City of Chicago’s cash plummets, debt triples, arrests drop

Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed the books on 2012 with $33.4 million in unallocated cash on hand — down from $167 million the year before — while adding to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers, year-end audits show.

Last week, Moody’s Investors ordered an unprecedented triple-drop in the city’s bond rating, citing Chicago’s “very large and growing” pension liabilities, “significant” debt service payments, “unrelenting public safety demands” and historic reluctance to raise local taxes that has continued under Emanuel.

The 2012 city audits explain why. They show that an unallocated balance that was $167 million a year ago because of Emanuel’s aggressive cost-cutting efforts has dropped to $33.4 million.

Budget Director Alex Holt blamed the $133.6 million drop on “honest” budgeting and ending the long-standing practice of carrying “ghost” vacancies. Read more >>

NJ prisoners received more than $23 million in unemployment benefits

New Jersey prisoners incorrectly received more than $23 million in unemployment benefits, Medicaid and other public assistance, according to a state audit released Wednesday.

Between July 2009 and April 2011, the state paid out the benefits to or on behalf of more than 20,000 incarcerated individuals who don't appear to be entitled to the payments, according to a press release from State Comptroller Matthew Boxer, who led the audit.

More than $10 million of the payments were unemployment benefits paid out to about 7,600 incarcerated individuals, according to the release. State law requires that only those who are "able" or "available" to work are eligible to receive unemployment.

One prisoner received more than $39,000 in unemployment payments while behind bars for a drug-related offense, according to the audit. Another, convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, who took in more than $25,000 in unemployment benefits, didn't start receiving the payments until he'd already been in prison for three months.

"Suffice it to say that when thousands of inmates are collecting unemployment checks from behind bars, there is a serious gap in program oversight," Boxer said in a statement. Read more >>