Tuesday, March 19, 2013
State Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) backs Annette Lidawer for Township High School District 113 Board of Education.
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Tuesday, March 19
I am writing this letter in support of Annette Lidawer’s re-election to the District 113 School Board. I have had the pleasure of knowing Annette over these past years through her work in the community. Having seen her desire to grapple with the pension issue, I am particularly interested in her continuing to serve. Our State legislature is in dire need of local elected officials who will work with us to tackle this problem. I say this as a leading advocate for pension reform in the Illinois legislature. Specifically, Annette has served as an active advocate for the schools. She has: · Introduced cutting edge technologies to the school environment · Implemented standardized teacher review · Helped design the new …
Monday, December 10, 2012
Proposed shift of pension liability from state to local school districts could mean bigger class sizes and less financial stability for Highland Park and Deerfield schools.
Pension reform legislation that would shift responsibility for teacher retirement from the state to individual school districts was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly last week with the potential to drastically change schools in Deerfield and Highland Park. Authored by state Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) and state Rep. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston), the proposed bill does a number of things to help ease the unfunded portions of pensions for a number of public employees including teachers. Earlier: Nekritz, Biss Introduce Sweeping Pension Reform Bill Though most of the provisions affect the state as a whole, shifting the burden of teacher pensions from the state to individual school districts will put an added though not unexpected…
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Possible changes to the current Illinois pension system, as proposed by the bill, include shifting teacher pension obligations onto school districts, raising the retirement age and capping cost of living adjustments.
In an effort to curb the state's budget woes without bailing on current Illinois public sector pension obligations, a press release announced Illinois lawmakers Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) and Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) introduced House Bill 6258 in Springfield today. "The pension debate has featured too much finger-pointing and progress has been disappointingly slow," Biss said in the release. "This bill contains ideas drawn from business, labor, and civic groups as well as our colleagues in the General Assembly. We believe that it is a roadmap for solving this problem in January..." Changes to the state's public employee pension policy, as proposed by the bill inlclude: “Daniel and I understand this is a difficult issue for all of us, …
Monday, January 9, 2012
Moody’s devalues Illinois debt rating to lowest among all 50 states. Biss and Nekritz also voice concerns.
Local elected officials reacted with criticism and others with potential solutions when Moody’s downgraded Illinois’ debt to A2 from A1 Friday, making an investment in the state’s bonds potentially the riskiest of all 50 states’ securities. Illinois had been tied with California at the bottom of the list, according to the Bloomberg News Service, until Friday’s action put it alone at the bottom. State Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest), who is retiring at the end of her term in a year, called for the entire Illinois General Assembly to work together to do something about getting the rating higher again. “This is somber news and a very great challenge for Illinois,’ Garrett said. “We’ve come to a crossroads and must find a solution in a …
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Seventeen of 23 election contests will have primaries.
Campaigns for the March 20 Illinois primary and Nov. 6 general elections started to come into clear view today after the deadline passed Monday to land a space in the ballot for all races except United States Congress. Of the 23 campaigns in the North Suburban Patch reading area, candidates will square off in primaries in 17 of those races for either the Democratic or Republican nomination. In three cases, primaries will take place between members of both parties. In the contests for six offices, either the Republican or Democrat has no opponent however party leaders can still choose a nominee. “We have a lot of outstanding candidates,” 10th Congressional District Committeewoman and Moraine Township Democratic Chair Lauren Beth Gash of …
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Task force of municipal officials drafts white paper for state senator to turn into legislation.
When state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) called a meeting in July to bring municipal officials and ComEd executives together to resolve some of the problems arising from severe summer storms, Glenview Village Manager Todd Hileman asked to attend. Little did Hileman know he would be volunteering to head a task force examining ComEd's response to outages. On Tuesday, he and others presented the results of their work during a news conference sponsored by the Northwest Municipal Conference in Chicago: a white paper that Garrett hopes to turn into legislation to hold ComEd accountable for its actions. More storms, more problems Hileman served on a similar task force three years ago after an earlier series of storms and thought some …
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Senator says mounting federal debt could hurt northern suburbs.
Towns, school districts and park boards have a higher cost of doing business because of Illinois’s deepening debt, according to the Report on Illinois Debt released Tuesday by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Highland Park). Kirk appeared with two members of his debt advisory panel, Ron Bernardi of Lake Forest and Henry Feinberg of Chicago, to ask state government to improve the situation during a news conference Tuesday, with the intention of making the business climate in Illinois as appealing as climates found in neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin. “With the pantomime of governors of other states luring business away from Illinois, we have to do something to keep business here” Kirk said. “We are the fifth largest manufacturing state and …
Monday, September 26, 2011
Senator mentored state senator during her first campaign.
If it had not been for the encouragement of Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Springfield), state Sen. Susan Garrett's (D-Lake Forest) political career may never have been. The account of Durbin’s efforts for Garrett was just one of the stories told about the retiring state senator when she received the Ab Mikva Political Courage Award from the Tenth Congressional District Democrats (Tenth Dems) last Sunday at the Highland Park Country Club. “He really mentored me,” Garrett said of her first campaign for the Illinois General Assembly in 1998. Durbin was one of more than 250 people at the Tenth Dems annual fall event. In addition to honoring Garrett, the gathering rallied local Democrats as campaign activities for the March 20 primary and the …
Supporters press representatives on efforts to create jobs.
Job creation was the topic foremost on people’s minds as they gathered to help candidates of their choice for Congress and other offices circulate nominating petitions due Dec. 5 for the March 20 primary ballot Saturday throughout the area. At the Wheeling and Palatine Township Democratic Organization Office in Arlington Heights, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) told an overflowing crowd of more than 60 people that supporting the efforts to pass President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act was her top priority. “If we want to create jobs then we create jobs. That is what the President is doing with his bill,” Schakowsky said. “When you put money in schools you have to hire people to do the work. They go out and spend the money." Finding …
Friday, September 16, 2011
When legislator joined leadership team the biggest beneficiaries were her constituents.
When state Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) became an unofficial part of the majority leadership in the General Assembly in January, her constituents became the winners. “When you’re in the room you have a louder voice,” Nekritz told a group of more than 60 supporters as she kicked off her reelection campaign Thursday at a Glenview restaurant. “I spend an extra day a week [in Springfield] and I represent all of you a little more directly.” When the current term of the legislature began, Nekritz became one of six representatives to regularly meet with Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) to review pending legislation and help make decisions on what bills to move forward. “We’re involved in all policy decisions in a meaningful way,” …
Daniel
10:10 am on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
I agree, Annette is hard working, smart and knows the issues. more ›