Category: op-ed

Illinois’ criminal-justice system is crushing human capital

by Hilary Gowins, posted in op-ed

Op-ed published in the Rockford Register-Star.

There’s a gaping hole in Illinois’ labor force, made up of the men and women who are discounted from jobs because of a mistake they made in the past.

In any given year, nearly 50,000 Illinoisans will spend time in prison. And whether he or she stole a bike or was busted for a minor drug crime, criminal records are barriers for ex-offenders trying to get their lives back on track, even after serving their time.

It’s a problem in every state, but particularly in Illinois because jobs are scarce and the barriers to entry are numerous.

Here in Illinois, anyone with a criminal record can — in some instances, must — be banned from 118 professions and business licenses. Rules on the books can preclude ex-offenders from becoming barbers, architects and nail technicians.

Ex-offenders can be barred from becoming nurses. And if anyone thinks that is just, they should consider the story of Lisa Creason, a mother from Decatur.

When Lisa was 19, she tried to take money out of a Subway cash register to buy food for herself and her young daughter.

Lisa was charged with a forcible felony and spent a year in prison. When she got out, she set her mind to becoming a nurse. She attended school part time to get her nursing degree and worked full time as a certified nursing assistant. She also raised her three kids on her own after her fiancé was killed.

“I just want to go to work as a nurse, take care of my kids and get off of government assistance,” said Lisa, 42. “That’s it.”

Lisa was jubilant when she earned her degree. But her elation quickly turned to heartbreak when she found out that the state wouldn’t grant her a nursing license.

Lisa is strong, and she’s fighting. The stakes are high for the people coming out of Illinois’ criminal-justice system — 48 percent of ex-offenders in Illinois return to prison within three years. But those who are able to find work are much less likely to end up back in jail.

Illinois blindly restricts who can enter certain professions, which leaves talented, capable people behind.

In 2013, Illinois passed a law that allows ex-offenders to petition to have their records sealed, meaning criminal records can’t be seen by anyone outside law enforcement or certain employers, such as schools. But a person is only eligible for sealing after waiting two to three years from the end of his or her sentence, and not all ex-offenders are eligible — including Lisa, who was charged with a Class 4 felony.

There should be no waiting period for a person to petition an Illinois court to get his or her record sealed, and the state should not limit sealing eligibility, which excludes people like Lisa from good jobs.

Several years is too long to wait for someone who needs a good job. There’s reason to consider keeping sealing off the table for violent offenders who pose a risk to public safety, but ex-offenders whose crimes are nonviolent shouldn’t be told “no” to a meaningful career because of past mistakes.

Gov. Bruce Rauner announced shortly after taking office that he intends for the prison population in Illinois to shrink by 25 percent by 2025. The first place the state should start is breaking down barriers to work for Illinoisans who have repaid their debt.

Seal criminal records of ex-offenders

by Hilary Gowins, posted in op-ed

Letter to the Editor published in the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Chicago Sun-Times editorial board identified an important problem in its Nov. 24 editorial, “Prison ‘reform’ can’t be a revolving door.” The editorial board correctly noted that nearly half of ex-offenders in Illinois return to prison within three years, and cited the inability to find work as a major driver behind this problem.

However, the editorial board’s suggestion to spend more on jobs training and granting ex-offenders access to Pell grants isn’t the right solution. Those measures would prepare people for jobs they can’t get in Illinois.

Here’s the real problem: Nearly every felony conviction carries a life sentence in the form of a permanent criminal record, which bars ex-offenders from employment.

The Sun-Times Editorial Board rightly points to expanding Adult Redeploy, which diverts people into drug treatment and mental-health programs instead of prison, and does not enter a conviction on their record. Not surprisingly, the program can reduce recidivism by 20 percent.
But what about ex-offenders who don’t qualify for diversion programs?

In 2013, Illinois passed a law allowing ex-offenders to petition to have their records sealed, meaning only law enforcement and certain types of employers, such as schools, can see an ex-offender’s criminal record. But a person is only eligible for sealing after waiting two to three years from the end of his or her sentence, and not all ex-offenders are eligible.

