Get the latest news headlines from around Illinois.
SJR: Sponsor shelves graduated income tax proposal
A proposal to move the state to a graduated income tax died in the Illinois House Wednesday when the sponsor opted not to call the bill for a vote.
Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, said he did not have enough votes to pass the proposed constitutional amendment that needed 71, or three-fifths approval, rather than 60 votes to pass the House.
Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, who had a companion bill setting out the rates that would be charged under a graduated income tax, blamed Gov. Bruce Rauner, who opposes a graduated income tax.
ChicagoNow: Chicago’s city gas tax would be highest in the nation under new ordinance
Worried about pain at the pump? Chicago gas taxes would become even higher under a proposal from 36th Ward Ald. Gilbert Villegas.
The alderman’s ordinance, introduced April 13, would hike the city’s motor fuel tax to 12 cents per gallon from 5 cents per gallon – a whopping 140 percent increase that would make Chicago’s city-level motor fuel tax the highest in the nation, according to research from the American Petroleum Institute.
Villegas’ office estimates the hike would raise nearly $70 million, which would go into a special fund dedicated to the repair and maintenance of roads, highways, bridges and other public ways.
WANDTV: Government Transparency Bill Advances
Local units of government would be required to tightly regulate spending on travel, meals and lodging under legislation advancing at the State Capitol.
State Senator Tom Cullerton, (D) Villa Park, says the Local Government Travel Expense Control Act will require non home rule units of government, school districts and community college districts to regulate expenses.
“Taxpayers should have access to how their taxpayer dollars are spent to ensure money is being spent responsibly and effectively,” Cullerton said.
Sun-Times: CTU doesn’t set strike date — for now
The Chicago Teachers Union’s governing body confirmed Wednesday night that for the time being, teachers will not strike.
The union’s elected delegates did not cast votes to set a strike date — though state law permits them to walk as soon as May 16 — though hundreds did reach a consensus.
Reuters: Chicago mayor vows fiscal fix before muni audience
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to reassure municipal credit analysts on Wednesday that the city and its public school district are not falling into a financial abyss.
“I will not rest until we fix the fiscal position of both the city and (Chicago Public Schools),” the mayor told the National Federation of Municipal Analysts annual conference.
But some attendees said his speech did little to alleviate their worries about the city’s sinking credit.
Reuters: Puerto Rico’s other crisis: impoverished pensions
When Puerto Rico attempted to shore up its chronically underfunded public-employee pensions in 2013, Francisco del Castillo “knew grown men and women who wept.”
Under the reform package, retirement ages rose. So did employee contributions. Current and future participants were transferred to less-generous defined-contribution accounts, similar to 401(k) retirement savings plans. Del Castillo, then the deputy chief of the island’s largest government-employee pension system, said members of his own staff who were on the verge of retirement suddenly faced the prospect of working seven or eight more years for reduced benefits.
The law extracted “a pound of political flesh” from those, like del Castillo, who helped craft it, he said. “We wanted it to work.”
Sun-Times: Fed probe doesn’t faze Dorothy Brown, who just asked for a raise
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown — whose office is under federal investigation for the possible purchasing of jobs and promotions — wants a raise.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the 17 elected commissioners who make up the county board, Brown hints that gender bias might explain why she makes only $105,000.
Chicago Tribune: Waukegan pitches itself as alternative for Lucas Museum
With the future of a Lucas Museum on Chicago’s lakefront in doubt, the city of Waukegan is asking the organizers to look a little to the north.
Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley reached out to Mellody Hobson, a Chicago financial executive and the wife of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, about locating the proposed museum featuring digital, traditional and narrative art on Waukegan’s lakefront, a city spokesman said on Wednesday.
The city of nearly 90,000 has been working to revitalize its once-industrial shoreline, putting together a comprehensive vision for the lakefront and downtown, purchasing vacant industrial lots and encouraging retail and residential development.
Chicago Tribune: Social service groups sue Rauner over unpaid bills
roup of service providers who contract with state government sued Gov. Bruce Rauner and members of his administration on Wednesday for stiffing them on bills for services that they’ve provided since the state budget impasse began last July.
In a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, the Pay Now Illinois coalition of 64 service providers contends that they’ve gone unpaid throughout the 10-month budget stalemate, even though the state has been enforcing their contracts.
The groups provide services to youth, homeless people, people with HIV/AIDS and low income people with mental health issues. They say they’re owed more than $100 million for those services.
CBS News: These states top the list of financial disasters
Puerto Rico may be getting all the attention lately as it looks to Congress for help after defaulting on much of its May 2 debt payment of $422 million, but several states are grappling with their own fiscal disasters, for which there won’t be any federal fix, only difficult choices.
“Do we pay for sick people in nursing homes, bondholders or pensions?” asked Donald Boyd, director of fiscal studies at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public policy research institute.
Illinois may be facing the biggest shortfall, but it has plenty of company. Among other states with yawning budget gaps and seemingly intractable competing needs are New Jersey, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
WSJ: The ‘What, Me Worry?’ Bond Market
Municipal-bond investors shook off news of Puerto Rico’s default, the latest reminder of the resilience of the $3.7 trillion market for the debt of cities, states and local governments.
The S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index rose 0.2% Tuesday and has risen 0.5% since Puerto Rico enacted a law April 6 allowing the governor to suspend debt payments. The index doesn’t include Puerto Rico bonds.
The market generally has been little shaken by previous crises, including those in Detroit and some smaller cities in California, in part because there are so many issuers and governments often have shown a willingness to go to great lengths to pay their obligations.