Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Wirepoints: Cook County's Outrageous Attempt To Charge Plaintiffs $17 Million In Beverage Tax Case
The legal defense of Cook County’s new beverage tax took an astonishing turn this week — a dangerous one.
First, the background. On June 30 a Cook County judge issued a temporary restraining order against enforcement of Cook County’s new beverage tax. The plaintiffs — the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and some grocers — argued that the tax is unconstitutional. An appellate court upheld that order on July 10, and the lower court extended its order for an additional week on July 21. But on July 28 the court determined on the merits that the tax was constitutional, denying a request for a permanent injunction and letting the tax go into effect.
Belleville News-Democrat: Illinois spends $1 to hand out every 83 cents in taxes for arts
Maybe $1.85 million isn’t the biggest expense in Illinois and won’t make much of a dent in the state’s $14.4 billion bill backlog, but maybe a blank canvas is exactly the kind of artistic statement we need.
Let’s eliminate the Illinois Arts Council Agency from the state budget. They must have taken lessons on government efficiency from our local townships, spending $1 million on staff and overhead in 2016 to hand out $834,900 in grants.
NBC 5 Chicago: New Illinois Tax-Collection Fee to Affect Local Governments
Tens of thousands of sales-tax dollars collected locally will now remain in Illinois’ state coffers instead of making their way back home.
Illinois’ new budget contains a new tax-collection fee. This means that 2 percent of certain local tax dollars collected by the state on behalf of municipalities and counties will be transferred to state funds, the News-Gazette reported.
State Journal-Register: Positions on school funding unchanged after Rauner veto
Gov. Bruce Rauner was finally able to use his amendatory veto pen on the school funding reform bill last week,
But having his proposal put into writing hasn’t changed the positions of Springfield-area lawmakers when it comes to either supporting the original bill or Rauner’s changes.
WBEZ: School Vouchers For Broad Swath of Families On The Table In School Funding Fight
Roughly 67 percent of Illinois families could qualify to send their children to private schools using diverted taxpayer money under a proposal being considered by legislators attempting to break a stalemate that’s threatening school funding on the eve of a new academic year, WBEZ has learned.
WBEZ obtained a copy of the draft proposal from a school voucher advocate who said he met with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner about the plan four days before Rauner’s Aug. 1 partial veto of an overhaul of the formula that Illinois uses to dole out state money to schools. A Rauner spokeswoman did not immediately confirm the meeting happened.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois preparing to make roads safe for solar eclipse
Illinois Department of Transportation officials say efforts are underway to make sure traffic keeps moving and roadways are safe during the upcoming solar eclipse.
The Carbondale area in southern Illinois is in the path of a total eclipse on Aug. 21. The rest of Illinois will see a partial eclipse.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois enacts law to commemorate Barack Obama's birthday
The home state of former President Barack Obama will commemorate his birthday under a new law.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed a plan honoring the 44th president’s birthday on Aug. 4. It won’t be an official state holiday, rather a day to honor Obama. The law notes Obama’s efforts to protect Americans’ rights and build “bridges across communities.”
Northwest Herald: Documents reveal push by Lake in the Hills Sanitary District to close Kane County land purchase
Lake in the Hills Sanitary District officials appeared desperate to close any land deal they could in Kane County to foil attempts to consolidate it into village government, records show.
Private email communications between district officials and engineers, attorneys and real estate brokers reveal a frenzied attempt in recent months to expand the district across the county line in order to exempt the district from a new law that allows county boards to consolidate some of the state’s almost 7,000 units of local government.
Daily Herald: How Wheeling says one resident has cost taxpayers $144,000
Did Wheeling really spend more than $144,000 to supply a resident with documents she’d requested under the Freedom of Information Act? Or is the village using big cost estimates to deter her requests?
That’s the focus of the latest squabble between the village and Deborah Wilson, who often attends meetings to criticize board members.