Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Center Square: Ahead of deadline, lawmakers file bills to ban gas-powered leaf blowers, restrict plastic straw use, require gun owners to get $1 million insurance policies
While a measure to require gas station attendants to pump gas in Illinois was tabled, other bills at the statehouse have been catching the attention of Illinois taxpayers.
One would ban gas-powered leaf blowers. Another would require gun owners to get a $1 million insurance policy.
Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker will propose a significant hike in child welfare spending but will have to figure out how to pay for that while fulfilling his goal of a second balanced budget
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday will propose millions of additional dollars for Illinois’ long-troubled child welfare agency as he puts forward a plan to again balance the state’s chronically unstable budget while simultaneously attempting to convince voters to approve his graduated-rate income tax plan this fall.
The budget proposal Pritzker will present to lawmakers can’t rely on any additional revenue Illinois could see from the graduated income tax if voters approve his plan, and the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is just one area where there’s a demand for more state funding.
Chicago Sun-Times: Pritzker plans $147 million boost for DCFS in second-year budget
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s second-year budget will include a $147 million increase in funding for DCFS to boost staffing and increase support for investigations.
The Democratic governor also plans to increase the agency’s headcount to 3,056 employees, up from the 2,758 employed in 2018. That’s intended to reduce caseloads for overwhelmed investigators and to boost staffing at a hotline set up to receive calls about cases of child abuse and neglect.
The Center Square: Contractors say Community Builders apprenticeship program threatened by Illinois bill requiring prevailing wage
The Illinois Associated Builders and Contractors have raised concerns about a measure to require private contractors working in refineries or ethanol processing plants to pay prevailing wage would destroy the group’s Community Builders apprenticeship program.
Senate Bill 1407 would require certain safety provisions for work done at refineries or ethanol production plants. But it would also require private contractors to pay prevailing wage rates. It passed the Senate in 2019 and is up for final passage in the Illinois House.
Chicago Sun-Times: $270K settlement stemming from May 2014 police raid
A 62-year-old man who claims he was “violently attacked” and falsely arrested by Chicago Police officers who broke down his front door without a warrant is in line for a $270,000 settlement.
On Tuesday, the City Council’s Finance Committee will be asked to approve the payment to Cruz Rodriguez. It’s the latest in a parade of settlements tied to allegations of police wrongdoing and one of three such payments on the committee’s Tuesday agenda.
Chicago Tribune: Aldermen relied on a study to approve $1.3 billion for Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards. Turns out that Sterling Bay hired the consultant who wrote it.
Key to the massive $1.3 billion taxpayer subsidy for Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards megadevelopment was a 36-page report declaring that the project met the requirements to get the money.
As Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration promoted the record tax increment financing deal at a November 2018 public meeting inside a church, a planning official introduced the author of that report as “the city’s TIF consultant.”
Daily Herald: Is new Costco worth $5.5 million incentive? Naperville has decision to make.
Naperville City Council members are set to discuss whether replacing a longtime big-box vacancy with a new Costco is worth $5.5 million in sales tax incentives.
The council could offer a rebate to entice the warehouse grocer and retailer to open its second store in town during a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the municipal center at 400 S. Eagle St.
News-Gazette: Mayor: Urbana's financial future bright, no matter how Carle tax case plays out
fter three years, Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin said the city has closed its structural budget hole.
According to a financial forecast, the city’s revenues are projected to exceed expenses each of the next five years.
Daily Herald: Buffalo Grove considering new TIF district to spark growth in Lake-Cook corridor
Buffalo Grove’s Lake-Cook Road corridor has been the subject of much discussion among residents, planners, developers, officials and local politicians, but all the talk has yet to translate into results for a thoroughfare bookended by two moribund shopping centers.
That picture could change dramatically with the creation of a Lake-Cook Road Tax Increment Financing district, a move village officials hope will spur private investment in the corridor.
The Center Square: As more states consider biometric privacy laws, expert warns about Illinois' approach
Other states are looking to copy Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, but an innovation expert warned about a potential pitfall of the state law.
Illinois’ law protecting biometric privacy – such as fingerprints and face shape – allows citizens to file a lawsuit, something unique to the state. Since Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act was enacted in 2008, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against companies large and small.
Northwest Herald: Island Lake trustees again delay vote on video gambling moratorium
Island Lake officials have again delayed voting on a proposed moratorium on new video gambling machines in the village.
The village board punted the issue at its meeting Thursday night, just as it did twice last month.
Daily Herald: Arlington Heights proposes TIF district to give southern entryway a glow-up
Arlington Heights officials have proposed setting up what would become the sixth tax increment financing district in the village’s history to help rejuvenate the southern entryway to town.
The economic development tool — in which property taxes above a certain point would be funneled into public and private projects instead of local governments like schools, parks and the library — is proposed for a 65-acre area along Arlington Heights Road, from the Jane Addams Tollway to Seegers Road.