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Champaign News-Gazette: Doing more with less
Internal Revenue Service numbers show residents are fleeing Illinois and taking their money with them.
No one likes to be spurned. So when the topic of conversation turns on one statewide website to out-migration from the state of Illinois, the natives not only get restless, they get angry at those moving out.
“Who needs them?” is a common response.
WBEZ: Cook County Grand Jury Subpoenas Campaign Records In 13th Ward Aldermanic Race
A Cook County grand jury has subpoenaed Chicago’s Board of Election Commissioners for documents related to the petition challenge of a failed aldermanic candidate who ran against the alderman of powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in this year’s city elections.
The Dec.18 subpoena, obtained by WBEZ on Friday through an open records request filed last month, asks the city’s election authority to turn over “any and all documents, records, memos, notes and correspondence pertaining to the petition challenge to Chicago 13th Ward Aldermanic candidate David Krupa.”
State Journal-Register: Township consolidation law may be first of many government reduction efforts
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law giving voters in one Illinois county an option to more easily dissolve township governments. It is an initiative of two state lawmakers to ease residents’ property taxes by reducing levels of government.
Barrington Hills Representative David McSweeney said it is the first step to providing that choice to voters throughout the state. Consolidation must first work well in McHenry County, the sixth most populous county in Illinois, before the experiment can expand.
Rockford Register-Star: Rockford-area property values on the rise
The value of residential, commercial and industrial properties in the area continues to rebound from the depths of the recession a decade ago, according to notices mailed last week by the Winnebago County Supervisor of Assessments Office.
On average, the taxable value of a home in Winnebago County rose approximately 6% in the last year, according to the assessment office.
Decatur Herald & Review: Decatur makes major progress on demolitions, but nearly 200 properties remain on the list
Phyllis Boey keeps the lawn in front of her two-story home well-maintained, with colorful flowers and freshly cut grass. Ornate metal butterflies and birds decorate the metal fence.
Standing in her yard, Boey’s view to the west is of decaying, boarded-up houses. In the adjacent 400 block of West King Street are seven homes on the city of Decatur’s demolition list — homes that have been deemed unsafe for people to live in and beyond repair. A sign on one nearby house reads, “House closed – drugs. Yours could be next.”