Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Progressive income tax proposal would sink Illinois
The Land of Lincoln is on the precipice of a financial disaster, and the window to repair our damaged state is shrinking every single day. Instead of reforming public employee pensions and Medicaid, some people are promoting a progressive income tax constitutional amendment — a code phrase for another massive tax increase. The adoption of a progressive income tax would be the final nail in the coffin of our great state. We need to cut spending, not raise taxes.
Illinois is a great state with attractive natural resources, solid infrastructure and outstanding people. However, our finances are a mess. Despite a massive 32 percent income tax increase approved last year, our state has the worst credit rating of all 50 states and, according to Moody’s rating agency, an unfunded pension liability of about $250 billion, a sum far greater that the $133 billion calculated by the state. It is little wonder that Illinois lost 33,000 people net last year and that we recently fell behind Pennsylvania in population.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel claims 22.9% City Colleges graduation rate
Sixteen months ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel set a high bar for his new City Colleges chancellor Juan Salgado: a 25 percent graduation rate by 2019 in a system that, not too long ago, graduated just 7 percent of its students.
Now, the mayor and Salgado are claiming to be within striking distance of that ambitious goal with a graduation rate of 22.9 percent.
Northwest Herald: Huntley School District 158 Board approves more than $1.7M in admin salary contracts
Huntley School District 158 has approved multiyear contracts of more than $1.7 million in salaries alone for four of its administrators.
The figure doesn’t include what the district will pay for benefits for those employees, who include chief financial officer Mark Altmayer, chief technology officer Christopher Budzynski, assistant superintendent for human resources Adam Zehr and director of communications and public engagement Dan Armstrong.
Daily Herald: Hoffman Estates paying historian $30,000 to update village book
The cliffhanger ending of Hoffman Estates’ 2009 history book is expected to be resolved during the village’s 60th anniversary in 2019.
But the gap the sequel will fill is not just the last 10 years, but the past 28.
State Journal-Register: Springfield aldermen concerned about quality of waste-hauling services
After hearing complaints from Springfield residents, aldermen are voicing concern over the quality of the services provided by the three private waste-hauling companies regulated by city government, especially after the haulers recently raised rates to the city-approved maximum.
Springfield City Council members say complaints include yard waste bags not being picked up, haulers starting before 6 a.m., overflowing garbage and a need for haulers to provide consistent reports on fly dumping, as promised. Mayor Jim Langfelder said he would have a meeting with waste haulers next week to review the council’s concerns.
Belleville News-Democrat: Breese superintendent gets year of pay, two years of insurance as severance
Under a separation agreement with the school district he led for 18 months, a former superintendent will get a year’s pay as severance and health insurance coverage until 2020 at the latest.
The agreement also calls for the school district to give an agreed-upon, positive recommendation to future employers of the former superintendent, Jeff Strieker.
The Southern: Dunn responds to analysis of FOIA documents, says he supports fair allocation
Southern Illinois University President Randy Dunn is speaking out against an analysis of documents that found he colluded with SIU Edwardsville officials on a campus reallocation proposal and supported a bill to split up the university system.
In what attorneys Shane Moskop and Jim Mendillo called a response to “The Southern’s erroneous interpretation and analysis” of nearly 1,900 pages of documents released by the SIU FOIA office, the Belleville-based law firm Freeark, Harvey and Mendillo, P.C. released a statement on behalf of Dunn Tuesday afternoon.