Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Madigan offers budget, but won't say how he'd pay for it
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan introduced his long-awaited spending plan Tuesday, but didn’t offer specifics on how to pay for the $36.4 billion proposal that would direct money to schools, universities and social service programs.
That prompted Republicans backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner to accuse Democrats of refusing to “show their cards” on a tax increase, saying without details it’s impossible to tell if Madigan’s blueprint was balanced.
State Journal-Register: House Democrats propose four-year property tax freeze
Illinois House Democrats have agreed to a four-year property tax freeze that Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has said is one of his conditions for considering higher taxes to balance a state budget.
However, the plan pushed by House Democrats contains a number of exemptions that Rauner has previously said he opposes.
Chicago Tribune: Lottery to again delay large payouts due to Illinois budget woes
Illinois Lottery players should prepare for a bit of deja vu — with a twist — if Illinois leaders don’t pass a budget by Friday night.
Not only will the popular Powerball and Mega Millions tickets be off the shelf, but also any big winners of any of the other draw or instant games will have to wait to collect their cash.
Wall Street Journal: How Bad Is the Crisis in Illinois? It Has $14.6 Billion in Unpaid Bills
This is what happens when a major American state lets its bills stack up for two years.
Hospitals, doctors and dentists don’t get paid for hundreds of millions of dollars of patient care. Social-service agencies help fewer people. Public universities and the towns that surround them suffer. The state’s bond rating falls to near junk status. People move out.
Crain's Chicago Business: Budget crisis could snatch solar cash
Little more than six months ago, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the Future Energy Jobs Act into law.
Best known for the ratepayer-funded subsidies keeping open two Illinois nuclear plants that were slated for closure, the law also was a boon to a solar industry that has yet to find its footing in Illinois.
Fox Illinois: 80% of state teacher pension payments going towards unfunded liability
Seven billion dollars of the state’s budget goes towards pensions for the fiscal year 2017; Four million of that is for the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). However, 80 percent of that funding goes towards unfunded liabilities, while only 20 percent actually goes towards pension payments accumulated throughout the year.
That unfunded liability comes from the state not paying the full tab, which has been done for years. For the fiscal year 2017, the state should pay $6 billion, rather than only $4 billion, if they want to stop accruing that unfunded liability.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois stays mum on health insurance rates, plans for next year's exchange
Illinois residents will not know until Aug. 1 which health insurers intend to offer plans on the state’s Obamacare exchange next year — and at what prices — though that information is already available in more than a dozen other states.
Consumer advocates say it’s information that could help Illinois residents prepare for next year as well as inform their opinions as the Senate weighs the latest proposal to revamp the health care law. The Senate on Tuesday delayed a vote on its proposal to overhaul the law until after its July Fourth recess.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Lawsuit Filed to Battle Cook County’s Soda Tax
There’s a last ditch effort to block the Cook County penny-per-ounce sweetened drink tax that goes into effect Saturday. The Illinois Retail Merchants Association has filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the tax.
“We think this tax violates the uniformity clause of Illinois Constitution, which says you have to tax like things alike, and what they’re doing is taxing like things differently,” said Tanya Triche Dawood, vice president and general counsel for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Chicago Tribune: How to squander $70,000 a day
When Chicago Public Schools students and their parents hear about how principals often are told to do more with less money, they should think about this figure: $70,000 a day. That’s what CPS will pay in interest under the terms of two loans it secured recently. And that, of course, comes atop all the other interest CPS pays on money it has borrowed.
That’s another $70,000 a day — not a week, not a year — that won’t go to textbooks, school supplies, teachers’ salaries, nurses, librarians, school maintenance or anything else remotely related to helping children learn.
Chicago Tribune: CPS considers transit card management contract that has been subject of investigation
The Chicago Board of Education is set to pay a private company about $1 million to manage how schools distribute public transit fare cards, a joint effort of the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools that has been a regular target of investigations by the district’s inspector general.
