Case Analysis

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Land Banks for Troubled Property
April 9, 2012

Cook County Land Bank

Please go to: http://www.cookcountylandbank.org/ Introduction to the Cook County Land Bank Authority Brian C. White, Executive Director Cook County Land Bank Authority And for an example, please see: http://www.cookcountylandbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/re-RFP-for-deconstruction.pdf CCLBA is… • A unit of county government established by enabling ordinance in January 2013. • Comprised of a 16-member Board…
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Land Banks for Troubled PropertyMunicipal BK
April 9, 2012

Land Banks generally

Land Banks in Illinois Frequently Asked Questions and Background Information   Where do vacant properties come from? Thousands of vacant properties, mostly in municipalities, have no market – no one wants them. Individuals walk away from them, companies will not develop them, and banks may or may not foreclose on…
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Municipal BK
March 8, 2012

Municipal Compacts, Extraterritorial Agreements

Municipalities and other governmental entities must make arrangements with other municipalities and governmental entities for purposes of infrastructure, capital projects, shared financing and other creative and not-so-creative ideas. What to do? ...    
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Unions
January 22, 2012

Unions Have Rope to Hang Themselves

The requirements that companies only follow union rules to accomplish a task are the "ropes" by which unions will hang themselves. Excessive costs due to union rules can cause a paradox effect that leads to innovations that eliminate the need for union workers. Vladimir Lenin said, "The Capitalists will sell…
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Pension Reform
December 29, 2011

Pension Fund Reform

Public and Corporate pension funds have gone berserk. Pension Fund Reform hopefully is imminent. The outlay of public funds by public bodies to their public employee constituency no longer uses actuarial criteria; rather, cronyism, nepotism and cultism has replaced financial methodology. Pension Fund Reform is resisted by legislators, in part due…
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Municipal/Local Government Debt
November 20, 2011

Muni Bond Insurance

  Muni bond issuers may seek to procure bond insurance to improve the credit rating of the issue and to lower the cost of the bond interest payable. Bond rating companies look to the value and credit of the bond insurance company rather than the underlying credit of the issuer.…
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Municipal BK
October 21, 2011

CHOICE OF MUNICIPAL INSOLVENCY: BK OR ???

  … federal bankruptcy legislation did not include a means of handling municipal insolvency and debt adjustment prior to 1934.  During the Great Depression, however, there was widespread nonpayment of property taxes, which municipalities depended upon to fund government services.  (It would probably be useful here to describe how different…
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Municipal/Local Government Debt
September 22, 2011

Muni Bonds – Two Kinds Usually

Municipalities and Special Districts issue bonds to finance civic oriented projects ranging from municipal parking lots, hospitals, water and sewer facilities, aviation, recreation facilities, and many more ideas, both good and farfetched, that citizens want or politicians think they can promote in hopes to have a building named after them.…
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"Trickle-Down" Insolvency
August 18, 2011

Local government portends more “trickle-down” insolvencies.

The more municipalities go broke, the more the rest of the community will suffer "trickle-down" insolvencies. Falling property values means falling tax revenues. Municipalities and special districts are buckling under the pressure. As different communities have different needs, each provides for the variety of such needs, and each receives its money on…
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Investment talk
July 18, 2011

Who’s Liable for Fraudulent Investment Remarks?

If you repeat someone else's bogus investment statement, you may be foolish, but you are not liable for the bogusness. The Supreme Court in Janus Capital Group, Inc. v First Derivative Traders, 131 S.Ct. 2296, 2299 (2011) held that an investment advisor was not liable for fraudulent statements made in…
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