But the offer also rankles liberals leery of corporate giveaways and conservatives focused on the state's dismal budget status.
Last week, in an otherwise dismal budget, the national government unveiled promises to build 2m homes this year, scrap an archaic socialist land law and offer tax sops to home buyers and developers.
The five major candidates vying to replace Gov. Gray Davis met tonight for the first and probably last time, engaging in a spirited, substantive -- and sometimes sarcastic and personal -- debate over topics including the state's dismal budget mess and the wisdom of the Oct. 7 recall itself.
While issues like education, illegal immigration, same-sex marriage, high-speed rail and energy have emerged in some of the races for governor, the conversation this season in nearly every state almost always swiftly returns to the economy: the mostly dismal state budget deficits, disappearing jobs and high unemployment.
To opponents, it's a stealth tax increase -- they don't believe there will be any bracket at or under 3.75percentt -- that will hand more money to a government with a dismal record for budget management.
In an era of ever-tightening fiscal budgets, dismal access to primary care, and unenviable population health, how much is a single, one-inch scar really worth?
According to a Newsweek poll this month, his approval ratings on domestic issues are dismal: 32percentt on the budget, 38percentt on health care, 41percentt on the economy, 42percentt on energy policy.
Mr. Farmer, a longtime Yonkers principal and school administrator, came out of retirement in June 2000 to take over a struggling school district that had been battered by chronic budget gaps, dismal test scores and a federal desegregation lawsuit that resulted in more than two decades of bitter litigation and federal intervention.
During the first half of 2009, we should expect one bad news story after another: rising unemployment, more corporate and personal bankruptcies, falling house prices, dismal earnings reports, huge budget deficits and more.
How can we practice philanthropy, in a climate of ongoing discussions about national budget deficits, dismal unemployment statistics and forecasts of global economic uncertainty?
On Friday, Chance ― who previously expressed his frustrations with state and city's dismal education and housing budgets ― had a private 30 minute meeting with Rauner at Chicago's Thompson Center to help shift the governor's decision.