A no-bid, three-year contract with Omicron Technologies Inc. is up for school board approval Wednesday, about nine months after the IG’s office complained that district officials had interfered with an investigation into fare card theft.
Chicago Tribune: Proposed Fair Workweek ordinance would mandate predictable schedules, stable paychecks
Chicago employers would have to give workers at least two weeks’ notice of their schedules and pay them extra for last-minute changes under a proposed ordinance that will be introduced Wednesday at the City Council.
The Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance follows the lead of cities including New York, San Francisco and Seattle, which have laws on the books meant to give hourly workers more predictable schedules and stable paychecks so they can better manage their lives.
Chicago Tribune: NIU is sued over president's lucrative severance
A DeKalb woman has sued Northern Illinois University’s board of trustees, seeking to block the lucrative severance agreement it reached with Doug Baker, the university president who recently announced his resignation following a scathing state report that alleged improper spending during his tenure.
The suit contends that the trustees violated the state Open Meetings Act by not notifying the public that it intended to reach an agreement with Baker, and then at the meeting by not giving the public an opportunity to comment on the terms of the deal.
Chicago Tribune: Three Chicago cops indicted in alleged cover-up of Laquan McDonald shooting
The Chicago police investigation of the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonaldunfolded like hundreds of others had before it, with an officer who claimed he fired in fear of his life, fellow cops who backed up his story and supervisors who quickly signed off on the case as a justifiable homicide.
The routine way the Police Department went about clearing Officer Jason Van Dyke — who now stands charged with murder in McDonald’s death — is at the heart of what critics of the department have often referred to as the code of silence.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel's own watchdog says court-enforced Police Department oversight needed
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s hand-picked City Hall watchdog has joined other critics in calling for the city to enter into a court-enforced oversight agreement to give the public confidence that Police Department reform efforts are on the up-and-up.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson delivered that point of view during a Tuesday appearance before the City Council Budget Committee for a routine hearing for aldermen to rubber-stamp the mayor’s decision to give him another four-year term.
Daily Herald: Lombard District 44 to pay interim superintendent $1,000 a day, replacement $190K
Lombard Elementary District 44 has agreed to pay its interim superintendent $1,000 a day for up to 50 days of work next school year.
But the administrator chosen to assume the role on a permanent basis said he hopes she isn’t needed that long.
Daily Herald: District 128 quiet on indictments against board member, employee
The Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 board met Monday for the first time since one trustee and an employee were indicted on perjury charges stemming from documents filed ahead of April’s election. The charges were not mentioned by the district or board during the meeting.
Board member Ellen Mauer faces four counts of perjury. Denise Zwit, assistant to Superintendent Prentiss Lea, faces three counts of perjury. They are accused of making false statements under oath about the collection of nominating petition signatures for the April 4 school board election.
State Journal-Register: Proposed TIF district faces increased opposition
The fate of a proposed tax increment financing district east of Hilltop Road is uncertain after the Rochester-based developers seeking the incentives for a residential subdivision faced tough questions from Springfield aldermen and opposition from the Rochester School District Tuesday night.
John Stites argued his plan to build a subdivision on nearly 60 acres of vacant land in Springfield, but in the Rochester School District, would boost the economy with construction jobs and provide millions in tax revenue to both the city and school district.
Belleville News-Democrat: East St. Louis Township could be missing $600,000 — with no way to get it back
As much as $600,000 in taxpayer money could be missing from one of the poorest communities in Illinois with no chance of getting any of it back, according to newly elected East St. Louis Township Supervisor Alvin Parks.
Parks said in an interview his goal for the township following the federal imprisonment of former supervisor Oliver Hamilton for fraud is to “turn the corner,” to better serve the public. His plan includes hiring his sister, Lauren Parks, at $50,000 a year and Lonzo Greenwood, the Democratic Party boss in East St. Louis, at $25,000 per year. Both would also receive health insurance.