Author: Mary Pat Campbell

HOW VOLTAIRE MADE A FORTUNE RIGGING THE LOTTERY

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/05/how-voiltaire-made-a-fortune-rigging-the-lottery/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

During the early part of the eighteenth century, the French government issued a series of bonds to help raise money.  With the decline of the French economy in the 1720s, they were forced to cut the interest rates on the bonds, which drastically diminished the market value of said bonds.  This resulted in the French government having considerable difficulty in raising money via new bond sales.

One Michel Robert Le Pelletier-Desforts, Deputy Finance Minister for France, had a “brilliant” idea as to how to raise the value of existing bonds, encourage the sale of new bonds, and earn some money for the government- a trifecta. His idea was to allow bond owners to buy a lottery ticket linked to the value of their bonds (each ticket costing 1/1000th of the bond’s value). The winner would get the face value of their bond, which was more than what they could get on the market at this point, plus a ‘jackpot’ of 500,000 livres, which would make the winner instantly wealthy.

…..

Unfortunately for the government, and fortunate for those of you who enjoy Voltaire’s work, the mathematics behind this new government fundraising scheme was fundamentally flawed.  You see, if you owned a bond worth a relatively small amount, with the lotto ticket for the bond costing just 1/1000th of the value, you could buy the lotto tickets cheaply, yet your lotto ticket had just as much of a chance of winning as someone who owned a bond for, say, 100,000 livres and had to buy their ticket for 100 livres.

Thus, when La Condamine crunched the numbers, he realized that if he was able to buy up a certain percentage of the existing small bonds, he could then acquire the necessary entrees in the lotto to reasonably ensure he’d win, all while spending significantly less than the jackpot and also making a profit on the bonds themselves when he ultimately won and the government had to pay face value for them.

Author(s): Andy Williamson

Publication Date: 16 May 2013

Publication Site: Today I Found Out

Push Is On for States to Ban Organ Transplant Discrimination

Mary Pat Campbell
Push Is On for States to Ban Organ Transplant Discrimination

Excerpt:

Denying organ transplants to people with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities like Down syndrome or autism is common in the United States, even though it is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

According to one widely cited 2008 study, 44% of organ transplant centers said they would not add a child with some level of neurodevelopmental disability to the organ transplant list. Eighty-five percent might consider the disability as a factor in deciding whether to list the person.

Author(s): Sara Reardon

Publication Date: 8 March 2021

Publication Site: Kaiser Health News

U.S. Set to Power Global Economic Recovery From Covid-19

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-set-to-power-global-economic-recovery-from-covid-19-11615129203?mod=djemwhatsnews

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The world economy is likely to grow by around 6% this year, according to Oxford Economics, the fastest rate in almost half a century, as vaccine campaigns allow pandemic restrictions to be lifted and businesses to snap back.

For the first time since 2005, the U.S. is expected this year to make a bigger contribution to global growth than China, said the research firm. After the 2008 financial crisis, the global economic recovery was powered by China, as the U.S. experienced the weakest revival since the Great Depression.

Author(s): Tom Fairless

Publication Date: 7 March 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal

Rescue Package Includes $86 Billion Bailout for Failing Pensions

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/business/dealbook/bailout-pensions-stimulus.html

Excerpt:

Both the House and Senate stimulus measures would give the weakest plans enough money to pay hundreds of thousands of retirees — a number that will grow in the future — their full pensions for the next 30 years. The provision does not require the plans to pay back the bailout, freeze accruals or to end the practices that led to their current distress, which means their troubles could recur. Nor does it explain what will happen when the taxpayer money runs out 30 years from now.

Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio who has been leading the charge to rescue the ailing pension plans, said that including the provision in the relief bill is a “really big deal” for both the retirees who depend on the money and the employers now being crushed by promises they cannot afford to keep.

Author(s): Mary Williams Walsh and Alan Rappeport

Publication Date: 7 March 2021

Publication Site: New York Times

Pandemic’s Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccine Rollout

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/05/us/vaccine-racial-disparities.html

Graphics:

Excerpt:

As of March 3, 38 states publicly shared race and ethnicity data for vaccinated people. The jurisdictions define race and ethnicity categories in slightly different ways, and with different levels of completeness — in some states as much as a third of vaccinations are missing race and ethnicity data.

Public health experts have said that despite these data limitations, the patterns emerging across states are clear.

“People of color are getting vaccinated at rates below their representation of the general population,” Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the chair of President Biden’s coronavirus equity task force, said at a recent forum on the vaccine. “This narrative can be changed. It must be changed.”

Author(s): Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Anjali Singhvi, Josh Holder, Robert Gebeloff, Yuriria Avila

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: New York Times

Durbin, Duckworth Announce Illinois Wins In COVID-19 Relief Bill

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-duckworth-announce-illinois-wins-in-covid-19-relief-bill#new_tab

Excerpt:

U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today released the following statements after the Senate passed President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which will provide emergency relief to Illinois:

…..

To avoid dramatic budget cuts at every level of government:

Estimated $13.2 billion in state and local funding for Illinois including $1.8 billion for Chicago.

The bill provides an estimated $7.5 billion for the state and $5.5 billion for Illinois locals ($2.3 billion for counties; $2.4 billion for larger cities; $681 million for smaller municipalities).

…..

