Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois lawmakers face a pension crisis. Best to head home and campaign.
Gov. Bruce Rauner, facing a tough re-election campaign, released his fourth and possibly final budget Wednesday. In it, he proposed a controversial idea for local school districts to share in the costs of their teachers’ pensions. Currently, districts set the amounts teachers receive but send the bill to the state.
“Now, they have no incentive to manage costs because the state picks them up no matter what they are,” Rauner said to an unusually subdued House chamber during his annual budget address. “When they are responsible for paying the bill, there will be plenty of incentive to lower costs.”
Chicago Tribune: State prepares to spend $75 million to expand college-admissions-related testing
In a groundbreaking move 17 years ago, the state paid for all public high school juniors to take a college entrance exam at school, a way to give 11th-graders of all backgrounds a shot at college. The exam, a hit with families, became a mainstay on the state’s annual testing roster.
Now the Illinois State Board of Education is moving to expand free testing, providing a set of college-admissions-related exams to all ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders across the state, potentially costing taxpayers up to $75 million through 2024, ISBE records show.
Crain's Chicago Business: Tolls on expressways? Trump plan says yes.
Are you ready to pay tolls on the Kennedy, Eisenhower, Bishop Ford and other Chicago-area expressways—and not just on new lanes that might be added in the median, but on the entire roadway?
The possibility is buried in President Donald Trump’s big new infrastructure plan, and a congressman who specializes in transportation issues doesn’t like the idea at all.
Chicago Tribune: CTA board approves labor agreement that gives raises to bus, train operators
The CTA board on Wednesday approved a labor agreement with the agency’s bus and train worker unions, which includes pay raises for both.
The agreement gives about 9,000 workers 4.5 percent raises through July 2019, plus retroactive raises of 5 percent going back to 2016.
Chicago Sun-Times: Order over lawsuits in Dorothy Brown’s office put on hold by appeals court
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown won a small legal victory Wednesday in her fight over public access to new electronically filed lawsuits.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to put on hold a lower court’s order that she make them accessible until it has a chance to consider whether the order was proper.
Northwest Herald: McHenry Township officials approve putting consolidation referendum on November ballot
McHenry Township officials voted Tuesday night to put a referendum to voters in November asking whether the road district should be eliminated.
At a special meeting, Trustees Mike Rakestraw, Bob Anderson and Bill Cunningham voted in favor of the measure, while Trustee Stan Wojewski and Supervisor Craig Adams voted against it. The 3-2 vote in favor of the measure came one month after the same board voted down the referendum. Rakestraw previously had voted “no.”
Northwest Herald: McHenry County municipalities see hike in labor costs, parking tickets after snowfall
Snowfall that started Feb. 8 and ended Sunday morning in McHenry County cost at least one city thousands of dollars in equipment and labor required to keep up with the winter storm.
Although some municipalities haven’t finished tallying the final cost of the weekend’s storm, others are celebrating their preparedness and success in keeping pace with the accumulating snow.
Northwest Herald: Algonquin Township officials clash over cost of $4,500 forensic audit of highway department
Algonquin Township officials clashed at their monthly meeting Wednesday night over whether trustees should approve the $4,500 bill for a forensic audit of road district computers authorized by Highway Commissioner Andrew Gasser.
Trustee Melissa Victor motioned to have both the latest bill from Gasser’s attorney, Robert Hanlon, and the bill from Decatur-based forensics company Garrett Discovery removed from the monthly bills.
State Journal-Register: New study: Downtown Springfield sewers fix could cost $32M to $56M
Go slowly through the sewers underneath downtown Springfield and you will see missing mortar, bricks that have fallen off walls, sagging floors holding water and sewer ceilings that have compressed downward to form an egg shape.
Also: Bugs, globs of yellow grease, at least two rats and the errant two-by-four.