Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot says she needs Springfield’s help to erase $1 billion-plus shortfall
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she needs help from Springfield to erase a $1 billion-plus shortfall, but she shed no new light on the kind of help she’ll seek, except to promise a heavy dose of budget cuts to make the tax increases go down easier.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Lightfoot will lower the boom on beleaguered Chicago taxpayers on Aug. 29 — by disclosing the shortfall she inherited from Rahm Emanuel — during a prime time speech she hopes will be carried live by local television stations.
Crain's Chicago Business: How much can Chicago tax a casino and still get one?
It’s a fair question after a financial analysis released Aug. 13 by the Illinois Gaming Board suggested that the much-anticipated gambling house could be dead on arrival because of “onerous” taxes on the facility imposed by state lawmakers—new taxes that would be so high as to make it impossible to finance the project. The consultancy hired by the Lightfoot administration to analyze five potential sites for the casino found that the tax rate for the casino operator would amount to about 72 percent of the gross, not counting certain operating expenses.
Chicago Tribune: State Sen. Thomas Cullerton to be arraigned today on embezzlement charges
Illinois state Sen. Thomas E. Cullerton is slated to make his first appearance in federal court Friday to face embezzlement charges alleging he pocketed almost $275,000 in salary and benefits from the Teamsters union despite doing little or no work.
Cullerton, 49, a Democrat from Villa Park, is scheduled to appear at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse for an arraignment at 11 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox.
Chicago Tribune: Cook County grand jury investigating Chicago Ald. Marty Quinn’s challenge of opponent’s election petitions
A Cook County grand jury has subpoenaed city election records related to 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn’s challenge to a college student’s nominating signatures during the last City Hall campaign, the Tribune has learned.
Quinn, the hand-picked alderman of House Speaker Michael Madigan, the 13th Ward’s Democratic committeeman for decades, soundly defeated David Krupa, a DePaul University student, in the Feb. 26 City Council race.
Chicago Sun-Times: Convicted in Silver Shovel, he’s now doing political work for Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough
Political operative James Blassingame was sent to federal prison in the 1990s in the Operation Silver Shovel investigation that snared a number of Chicago-area public officials for bribery and other corruption.
Now, long since released, Blassingame has been doing campaign work for Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, one of the highest-ranking figures in the Illinois Democratic Party.
Chicago Sun-Times: Ed Burke just got $1.9M in tax refunds, interest for car-rental agencies at Midway Airport
Fourteen years ago, the Chicago City Council agreed to build a parking garage at Midway Airport for car-rental companies, but Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) abstained from voting because he represented two of the rental agencies that would lease space there.
Now, the city’s longest-serving alderman has helped Avis and Budget drastically reduce their property taxes at the garage, getting them refunds and interest totaling $1,936,380.91.
Northwest Herald: Purchase of computers without board sign-off stirs contention in Grafton Township
Daily Herald: COD board makes it official: Mediator to help with contract talks
The College of DuPage board of trustees has agreed to bring in a federal mediator to assist in contract negotiations with the Glen Ellyn school’s 304 full-time faculty members.
The faculty members — represented by the COD Faculty Association — have been working without a contract since a multiyear pact expired this week.
Rockford Register-Star: Political pressure ramps up around Rockford casino
One of the operators Wisconsin-based Gorman & Co. had courted to run a casino on land south of its downtown hotel dropped out this week as political pressure mounted for a location along Interstate 90.
Gorman Illinois Market President Ron Clewer said the potential operator, which he would not name, was spooked by the Winnebago County Economic Development Committee’s consideration of a resolution calling for an I-90 location. There remain two strong operators interested in the downtown location, but Clewer said the situation illustrates how important it is for advocates of a downtown locale to be heard.