Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Center Square: Vote by mail for the November election begins Wednesday in Illinois
Vote-by-mail applications for the Nov. 8 general election opened Wednesday, along with the new ability to permanently request mail-in ballots.
All registered Illinois voters are eligible to vote by mail due to a new state law allowing voters to tell their election authority they permanently want to receive mail-in ballots.
Chicago Tribune: Editorial: Dress it up any way you want, Mayor Lightfoot, but a property tax hike still hurts
Artful politicians have a way of making bad news palatable. It’s the spoonful of sugar approach, and it underpins Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pitch to Chicagoans to acquiesce to her 2023 spending plan.
The dreaded medicine, of course, is yet another property tax hike.
WBEZ: Two ex-employees are banned from working again for the Chicago Park District
A Chicago Park District employee told investigators she was trying to eat lunch at a parks facility in June of last year when a male co-worker asked her about her love life — and tried to show her a sex video on his phone.
A complaint was filed quickly. But the human resources manager responsible for investigating sexual harassment accusations failed to do anything about the case, and the complaint languished until earlier this year, according to a recently released report from the park district’s interim inspector general, Alison Perona.
Capitol News Illinois: State lays out $34.6B multi-year spending plan for roads, bridges, ports, airports, rail and transit
The Illinois Department of Transportation on Friday laid out a $34.6 billion six-year spending plan for road, bridge, transit, rail, airport and port upkeep.
It’s the latest multi-year plan backed by the state’s 2019 Rebuild Illinois bipartisan infrastructure law, which doubled the state’s motor fuel tax from 19 to 38 cents per gallon and scheduled it to grow with the rate of inflation. That measure also increased driving-related fees, redirected a portion of the state’s sales tax on motor fuel to the road fund and authorized borrowing to pay for construction projects.