Chris Goodman
@cbgoodman.co
Professor & MPA Director @ NIU. Public finance & local govts. Special districts, mostly. 🚴 📍 Chicagoland 🌐 hello.cgoodman.com
Prediction: this will not work. It fundamentally misunderstands the perspectives of state legislators.
Chicago Sun-Times@chicago.suntimes.com · 19h ago“I’m gonna do anything and everything that’s necessary. But, at some point .. you cannot expect me to solve everybody’s problems and the fact of the matter is I can’t,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We need our state partners to continue to rise to the occasion. That’s what working people demand.”
Tamarind Jarritos is the perfect soda. I will take no rebuttals.
It's probably not good when both your budget director and your finance director leave within two weeks of each other.
Mayor Johnson's budget director Annette Guzman resigns
Guzman abruptly resigned Monday, forcing Mayor Brandon Johnson to head into the all-important investors conference and a grueling election year budget season with a whole new financial team.
chicago.suntimes.com
I started rewatching The Expanse (and rereading the books, I'm one book ahead). I forgot this was, at the time, the best sci fi TV since the Battlestar reboot.
It's been raining for almost 24 hours and will likely continue for another 6-7. So, off to do a 4 hour trainer ride like there's 2' of snow outside.
Special districts mentioned. Many US water districts are too small to effectively reach scale on water treatment let alone cybersecurity.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d ago(NYT) - The scope of cyberattacks on U.S. water systems has grown to include at least seven states and may be far wider, officials and experts warned .. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...
I will not post about how "trash containers are gentrification" is dumb. I will not post about how "trash containers are gentrification" is dumb. I will not post about how "trash containers are gentrification" is dumb. I will not post about how "trash containers are gentrification" is dumb.
Dr Drang posts are always spot on, if sometimes impractical for normies.
My rules for using spreadsheets
leancrew.com
There are budget games and budget malpractice. This is the latter.
Chicago school board narrowly approves a budget that reverses layoffs by assuming more state money
CPS leaders warned the school board’s amended budget could still hurt their ability to borrow to meet payroll in September and could lead to midyear cuts.
chalkbeat.org
This has seemingly been coming for several months, but I've heard almost nothing about it. And it's here now.
Illinois Tech to lay off 160 as enrollment, financial woes force restructure
The move reportedly prompted a faculty senate vote of no confidence in the school’s top leadership.
chicagobusiness.com
I own 4 movie soundtracks: Top Gun, Star Wars Episode I, Lost in Translation, and Garden State. All where the music or score are essential parts of the movie. The last two are full of 90s and early 00s indie bangers.
After a lengthy review process, our piece on the demand for technical/analytical skills in urban planning in the US is out! We find modest, though growing, demand for more advanced technical skills and the centrality of “core” technical skills journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Learning to Code? Technical Skills in the Planning Job Market - Jamaal Green, Camille Barchers, Henry Renski, 2026
It is widely believed that planning employers increasingly seek “data science” skills. We analyze more than 16,000 job ads posted to the American Planning Assoc...
journals.sagepub.com
I appreciate that all this work on fines and fees (also see the Reason Foundation's work) is coming before I teach my public finance class in the fall.
Fiscal Pressures Threaten Reforms to Court Fines and Fees
States and local governments assess billions of dollars in court fines and fees each year, but their effectiveness—both as a source of revenue and as a crime deterrent—has been repeatedly called into question.
pew.org
Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.
Michael Leo Owens@milophd.bsky.social · 7d agoFilm you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.
lol, I'm sure banning all the things that people like will go over well for the Trump admin.
The US government just banned Roombas
It’s not just bots with legs.
theverge.com
The longer I do this gig, the more I think that conferences with fixed locations (in large, relatively cheap, easy to get to cities) are the way to go. When conferences cost $3k+, all we’re doing is replicating the inequality already baked into the university system.
Illinois to impose statewide cellphone ban in schools. @pqhancock.bsky.social has more: buff.ly/MRCoR9T
Pritzker signs school cellphone ban to avoid student distractions
Illinois schools will require bell-to-bell cellphone bans under a new law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker.
capitolnewsillinois.com
A map of the 21 US cities that used to have a population of 100,000 people but don’t anymore. A lot of them are in the Rust Belt: Youngstown, OH’s population fell from 170,000 in 1970 to 60,000 in 2020. [kottke.org]
All US Cities Which Used to Have More Than 100,000 People But Don’t Anymore
Here’s a map of the 21 US cities that used to have a population of 100,000 people but don’t anymore. Many of these are Rust Belt cities, in which manufacturing employment fell steeply during the latter part of the
kottke.org
“There is evidence out there that retailers were not collecting the (grocery) tax,” Munch said. “I’ll be perfectly frank. I was watching it very closely when I shopped at grocers, and there were retailers in Naperville and elsewhere that were flat out not collecting the tax at the outset.”
Daily Herald@dailyherald.com · last wk.Naperville could replace grocery tax with higher sales tax
Whew, 24 hours. Not sure what I did, but I'll take it!
Chris Goodman@cbgoodman.co · last wk.Time to start praying to the IRB gods for a quick exempt determination.
"Every one of the 13 principal federal statistical agencies has experienced staffing reductions since January 2025. Six agencies have lost at least one-third of their workforce, and two have lost more than two-thirds." (via @amstatnews.bsky.social) www.amstat.org/docs/default...
Do female mayors make local government more transparent? Miguel Rodrigues and colleagues examine whether female leadership changes how much information municipalities actively disclose to their citizens, in a new article in our Local Government Studies journal. inlogov.com/2026/07/28/d...
Do female mayors make local government more transparent? Only when politics lets them
Bruna Ribeiro (University of Minho), Miguel Rodrigues (University of Minho) and Francisca Tejedo-Romero (University of Castilla-La Mancha) Why do some municipalities open their books, publish their…
inlogov.com
When it’s good news, it’s Ken Griffin says… When it’s “bad” news, it’s Citadel Securities says…
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · last wk.(Bloomberg) -- Citadel Securities expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this week — a surprise move strengthening Chairman Kevin Warsh’s credibility in the battle with inflation. @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Time to start praying to the IRB gods for a quick exempt determination.
1921! Seemingly the precursor or progenitor of the current IL Comptroller’s AFR data (certainly no ACFRs in 1921).
