Get the latest news from around Illinois.
WTTW: State Lawmakers Sue for Paychecks
No budget, no pay. That’s been the rallying cry behind the move to put state lawmaker paychecks in the same queue as the rest of the bills making up Illinois’ massive backlog. But six Democratic state representatives contend that forcing lawmakers to wait longer for their paychecks isn’t just illegal, it’s a Republican power play by Gov. Bruce Rauner and former Comptroller Leslie Munger.
Earlier this month the six lawmakers filed suit against Munger, arguing that her move to delay their paychecks this year as the budget crisis dragged on violated state law and the state constitution. (Munger’s successor, Democrat Susana Mendoza, has so far said she’ll continue the practice but that she’d honor a court order instructing her to pay lawmakers each month.)
State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch gathered a group of his colleagues during the fall veto session to sign onto the lawsuit. He acknowledges that withholding lawmaker paychecks is an appealing idea to some Illinoisans.
Fox Illinois: Rauner Advocates Turnaround Agenda Via Social Media
Governor Bruce Rauner’s Facebook live session covered the budget situation, and the message is a familiar one.
The Governor is advocating a budget deal that includes some of his turnaround reforms and blaming Democrats for the hold up.
Chicago Sun-Times: GOP uses Blago tapes to blast possible Dem gov candidate Pritzker
Democrat J.B. Pritzker isn’t officially running for governor, but that didn’t stop the Illinois Republican Party from going after him Tuesday, launching automated robo-calls linking the Chicago venture capitalist and philanthropist to imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The recorded call was sent to Democratic donors, elected officials and party activists. And the GOP said it will continue to highlight Pritzker’s “ties” to both Blagojevich and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan until he makes an official decision to run.
Daily Herald: If state leaders won't produce budget, the rest of us will have to get creative
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic Senate President John Cullerton have both been more open to discussion, but Madigan’s intransigence is beginning to suggest a sinister strategy of gridlock that could continue until an election showdown with the governor in 2018.
Which brings those of us living in the present, we who worry about what will happen to the state in the next two years and beyond, back to that vacuum. We’d like to fill it now with a union-style protest of 177 rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties marching on Springfield with signs and pitchforks and no per diems, demanding something supportable to vote on. We’d like to see a rebellion by resolute suburban Democrats refusing, however quixotically, to support Madigan’s re-election as speaker.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel chooses Valencia as city clerk
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday chose Anna Valencia as Chicago’s $133,545-a-year city clerk, calling his 31-year-old political operative the “next generation of leadership.”
Valencia, director of the mayor’s Office of Legislative Counsel and Government Affairs, replaces Susana Mendoza, the newly elected state comptroller.
Chicago Tribune: Falsifying student records still a problem at CPS, inspector general finds
Administrators at a Chicago high school for years falsely recorded hundreds of students who were truant, missing or had dropped out as transfers to home-school programs in an effort to put a better light on attendance and graduation rates, according to the annual report from the Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general.
The report from Nicholas Schuler’s office offers the latest examples of how administrators at some schools have tried to boost graduation and attendance rates by concealing dropouts. The report comes a year after the city tightened its criteria for counting transfers and lowered four years of citywide graduation rates.
Chicago Sun-Times: CPS IG: Rich parents can still game elective enrollment admission
Though Chicago Public Schools has ramped up consequences for anyone cheating to get into its coveted selective-enrollment programs, its inspector general says the schools system still is susceptible to fraud by well-off families that scam to get their kids in.
A Highland Park family rented a small apartment in Rogers Park so their younger child could follow an older sibling to Northside College Prep, despite test scores that didn’t make the cut, all while living in the family’s suburban 3,500-square-foot home, according to findings made public on Wednesday by top schools watchdog Nicholas Schuler.
Chicago Tribune: Top Human Services official vows increased transparency, oversight of group homes
Illinois group homes for adults with disabilities will face tougher licensing standards and enforcement and they will be graded for the first time on quality and safety, a top official for the Illinois Department of Human Services vowed to state legislators Tuesday.
Secretary James Dimas told Senate and House lawmakers that his department has launched more than a dozen reform measures to heighten enforcement of 3,000 group homes statewide and increase public transparency involving the care of 12,000 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel's police hiring plan at odds with his record
Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited the Chicago police academy Tuesday to draw renewed attention to his push to add nearly 1,000 new officers, a costly and challenging plan he has sold as a major step toward slowing the city’s runaway gun violence and improving oversight in a department plagued by scandal.
As he talked to about 100 young cadets in a meeting room on the Near West Side, the mayor told them they were among the hundreds of new officers in training, with more to come in the new year.
Illinois News Network: State’s corporate, sales tax revenue down $159 million last month
The state is making less tax money than expected and may have to reduce its budget to recession-era levels.
While income taxes saw marginal gains, the state’s corporate and sales tax income dropped once again in November, to a combined $159 million loss in state tax revenue. The net loss was buffered by the return of an $84 million overpayment from one of the state’s pension systems.
Peoria Journal-Star: State approves trimmed rate hike for Illinois American Water
Peoria and Pekin residents will see higher water rates next year, though not nearly as high as Illinois American Water originally had sought, under a rate increase approved Tuesday by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
The ICC approved a statewide hike of $35.3 million, more than one-quarter less than the $49.5 million Illinois American had asked for in January, with the bulk of the hike being used to cover expenses for infrastructure investments performed from October 2013 through December 2017.
State Journal-Register: Illinois State Fair patrons surveyed after attendance drop
The Illinois Department of Agriculture is surveying Illinois State Fair attendees about what they did and didn’t like about the event after attendance dropped more than 13 percent this year.
The department is asking people who attended the August fair in Springfield to complete a 35-question survey by Dec. 31, the Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers reported.
Belleville News-Democrat: St. Clair County considering public safety sales tax
After voters said “no” in 2014 to a sales tax hike to pay for jail renovations, St. Clair County officials are looking to try again, this time with a bigger request.
On Monday, St. Clair County Board members are scheduled to vote on whether to put a 1 percent sales tax hike on the April ballot to help pay for public safety needs in the county.