Illinois can break the cycle of crime and truly give ex-offenders a second chance by broadening sealing and expungement and eliminating wait times altogether.

Ex-offenders who have paid their debt should be allowed to move on with their lives and re-enter society in a meaningful way. By taking the right path on reform, Illinois can become a leader in breaking down the real barriers that prevent capable men and women from finding good work in the first place.

Chicagoans hungry for food carts

by Hilary Gowins, posted in op-ed

Op-ed published in the Chicago Sun Times.

Hours before restaurants open their doors in Little Village, Claudia Perez sets up her cart along 26th Street or one of the side streets nearby.

Claudia is 62. She came to the United States from Mexico in 1995. For more than 10 years, she has been selling tamales, elotes and horchata out of her food cart to support her family. It’s hard work: She’s up most mornings before the sun preparing batches of what she’ll sell that day. Come rain or shine or snow, Claudia is out in the neighborhood, serving hungry people as they head to work.

Claudia is one of nearly 1,500 food-cart street vendors in Chicago. But the city doesn’t welcome the flavors she provides her community.

The City Council is likely to vote in September on an ordinance to finally recognize food carts in Chicago, putting food carts on a level playing field with other food options in the city, such as food trucks and brick-and-mortar restaurants. It would also help ensure the industry is safe – vendors would have to meet citywide safety standards and prepare food in a licensed kitchen. They would also be subject to inspection by the health department.

The Illinois Policy Institute surveyed 200 food-cart vendors across the city, learning what their lives and businesses are like. This research uncovered something long suspected: Food carts could be a boon to Chicago.

Chicagoans already love food carts – vendors serve as many as 50,000 meals per day.

Vendors know this. If Chicago recognizes the industry, 79 percent of the vendors surveyed said they would expand their business to capitalize on the high demand that already exists.

The City Council should take note. Chicago is one of the only major U.S. cities that bans food carts; these businesses are recognized in 23 of the 25 largest cities in the country. If the city embraces food carts, it could see up to 6,400 new jobs and up to $8.5 million in new local sales-tax revenue. This is an easy way to provide additional revenue for a city staring down a billion-dollar budget deficit while helping some of the areas in the city that are hurting the most.

Neighborhoods from Little Village to Humboldt Park to Avondale already are home to hundreds of vendors. These communities rally around food-cart culture – kids pick up elotes for an after-school snack, walkers grab champurrado on cool mornings and anyone looking for a delicious lunch knows vendors’ tamales won’t disappoint. People drive from hundreds of miles away to get a taste of Chicago’s food-cart fare.

It’s time for the city to recognize this burgeoning industry. Embracing food-cart culture means more revenue for the city and greater access to food throughout Chicago’s neighborhoods. It also means more opportunity for people who want to work hard and make a living as food entrepreneurs.

It’s the right thing to do.

An easy win for Chicago: Legalize food carts already

by Hilary Gowins, posted in op-ed

Op-ed published in Crain’s Chicago Business.

Chicago leaders are wringing more revenue out of taxpayers who use cellphones, watch Netflix, own property and buy locally via increased taxes and surcharges in a desperate attempt to plug an expected billion-dollar budget deficit.

But there’s a way aldermen can raise revenue and do something good at the same time: legalize street vending.

Do this, and Chicago could welcome more than 6,400 new jobs. It also could generate up to $8.5 million in new local sales tax revenue, according to original analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute.

Chicago lags behind when it comes to this burgeoning new industry. Street vending from food carts already is legal in 23 of the 25 largest cities in the U.S. And despite the city’s ban, Chicago already is home to a vibrant street-vending community. An estimated 1,500 vendors serve 50,000 meals per day—primarily in lower-income communities such as Little Village, Back of the Yards and Humboldt Park.

The 200 vendors surveyed by the institute all were Hispanic; nearly 80 percent are middle-aged; more than half are women; and 95 percent work to support at least one dependent. Their elotes, champurrado and tamales are famous for miles around.

