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State Journal-Register: Is Pritzker setting up a bad budget or a graduated tax?
Was Gov. JB Pritzker trying to lower expectations for his first budget proposal or start setting the stage for a graduated income tax? Or both?
The occasion was the release of a report from Pritzker’s budget transition team, subtly titled “Digging Out: The Rauner Wreckage Report.”
Chicago Tribune: Chicago charter strike prepares to enter second week as talks stall over pay
A city charter school strike that has halted regular classes for 2,000 students at four campuses prepared to enter its second week on Sunday, as negotiators grappled over pay and the Chicago Teachers Union planned “stepped-up militancy on the picket line.”
Chicago International Charter Schools pickets and union allies rallied at the CTU’s headquarters over the weekend for a show of labor force, capping a week of pickets and negotiations that failed to land an agreement to end Chicago’s second work stoppage at its independently operated campuses.
Chicago Tribune: Candidates, are you taking police reform seriously?
Chicago will not fulfill its destiny as a great city until residents of all neighborhoods trust the police.
As the election approaches, an important issue facing voters is how the next mayor will improve and reform the troubled Chicago Police Department. Chicago has a long history of officers using excessive force against African-American and Latino people. Accountability has been lax. Police misconduct cost the city $662 million in legal settlements from 2004 to early 2016. The 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald elevated this pattern into a crisis.
WBEZ: Chicago Inspector General: Public Doesn’t Know Full Story On Laquan McDonald Shooting
Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is calling on city officials to release thousands of pages of records from his 2016 investigation into the police department’s handling of Officer Jason Van Dyke’s shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald.
Ferguson called his probe “a matter of high public interest and importance” and warned that the public still does not know “the full story” about the shooting’s aftermath.
Chicago Sun-Times: Ald. Edward Burke built ‘special police’ force after Rahm cut bodyguard detail
After he was elected in 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, facing budget problems and a shortage of officers on the streets, said he’d cut the bodyguard detail for Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), paring it from four active-duty Chicago police officers to two retired cops.
So Burke began hiring former Chicago cops and getting them certified through an obscure city program, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
Crain's Chicago Business: Pritzker makes new move to lure Amazon HQ2 here
A source close to Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he already has been on the phone to the company in light of a story earlier today in the Washington Post that the company is reconsidering locating half of its second headquarters in New York City, where a proposed location in the Long Island City section of Queens has drawn intense local opposition.
Northwest Herald: Thumbs-up to returning taxpayers money from Valley Hi
Thumbs-up: To McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks’ efforts to refund $15 million from Valley Hi Nursing Home reserves. The county-operated nursing home in Woodstock has more than two years of reserve funding, Franks said, adding that the surplus is a result of overtaxation. We agree that qualifying residents – ones who took the homestead exemption in the 2017 tax year and have paid their taxes on time – should get a refund. As long as the nursing home is able to operate smoothly and have enough saved up for emergencies, there’s no reason why the taxpayers of McHenry County shouldn’t get their money back. It’s simply good government to not take more in taxes than is needed each year.
Daily Herald: Suburban districts boosting pay, incentives to fill school bus driver jobs
Scott Cochran is eager to get behind the wheel of his school bus every day at Palatine Township Elementary District 15.
With a steady stream of friendly riders, good pay and solid benefits, Cochran says there is plenty to like about the gig in his 10th year at Illinois’ second-largest elementary district.
State Journal-Register: Millennials and market saturation raise doubts about new casino push
As the Statehouse and Chicago City Hall flirt yet again with gambling expansion, the odds of that wager translating into a payoff for taxpayers appear to get longer and longer.
The Southern: Minimum wage hike would cost SIU Carbondale about $6.9 million annually
Southern Illinois University Carbondale estimates that bringing the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost the school about $6.9 million annually.
SIU Carbondale and the School of Medicine in Springfield, which are funded jointly, employ about 2,300 students and 600 other employees that make less than $15 an hour, according to SIU spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith.