Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Norfolk Southern apologizes, says won't use 'bait truck' tactic again
The Norfolk Southern Railway apologized on Friday for its controversial “bait truck” operation in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood and said it wouldn’t use the tactic again.
In a letter in response to a Tribune editorial, Herbert Smith of Norfolk Southern acknowledged that the undercover operation “eroded trust between law enforcement and the community.”
Chicago Sun-Times: State has given $420 million in tax breaks to TV shows, movies, won’t detail why
Over the past decade, the state of Illinois has given nearly $420 million in tax breaks to companies that came to the state to make television shows such as “Chicago Fire,” movies like “Transformers” and dozens of commercials.
What did those 1,817 productions do to earn those tax breaks? State officials won’t say.
Crain's Chicago Business: Teachers pension fund levers up the risk in investment portfolio
The pension fund, which has only enough money to cover 40 percent of its future obligations, has steadily increased allocations to private-equity funds and only recently reversed course on investing with hedge funds despite lackluster results for both.
Champaign News-Gazette: Hiring lawsuit
A state patronage hiring scandal going back 12 years just won’t go away.
The political class in Illinois has an entitlement mentality, and not just those at the top of the political heap.
The mindset goes all the way down to the lowliest party patronage worker.
Chicago Sun-Times: Aldermen push for ride-share drivers to get pay raise
Two top Chicago aldermen think so when it comes to the wages of ride-share drivers minus job-incurred expenses — which puts them below Chicago’s minimum wage.
Sneed has learned Aldermen Anthony Beale (9th) and Edward Burke (14th) plan to propose a little protection: a minimum pay rate for ride-share drivers that will match or exceed the Chicago minimum wage — after accounting for costs like insurance and gas expenses incurred by their job.
Chicago Tribune: Despite 2 voter rejections, Wheaton school district plans to construct new building — and gets sued over it
Twice since 2013, voters in the Wheaton and Warrenville area have rejected referendum proposals to raise taxes for the construction of a new preschool.
Despite that, the Community Unit School District 200 board is proceeding with building a new Jefferson Early Childhood Center without voter approval through a different form of financing.
Aurora Beacon-News: Compensation hikes for city employees have cost Aurora $2.4 million in up-front pension payments
Aurora guarantees city executives a severance package when they retire. And city contracts allow other employees to stockpile and cash out nearly 100 sick days at retirement.
Those and other retirement perks come with a cost to taxpayers and the city in the form of extra pension contributions. When compensation boosts an employee’s wages by more than 6 percent, Aurora is required to immediately pay off the extra pension cost rather than paying for it over decades.
Northwest Herald: Some residents still leery as Algonquin Village Board talks tax incentives for CarMax
Daniel Sessions said he never expected a used car dealership to move right outside his Algonquin home.
“It’s not good,” Session said, adding that he recently moved to the area and would consider moving again if increased traffic threatened his young children. “None of the neighbors I’ve talked to are happy about it.”
Daily Herald: District 207 voters to weigh in on $195 million bond issue
Maine Township High School District 207 voters will decide in November whether the district can issue $195 million in bonds.
School board members voted 6-1 this week to put a referendum question on the ballot. If passed, the borrowed money plus cash in the district’s reserve account will help pay for $240.7 million in upgrades to its three high schools.
Bloomington Pantagraph:City seeks to recapture Front Street paving costs through TIF district
The city hopes to recover the $250,000 cost of repaving and reconfiguring Front Street from Madison to Center streets by eventually tapping property tax money that would be set aside for redevelopment in an existing downtown tax increment financing district.
The planned street resurfacing and sidewalk improvements on Front in the area of the McLean County Law and Justice Center are part of the 2018 citywide resurfacing contract.
State Journal-Register: Elimination of pension spiking saves Springfield $1.5 million
A policy to eliminate accelerated vacation payouts to city of Springfield employees’ before they retire has saved the city about $1.5 million in just one year, city budget director Bill McCarty says.
The policy is just one of many ways the city has been working to reduce pension spiking. Prior to 2016, city employees who pay into the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund could sell back all of their accrued vacation days within a year of retiring. The practice would increase a retiree’s pension, which is calculated by averaging the worker’s highest-paid four years of the last eight years of their career.