The institute’s economic experts project that street-vendor take-home pay could grow by up to $60 million if the city voted to legalize street vending. Seventy-nine percent of vendors surveyed by the institute said they would expand their business if the city legalized street vending, and 64 percent of vendors said they would add more carts.

VOTING IN SEPTEMBER
An ordinance to allow food-cart street vending sits before the city’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection. Aldermen are expected to vote on the measure in September. The ordinance would expand the city’s existing frozen desserts ordinance to include prepared-food carts and would require vendors to prepare food in a city-licensed kitchen. Vendors would be able to acquire a license from the city for $350.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said ensuring access to good food is a priority. In July, he secured a one-year federal grant to run produce buses in neighborhoods considered food deserts. In 2014, the city issued its first “emerging business permit” to allow a local nonprofit to open healthy-food kiosks in the Loop.

But city officials don’t need to do anything fancy to increase food options. Legalizing food-cart street vending would ensure access to healthy, safe food for neighborhoods across Chicago and would open the door for residents to earn a living doing what they love. It wouldn’t hurt Chicago’s pocketbook, either.

10 years after Kelo, how eminent domain is hurting business owners in Chicago

by Hilary Gowins, posted in op-ed

Op-ed posted on Watchdog.org.

It has been 10 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Connecticut town could bulldoze residential property so a private group could build an office park.

After a lengthy legal fight and the destruction of the neighborhood, the land now sits abandoned and unused.

The ruling on this case, Kelo v. City of New London, caused an uproar: More than 40 states passed either constitutional amendments or statutes that have reformed eminent domain law to better protect property rights in the wake of the Kelo decision, according to the Institute for Justice.

But the corrupting power of eminent domain still rears its ugly head.

Today, a Chicago university is trying to bulldoze six properties so a private developer can build and operate dorms and retail stores.

In the northwest corner of Chicago, a state university president has moved to seize and bulldoze six small, family-owned businesses. In their place, Northeastern Illinois University President Sharon Hahs plans to hand over the land to a private real estate developer to build and operate student housing that will also include private, retail shops on the ground floor.

Hahs said this project is necessary because NEIU is the only state college without student housing. She claims the neighborhood is economically depressed, and this project would spur growth and revitalization. But the 3400 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue is home to many small businesses, such as Caren Real Estate, Hunan Wok and the new Bryn Mawr Breakfast Club.

The owners of these businesses have invested in the neighborhood for years.

Bill Tong grew up in the property that now houses Hunan Wok restaurant. His grandfather, who immigrated to the U.S. from China, built the property in 1954. It became the Tong family’s home as well as its place of business, Tong’s Tea Garden. Bill and his sisters, Dolly and Betty, inherited the property from their late father in 2010. Their elderly mother, who still lives in the top-floor apartment, may be forced to leave the building they’ve called home for nearly six decades if NEIU gets its way.

“Being a Chinese-American, I knew that the ideal is for a son to preserve the accomplishments of his father and hopefully improve on them. I don’t stand a chance of that if the property is destroyed,” Tong said.

He isn’t alone.

Garrick Beil also grew up in the North Park neighborhood. His parents, Rosemary and Carl, were the children of German immigrants who came to Chicago from Germany in the 1920s. Rosemary worked as a school teacher and Carl was an architect and contractor, and to bolster their modest incomes they used their entire savings, plus loans from the bank and family members, to buy a dilapidated gas station at the corner of North Kimball Avenue and West Bryn Mawr Avenue. The Beils tore down that gas station and turned the property into two commercial spaces, both of which have been continuously occupied for nearly 40 years. Rosemary and her husband planned to rely on the income from these properties in their retirement. Instead, they are faced with a costly legal battle and an uncertain future.

As the story unfolding in Chicago’s North Park neighborhood shows, eminent domain often plays out as a modern David v. Goliath tale.

