Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois' minimum wage would hit $15 in 2025 under plan introduced by state Senate Democrats
Illinois Senate Democrats on Wednesday started advancing a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.25 per hour on Jan. 1 and to $15 per hour by 2025.
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat who for years has been attempting to raise the minimum wage from $8.25, filed her proposal Wednesday after more than a week of behind-the-scenes negotiations with labor leaders, business groups and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration. A Senate committee approved the bill hours later on a party-line vote, and the full Senate could vote as early as Thursday.
The Southern: New state bills’ aim to generate revenue through closing tax loopholes
Admitting it will take two years to see any new revenue from a progressive state income tax, Fair Economy Illinois has ideas for raising money in the meantime.
Joined by several lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago, the progressive advocacy group had a news conference Wednesday to lay out plans for raising $433 million in new state revenue.
Crain's Chicago Business: Casino as government jackpot? Maybe not.
Consider these grim numbers culled from public records.
Crain's Chicago Business: Union coalition pitches city income tax
A coalition of progressive activists and big unions is upping the ante on the call for new revenue to finance help for lower-income Chicagoans, this time proposing not just a “LaSalle Street tax” on financial transactions and restoration of the employer “head tax” but a new city income tax on those who work or live in Chicago.
With a swipe at “wealthy yuppies” and corporations who “don’t pay their fair share,” the group—which includes the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Healthcare Illinois—specifically wants a 3.5 percent tax on household income above $100,000 a year.
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago Public Schools’ budget surplus not enough to improve S&P rating
The Chicago Public Schools’ first budget surplus in three years won’t be enough to raise their general-obligation bond rating with Standard & Poor’s.
The ratings agency said Wednesday that despite the “positive” news released last month in the cash-strapped district’s comprehensive annual financial report, CPS will keep its “B+” rating with a stable outlook.
Chicago Tribune: Park District watchdog says Grant Park nonprofit president operated with little oversight, raised funds district never saw
The Chicago Park District for years ignored a prominent advocate’s resale of discounted Grant Park event permits to benefit his nonprofit organization instead of the park, the district’s top watchdog says in a report released on Wednesday.
An investigation into the Grant Park Conservancy and its leader, Bob O’Neill, raises questions about how the organization “came to occupy a unique space in which the Park District’s rules did not apply and very few questions were asked.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Developer hit up for donation by Solis: ‘Impossible’ to operate without aldermen
A few days after the City Council gave its blessing to a luxury hotel development in the West Loop in the summer of 2015, a key contractor on the project took a phone call from a Chicago alderman.
“Hi Spiro,” the call allegedly began. “How ya doin’? This is Danny Solis.”
State Journal-Register: Ex-Illinois legislator pleads not guilty in nude photo case
A Republican former Illinois state legislator has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of posting nude photos of women online without their consent.
The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports that Nick Sauer of Lake Barrington showed no reaction as a Lake County judge read the dozen counts during his arraignment Wednesday. The 36-year-old faces felony charges of disseminating private sexual images.