Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Crain's Chicago Business: Who would want to move into this mess?
A major Chicago company, we hear, is having a harder time persuading recruits to move here. Full employment, especially among the well-compensated professionals it’s hiring, might seem to blame. But the company isn’t struggling to attract talent in markets where jobless rates are even lower than metro Chicago’s most recent rate of 4.3 percent. What’s the problem then? It’s the candidates’ fear that Chicago and Illinois generally have become risky places in which to buy a home and raise a family.
When the General Assembly reconvenes June 21, it could put some of those worries to rest and pass an actual state budget for the first time in two years. That would require compromise from Gov. Bruce Rauner as well as his Democratic adversaries, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton. For far too long, they’ve put their own re-elections ahead of the commonweal. Meanwhile, the state stumbles along, spending far more than it’s taking in. Meanwhile, too, the unthinkable becomes less improbable: Without state support, junk-rated governments in Illinois, including the city of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools and a half-dozen state universities, could essentially go under.
Crain's Chicago Business: Chicago's slow housing recovery has a huge price tag
The Chicago area’s slow housing market recovery comes at a price: $107 billion. That’s the difference between the current market value of all residential property in the six-county area and what it would be worth if the Chicago real estate market’s recovery were keeping up with the nation’s.
The pace of Chicago’s recovery has accelerated in recent months, and in several affluent areas of the city and suburbs, home prices have recovered past their old peaks. But regionally, the recovery in home values remains about 20 percentage points below the national figure, according to the latest data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, released in May.
NBC 5 Chicago: Comptroller Warns Illinois Finances in 'Massive Crisis Mode'
During the two-and-a-half years Illinois has gone without a state budget, the previously little-known office of comptroller has had the unenviable job of essentially sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out how to pay the bills.
Like any household, there are some items that must be paid first. A mix of state law, court orders and pressure from credit rating agencies requires Illinois to make its debt and pension payments, for example, and issue state worker paychecks and some money for schools.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Business: Illinois' budget mess shackling growth
Illinois has seen some notable moments over the years: The world’s first skyscraper was built in Chicago 1885, and Illinois was the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.
But here’s a new record no one is proud of: the Land of Lincoln has the lowest credit rating of any state in recent memory, and the Illinois business community is getting scared.
NBC 5 Chicago: Cook County State's Attorney Backs Bail Reform Measures
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office says its prosecutors will start backing the release of suspects without bond for minor offenses pending resolution of their case.
In a statement Monday, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said detaining people accused of low-level offenses who have not yet been convicted simply because they are poor is unjust.
Northwest Herald: McHenry County school districts ponder cutoff of state funding without Illinois budget deal
Some of McHenry County’s school districts say that school will open as scheduled in the fall, even if they lose funding because state lawmakers can’t agree on a budget.
But the picture won’t be pretty for their budgets, which would get uglier the longer the impasse lasts.
Northwest Herald: McHenry County Board to tackle recorder referendum, conservation district budget
Abolishing the office of county recorder, approving the 2018 budget for the McHenry County Conservation District and signing off on state prevailing wage rates are among the matters that the McHenry County Board will take a vote on Tuesday.
Board members near the end of their monthly voting meeting will decide whether to put a binding referendum on the March 2018 primary ballot asking voters whether they want to abolish the elected position of recorder and consolidate its functions with the county clerk, as is done in most Illinois counties.
Decatur Herald & Review: Decatur-area real estate is a buyer's market in need of buyers
Wendy King has been flipping houses in Decatur for more than 15 years — a long time in a difficult field.
She’s living in one of her current homes for sale, a yellow ranch on the West End. It’s been sitting on the market for a couple months, and King said it’s not getting the attention she had hoped.
State Journal-Register: Should Springfield add a new TIF in Rochester School District?
Two Rochester-based developers have plans to build nearly 130 houses on vacant land east of Hilltop Road. And they’re looking to the city of Springfield to help finance putting in streets, sewers and other infrastructure by establishing a new tax increment financing district.
The project, dubbed River Chase Landing, is facing its first preliminary hurdle Tuesday, with the Springfield City Council set to consider a resolution declaring its intent to establish the TIF district.