Small-business owners like Bill Tong and Garrick Beil can’t match the deep pockets of the state. Their only hope is that NEIU leaders have a change of heart, drop the eminent domain lawsuit and build on their own undeveloped land – approximately half of the college’s 67-acre campus is green space.

Tong and Beil’s story is a stark reminder that the threat of eminent domain remains just as real today for many as it did 10 years ago when the Supreme Court issued its Kelo decision.

NEIU’s President Hahs and other proponents of the government’s “right” to seize private property say they are well within their legal ability to pursue eminent domain — under the law, they’re correct. But legality doesn’t confer morality.

If the government can take land from Bill Tong, Garrick Beil and the homeowners in New London, Connecticut, the same thing can and will continue to happen to other property owners across the county.

Illinois General Assembly’s top three legislative priorities

by Hilary Gowins, posted in op-ed

Op-ed posted on Watchdog.org.

2015 promises to be an exciting year in a state desperately in need of major fiscal reform.

For the first time in 12 years, Illinois has a Republican governor. He’ll be working alongside Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate – and everyone’s waiting to see what happens.

It would take a crystal ball and some strong political connections to accurately predict what will happen in the Illinois General Assembly in the coming months, but at least three fronts are likely to see movement: wages, jobs and growth reforms, and pension reform.

Wages

The Illinois Senate passed in December 2014 a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage. Politicians may look to pass an increase this session, which would costs employers big. If so, it’s possible that this increase could be tied to other business measures intended to offset the added costs of a wage hike.

This could include: a reduction in LLC fees, which cost each new business that falls under this category $500 in its first year and then $250 each year the business remains active; and reform to the state’s workers’ compensation law, under which employees can file compensation claims for injuries that are not incurred on the job.

Jobs and growth reforms

Though many are anticipating clashes between the Republican executive branch and the Democrat-controlled Legislature, the good news is that both sides have common ground when it comes to issues of employment.One of these bipartisan policy areas is licensing reform. Occupational licenses cost time and money. Today, almost 1 in 3 workers need the government’s permission to do their job – 60 years ago, that figure was just 1 in 20, according to “License to Work,” a 2012 report from the nonpartisan Institute for Justice.

Illinois is no exception when it comes to burdensome licensing rules. For example, under the state’s Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Act of 1985, anyone wishing to work as a barber must complete expensive training at a barber or cosmetology school for no less than 1,500 hours in a program lasting at least nine months before they can even take the state-required licensing exam and pay the associated licensing fees.

“Scope of practice” in health care is another aspect of occupational licensing that has supporters on both sides of the aisle. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have laws granting “full practice authority” to professionals who have advanced nursing degrees and have passed national exams. This adjustment provides greater access to care for low-income residents and reduces wait times to see doctors and specialists, and also can majorly reduce health-care spending for the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Pension reform

No pension reform will move forward until the Illinois Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of Senate Bill 1, the pension bill the General Assembly passed in 2013 and the Sangamon County Circuit Court ruled unconstitutional in November 2014. At the end of 2014, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office filed a motion to expedite the court’s ruling, and the court granted this request.

A decision is likely to be finalized in March or April, near the end of spring legislative session.

The sooner the state learns the fate of SB 1 the better, because its $111 billion pension debt will only continue to grow without true reform. No one on either side of the aisle truly believes SB 1 is a comprehensive pension bill – if the court strikes it down, lawmakers will have the chance to go back to the drawing board to find real solutions.

No matter how the court finds, the right thing to do would be to offer all government workers the chance to opt out of the failing pension funds. Nearly 20 percent of state university employees chose to enter a 401(k) plan instead of the State Universities Retirement System, or SURS, pension fund in 2014. But SURS is the only state retirement system that offers employees that choice.

The surest way to stop the bleeding is to enroll all new public employees in self-managed plans going forward. This move is constitutional, would save the state immediate millions and would protect worker retirements.

Illinois is a state rife with policy problems, and it’s tough to predict where momentum might shift. But in terms of combined importance and immediacy, these three issues sit atop the pile for state lawmakers in 2015.