Get the latest news from around Illinois.
WQAD: One year after historic tax increase, Illinois remains in the red
One year ago last Friday, lawmakers overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto, passing a $36.5 billion budget that took an additional $5 billion from taxpayers and ended a more than two-year standoff between the freshman governor demanding pro-business reforms and Democrats in the General Assembly, who passed a budget with the help of a handful of defecting Republicans.
The final vote tallies were slim but Democrats passed the budget Rauner that said in his veto message included “no changes to create jobs and grow our economy. It will push more families and businesses out of our state.”
Belleville News-Democrat: Fireworks are illegal in Illinois. No, really
Exploding fireworks have been illegal in Illinois since 1942, punishable by up to a $2,500 fine and a year in jail. The strict law was effective until about 11 p.m. on July 4, 1943.
That’s when the rebellion started right here: “It seems a group of boys couldn’t hold back any longer. Armed with large firecrackers, which had been banned, they ‘rent the usual quiet of night with exploding missiles, keeping the police busy before the nuisance ceased,'” according to Brian Keller in his O’Fallon Progress history column.
Chicago Sun-Times: New development could bring 2,000 jobs to Chicago’s Southeast side
A $169 million industrial complex planned for the Southeast Side could bring over 2,000 jobs to the area.
NorthPoint Development of Kansas City will build the project just north of Ford’s Torrence Avenue plant.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: WBEZ, ProPublica Investigation Reveals Thousands of Duplicate Tickets
It’s a disturbing pattern: The city has issued duplicate tickets – and sometimes multiple tickets – on the same day, sometimes within the same hour, for the same vehicle violation. And the majority of those tickets are usually written in poor neighborhoods.
In its investigative series “Driven Into Debt,” ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ found Chicago has issued 20,000 duplicate tickets since 2007.
Bloomberg: Why Your Sandwich Is About to Get a Little More Expensive
Your turkey sub may soon cost you a little more.
As minimum wage increases take hold across the U.S. — with Chicago and Los Angeles two of the latest big cities to implement hikes — restaurants may be among the hardest-hit businesses. They’re already facing reduced foot traffic and a worker shortage, and the rising labor costs could mean higher bills for that slowing trickle of diners.
Northwest Herald: Dean Foods to close Huntley plant by late September
Dean Foods in Huntley is closing in September, a village official confirmed Monday.
The shuttering of the Huntley dairy plant and office facility will cause 131 people to lose their jobs, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter sent by Dean’s, which said that layoffs are set to begin Sept. 14 and continue to Sept. 28.
Daily Herald: Wauconda library to borrow up to $1.32 million for staircase project
The Wauconda Area Library board will borrow up to $1.32 million to help fund the construction of a new staircase outside the building’s front entrance and other improvements.
A new exterior ramp and walkway are planned, too, as is the widening of the existing ramp, some landscaping and changes to the driveway outside the library, 801 N. Main St.
Rockford Register-Star: ‘Worlds colliding’ over Winnebago County sheriff’s budget
Winnebago County Board meetings are once again a place where some county officials and Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana just cannot see eye to eye.
Caruana came Monday night asking members of a joint finance and public safety committee meeting for $2.7 million in budget amendments for this fiscal year, which is set to close Sept. 30.
Peoria Journal-Star: School facilities sales tax would be a $936,000 windfall for Washington high school
Washington Community High School would rake in approximately $936,000 annually if Tazewell County voters approve a 1 percent school facilities sales tax.
The revenue amount — part of a report prepared by St. Louis-based Stifel, Nicolaus and Company — was relayed to the high school’s School Board on Monday by Superintendent Kyle Freeman.
State Journal-Register: City to consider $5.9 million in TIF funding for new Y
City officials will begin formal discussions Tuesday on a plan to spend up to $5.9 million in tax-increment financing funds on a new downtown YMCA in the 300 block of East Carpenter Street that is estimated to cost $35.7 million.
The TIF money will be discussed as part of a development agreement that will be considered by the Springfield Economic Development Commission at its 10:30 a.m. meeting Tuesday in the first-floor Carnegie Room South in Lincoln Library, 326 S. Seventh St.