Multiemployer Pension Relief: 

By prolonging the solvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), more than 100,000 Illinoisans will have their hard-earned pension benefits preserved 

Author(s): Dick Durbin, Tammy Duckworth

Publication Date: 6 March 2021

Publication Site: Dick Durbin’s Senate Office

STATE AND LOCAL CORONAVIRUS FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.naco.org/resources/featured/state-and-local-coronavirus-fiscal-recovery-funds

Excerpt:

In a major victory for America’s counties, the State and Local Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Funds legislation, part of the American Rescue Plan Act was passed by the U.S. Senate on March 6. The bill, which now heads back to the U.S. House of Representatives for final consideration, includes $65.1 billion in direct, flexible aid to every county in America, as well as other crucial investments in local communities.  

The Senate version amends the House-adopted bill in several important ways:

The U.S. Department of Treasury would still oversee and administer these payments to state and local governments, and every county would be eligible to receive a direct allocation from Treasury. States, municipalities, and counties would now receive funds in two tranches – both tranches would provide 50 percent of the entity’s total allocation. In cases where a state has a very high level of unemployed individuals, these states may receive both tranches at the same time.
 

In order to receive a payment either under the first or second tranche, local governments must provide the U.S. Treasury with a certification signed by an authorized officer. The U.S. Treasury is required to pay first tranche to counties not later than 60-days after enactment, and second payment no earlier than 12 months after the first payment.

The table below contains projected allocations for counties from the U.S. Treasury, if the proposal is signed into law. The values are informed by the House Oversight Committee and the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The estimates are not official values from the U.S. Treasury and are subject to change.

Date Accessed: 7 March 2021

Publication Site: National Association of Counties

Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2020

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2020/home.htm

Excerpt:

Age. Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented just under one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up 48 percent of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, about 5 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with 1 percent of workers age 25 and older. (See tables 1 and 7.)

Publication Date: February 2021

Publication Site: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Proposed bill would end Illinois lawmaker pensions

Mary Pat Campbell
Proposed bill would end Illinois lawmaker pensions

Excerpt:

Rockford state Rep. Dave Vella (D) has filed a bill which would prohibit future legislators from receiving a taxpayer funded pension when they leave office.

Vella also announced his decision to refuse a pension.

“We need to make sure we are not wasting resources to fund unnecessary perks for politicians,” said Vella. “As our state continues to face financial problems, we should not be adding new financial burdens by promising to pay for the retirements of career politicians.”

Author(s): WTVO

Publication Date: 3 March 2021

Publication Site: MyStateline.com

Peter Meijer Proposes $2,400 Stimulus Checks under ‘DOGE’ Plan

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.newsweek.com/peter-meijer-stimulus-package-doge-biden-michigan-1573963

Excerpt:

Republican congressman Peter Meijer has said that the American Rescue Plan is full of waste and has touted his own proposal to cut the price tag of the stimulus package in half while increasing payments to individuals.

The Michigan freshman representative has been pushing his own alternative to the $1.9.trillion relief package with his alternative Direct Dollars Over Government Excess, called the $DOGE Plan.

He told Fox Business that his proposal, whose title is a nod to the meme turned cryptocurrency, would put more money in the pockets of Americans and give less to individual states.

Author(s): Brendan Cole

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: Newsweek

GOP says ‘no’ to state and local aid as Senate heads toward vote on COVID bill

Mary Pat Campbell
GOP says ‘no’ to state and local aid as Senate heads toward vote on COVID bill

Excerpt:

Supporters of the bill — including numerous Republican mayors — say the answer is a clear “yes.” They argue that a number of states, particularly those that rely on service industries and tourism, have seen steep revenue declines, and local governments are facing deeper financial strains as they struggle to expand services with fewer employees.

“Many of our cities have furloughed workers, shrunk their workforce through attrition, cancelled police and fire recruitment efforts, and frozen capital budgets that build community infrastructure — all while absorbing additional expenses to respond to COVID, delivering essential services and reaching out to our communities that have been disproportionately affected,” a bipartisan group of Ohio mayors wrote to federal lawmakers last month.

But congressional Republicans, who also opposed including more state and local aid in the coronavirus stimulus bill approved in December, largely have been unpersuaded. They point to data showing some states outpacing their revenue projections, and argue that sending more financial help to states would unfairly reward those that locked down their economies instead of lifting restrictions on businesses.

Author(s): Laura Olson

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: NC Policy Watch

With Congress poised to give states and local governments $350 billion, pandemic budget hit for many was smaller than predicted

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/05/politics/state-budgets-covid-relief-package/index.html

Excerpt:

“If the point of the stimulus bill is to just prevent state and local governments from having to cut back on spending or having to implement tax increases, then the $350 billion is way too much,” said Dan White, director of public-sector research at Moody’s Analytics. “Is that money better spent directly in terms of federal fiscal stimulus, as opposed to it flowing through states? If you use that money for PPP or for enhanced unemployment insurance, does it have a bigger bang for the buck in terms of economic stimulus?”

Moody’s Analytics now pegs the state and local budget shortfall at $61 billion when taking existing federal help into account. The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently estimated that the budget gap is around $225 billion, but it noted that that doesn’t include states’ and localities’ costs to continue fighting the virus or helping their struggling residents and businesses.

Author(s):  Tami Luhby

Publication Date: 5 March 2021

Publication Site: CNN