Why a slow post office is a national asset

U.S. businesses and individuals were floating about $123 billion in checks* through the mail everyday in 1983 — and it probably hasn't gone down any since then.

*No breakdown is given for government checks.

Source for statistic: Carol Boyd Leon, "Why Americans are writing more checks," American Demographics, February 1987.

Where is the last operating one-room school house in the Midwest?

In West Chicago.

It's McCauley School District No. 27, organized in 1850 and still going strong in a small residential enclave surrounded by factories.

Currently McCauley has 23 students, 12 parents, 45 taxpayers, two full-time teachers, two-part time teachers, a superintendent and a secretary.

Source: The Wheaton Daily Journal, October 12, 1986.

Where is the world's largest recorded raindrop?

Well, it isn't there anymore, of course.

It evaporated.

But it was at Willard Airport in Champaign.

That's where it fell in 1953.

Caught in flight by a raindrop camera during a thunderstorm, it measured 9 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a pea.

Source: Water Survey Currents, January/February, 1987. Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign.

Taxes and personal income

Nationwide, the percentage of personal income that goes to state and local taxes has been fairly stable over the last seven years, standing at 11.5 percent in fiscal 1985 compared to 12.8 percent in fiscal 1978.

This decline occurred in spite of a decline in the relative importance of federal aid, which dropped from 4.6 percent of personal income in fiscal 1978 to 3.5 percent in fiscal 1985. However, the bite state and local taxes take out of personal income has gone up slightly since 1983 when it was only 11.1 percent of personal income.

What about Illinois?

In fiscal 1985 state and local taxes took up 10.7 percent of personal income, putting Illinois below the 11.5 percent national average and ranking it 32nd in the nation.

16/April 1987/Illinois Issues

(More recent data for 1986 rank Illinois 31st, with 10.6 percent of personal income compared to 11.4 percent nationwide.) Between fiscal 1980 and 1985 the percentage of personal income taken by state and local taxes in Illinois went down by 0.5 percent.

'A' for effort?

Correcting for differences in the strength of the economies of each state in order to come up with a measurement of "tax effort," the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations ranked Illinois eighth in its state and local tax effort in fiscal 1984. Illinois had an index of 109.5 compared to 100 as the naional average and 158.3 (New York) as the high. That shows Illinois overall was trying harder, but it doesn't tell anything about the tax mix.

Source: State Policy Reports. January 29, 1987.

The 'filthy 15'

Comparing state tax systems in terms of regresssiveness, Citizens for Tax Justice ranked llinois 11th among the "filthy 15." These are states that put a higher tax burden on poor families than on wealthy ones. They do so by relying heavily on sales and property taxes. The top three states for regressive taxes are Wyoming, South Dakota and Tennessee.

Source: A report issued in January by Citizens for Tax Justice. Washington, D.C.

Fuel tax hikes

Twenty-three states considered them in 1986, but only eight enacted them. The average increase was 3.8 cents per gallon on gasoline.

In 1987 the Highway Users Federation says 38 states will consider fuel tax hikes. Currently Nebraska charges the highest feul tax, 18.2 cents per gallon and Missouri the lowest, 7.0. Illinois is in the middle at 13.0 cents per gallon. But Illinois is also among 11 states that levey taxes on gasoline sales or the gross receipts of oil companies. The highest such tax is New York's at 6.75 percent. California, Illinois. Mississippi and Pennsylvania collect 6 percent and share the No. 2 spot. The other states collect lesser amounts.

Source: State Policy Reports. January 29, 1987.

What AT&T found out in its Consumer Behavior Time Dairy Project

The favorite activity in the U.S. is sleeping, and people spend more time at it than anything else.

The second favorite thing is visiting friends and relatives.

People in the U.S. also spend a lot of time working (second only to sleeping), but they don't like it as much.

They prefer television, socializing, sports events and movies.

Going to school is not high on the list either.

Source: "How to use time-use diaries," by Jonathan McAdams. American Demographics, January 1987.

With a little help from a loan

Thanks to a $100 million short-term loan the state toted up a $73,917 million balance in general funds at the end of February. The average daily available balance in February was $155,927 million. Things should improve somewhat in March and April, the time when money from the state income tax comes in.

Source: Office of the State Comptroller.

Unemployment rates

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February was 6.7 percent, unchanged since December. Illinois' seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose in February to 7.7 percent from last month's 7.4 percent.

There were 5.633 million people in the state's civilian labor force in February; 5.199 million people had jobs and 434,000 were looking for work. That adds up to 13,000 more people in the labor force, 19,000 more people looking for jobs and 6,000 fewer people with jobs than in January.

Numerous scattered job furloughs across the state and layoffs of temporary workers in the retail industry because of seasonal inventory adjustments caused the downturn in employment.

Final December unemployment rates in the state's major metro areas were:

Aurora-Elgin, 5.6 percent.
Bloomington-Normal, 4.7 percent.
Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul, 4.1 percent.
Chicago, 6.2 percent.
Davenport-Rock Island-Moline (Illinois sector) 9.2 percent.
Decatur, 8.6 percent.
Joliet, 7.0 percent.
Kankakee, 8.3 percent.
Lake County, 4.5 percent.
Peoria, 7.8 percent.
Rockford, 7.6 percent.
Springfield, 4.9 percent.
St. Louis (Illinois sector), 8.6 percent.

Source: Department of Employment Security. Margaret S. Knoeptle

April 1987/IIlinois Issues/17