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NWSOFA Fiscal and Economic Issue Team Monthly Meeting
May 8, 2017 @ 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Hi All,
I look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it on Monday. It appears that by our Monday meeting Washington will have avoided a government shutdown this week and funded operations through September 30th. Good news on that front, although Trump’s comments about wanting a shutdown this fall are worrisome. Now if we can just get Springfield to reach agreement on some state budget issues.
On Friday, May 5th, the national jobs numbers for April will be released. Hopefully they will be good news. I will summarize them before Monday’s meeting, along with the preliminary 1st quarter GDP growth numbers. You should get a copy of my PowerPoint presentation by Monday afternoon.
Two areas of emphasis at Monday’s meeting:
- Federal Budget
- Future deficits / debt under current policy as of January 2017 –
- The funding deal for the remainder of the current fiscal year (October 2016-September 2017) that presumably will have passed this week
- Highlights of the Concord Coalition exercise on the effect of policy decisions on future deficits / debt
- Impacts of potential Trump era policies on the deficit and debt
- http://www.crfb.org/blogs/fiscal-factcheck-how-much-will-trumps-tax-plan-cost
- https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/costestimate/americanhealthcareact.pdf
- Note that this is not the current bill, but an earlier version.
- Comparisons of the economy under recent presidents
- David Doney will present his analysis – see attached PowerPoint presentation
From the May meeting announcement:
In April we went up to Lake Forest College to participate in a federal budget workshop hosted by Congressman Brad Schneider and the Concord Coalition. Then we had a short NWSOFA breakout meeting before heading out for beer and pizza in Lake Forest. Attached is a Concord Coalition PowerPoint on the federal budget, as well as my PowerPoint from the April meeting.Come get the facts about the economic recovery and the status of ongoing appropriations challenges at both the state and national level.We have added about 2.2 million jobs nationally in the last 12 months (through March). March reported only 98,000 jobs added, but the first quarter was a decent +533,000. In March the (U-3) unemployment rate was at 4.5%, while the U-6 rate was 8.9%. While down from a high of 17.1% during the downturn, this U-6 rate is still higher than the 8.4% in the fall of 2007 before the Great Recession of December 2007 to June 2009.Illinois is now operating without appropriations since December 2016. The revised jobs report for Illinois shows job gains for 2015 of 81,000. Job gains in 2016 were reported at 18,900. The current fiscal year (FY) ends June 30th and the FY 2018 budget is basically due May 31st.The April jobs report comes out Friday, May 5th, so we will have that data to discuss at our meeting. Preliminary 1st quarter real GDP growth was reported this morning at +0.7%. It looks like we will avoid a federal government shutdown. If not, that will likely be our meeting focus. Otherwise, at the federal level we will probably be diving into the president’s tax cut proposal. But we will also take a look at the status of Illinois state budget discussions in Springfield. .Bring your articles and other topics. Come join us for some exciting discussions.Then come join us for continued discussions at Lou Malnati’s after 9:30 pm. While OFA may not be political, we can discuss the politics of what is happening now at Lou’s.We won’t spend a lot of time on state issues next week because next month on June 12th our Fiscal and Economic Issues meeting will focus on Illinois state budget issues. Thanks to Mark Muehlhausen, Illinois Representative Michelle Mussman will be our guest presenter on this issue. Hopefully she will brief us on a new budget deal for the upcoming fiscal year. Yes, I am an optimist.
See you Monday at the Schaumburg library
PS – A couple of upcoming events of interest:
- Free discussion on Trump’s tax plan on May 9th
- Free seminar on using the Bureau of Labor Statistics databases on June 7th
Karl Faulstich
(m) 773-991-6587Come get the facts about the economic recovery and the status of ongoing appropriations challenges at both the state and national level.
We have added about 2.2 million jobs nationally in the last 12 months (through March). March reported only 98,000 jobs added, but the first quarter was a decent +533,000. In March the (U-3) unemployment rate was at 4.5%, while the U-6 rate was 8.9%. While down from a high of 17.1% during the downturn, this U-6 rate is still higher than the 8.4% in the fall of 2007 before the Great Recession of December 2007 to June 2009.
Illinois is now operating without appropriations since December 2016. The revised jobs report for Illinois shows job gains for 2015 of 81,000. Job gains in 2016 were reported at 18,900. The current fiscal year (FY) ends June 30th and the FY 2018 budget is basically due May 31st.
The April jobs report comes out Friday, May 5th, so we will have that data to discuss at our meeting. Preliminary 1st quarter real GDP growth was reported this morning at +0.7%. It looks like we will avoid a federal government shutdown. If not, that will likely be our meeting focus. Otherwise, at the federal level we will probably be diving into the president’s tax cut proposal. But we will also take a look at the status of Illinois state budget discussions in Springfield. .
Bring your articles and other topics. Come join us for some exciting discussions.
Then come join us for continued discussions at Lou Malnati’s after 9:30 pm. While OFA may not be political, we can discuss the politics of what is happening now at Lou’s.