cuts), as detailed in Figure 3.

Figure 3 illustrates, the largest economic ‘bang for the buck’ is available here.

Is a given tax expenditure the most efficient/best use of public taxpayer revenue, or would it be better to collect what would have been forgone in revenue and spend it on provision of direct services?
• Making this determination involves a number of specific inquiries, . . .

CTBA recommendations is available here.

The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR)

ICPR is a non-partisan public interest group that conducts research and advocates reforms to promote public participation in government, address the role of money in politics and encourage integrity, accountability, and transparency in government.

ICPR is Illinois’ leading advocate in the areas of campaign finance, government ethics, judicial selection, and voter education. ICPR has worked hard to maintain a bipartisan dialogue on how best to improve the processes of government and elections. ICPR was the first group in the nation to put state-level campaign finance reports into a searchable, on-line database. The group is frequently acknowledged by Illinois, national, and international media as key resource for Illinois politics and government.

ICPR was founded by former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon and former Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra. Sen. Simon passed away in December, 2003.

Better Government Association (BGA)

BGA works for integrity, transparency, and accountability in government by exposing corruption and inefficiency; identifying and advocating effective public policy; and engaging and mobilizing the electorate to achieve authentic and responsible reform.

VoteforJudges.org  (VfJ)

VfJ is a non-partisan group, supported by many non-profit organizations to provide voter education for the upcoming judicial elections.

In Illinois, judges are elected.  This includes the Illinois Supreme Court, Illinois Appellate Court and Illinois Circuit and Sub-Circuit Court.  Cook County is in the Cook Circuit.  Other Illinois counties are within a numeric circuit court.

There are ten bar associations and organizations that evaluate judges seeking retention in Cook County to determine whether or not he or she is qualified to remain on the bench that are summarized on their website where you can become better informed about the people running for judge.

By voting for qualified judges, you can help protect our courts.

Click here to register now

HanDI and our local partner organizations are thrilled to announce that registration is now open for Camp Wellstone, the three-day progressive training camp to be held right here in suburban Chicago!

Check here for the Camp Wellstone 2011 flyer.

- Electoral Campaigns: Tools and Tactics for Success

- Citizen Activism: Grassroots Advocacy and Organizing

- Being a Candidate: How to Run and Win a Progressive Campaign

Much more information about the Camp Wellstone curriculum is available on their website.

Enrollment is limited:  sign up today!

HanDI is seeking partners to help publicize Camp Wellstone-Schaumburg and recruit attendees for the event. If you represent a local group and are interested in getting involved, please contact us at the email or phone number below.

Questions: hanovertdi@gmail.com, 630-213-3325