Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Wirepoints: New Stanford Study Exposes Illinois Pensions as the Farce They Are
Let’s suppose you’re smart enough not to trust what the government says about how far underwater public pensions are — even using the new accounting standards that are more conservative. Suppose, instead, you change one key assumption — the “discount rate” — to use what all reputable financial economists say you should use.
Do that and our pension liabilities become utterly absurd. Illinois, Chicago and Cook County pensions stand out.
Chicago Tribune: A wrist slap for a clouted auditor: Call the bill, Mr. Speaker, to oust Frank Mautino
Add another fiasco to the “Only in Illinois” file: For failing to comply with state laws that govern campaign fundraising, the state’s top auditor will pay a meager $5,000 fine.
Actually, he probably won’t. The campaign committee that would pay the fine dissolved in 2015 when Auditor General Frank Mautino left his job as a state lawmaker to become the state’s top auditor. At the time, lawmakers who overwhelmingly voted to promote him probably didn’t know that questionable expenditures in his lawmaker campaign account would provoke a federal investigation. That probe is ongoing.
State Journal-Register: ‘Grand bargain’ vote fizzles again in Illinois Senate
Another attempt at passing the “grand bargain” fell short in the Illinois Senate Wednesday, leaving Republicans and Democrats again blaming each other for the latest failure.
With little Republican support, the Senate did approve several components of the plan, including a revamped school funding formula, gambling expansion, changes to state purchasing rules and pension reform. The chamber also passed legislation to borrow $7 billion to pay down the state’s bill backlog that is nearly twice that.
News-Gazette: Spending more than we have
The Springfield sausage-making factory grinds on, laboring mightily and so far producing very little in terms of the political compromise required when power is divided.
So far, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-controlled Legislature have failed to work out their differences, in the process accentuating their differences.
State Journal-Register: Rauner aide: Democrats’ school funding plan a CPS ‘bailout’
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office characterized a plan to overhaul Illinois’ school-funding formula as a “bailout” for Chicago Public Schools Wednesday, following Senate approval of the measure amid growing pressure to revamp the system before the legislative session’s May 31 deadline.
Rauner’s chief education adviser told The Associated Press the governor won’t support the proposal if it benefits Chicago schools “at the expense” of others. The Illinois Senate approved the measure 35-18 on Wednesday. It is aimed at eliminating Illinois’ largest-in-the-nation gap in spending between affluent school districts and those serving poorer communities. A House committee advanced an amended version of a similar measure hours later.
Fox Illinois: Comptroller Mendoza Calling for Transparency Now that Bill Backlog Reaches New Record
Illinois’ estimated bill backlog has reached a new record: $14.3 billion.
Now, Comptroller Susana Mendoza is calling for more transparency with a new bill.
Chicago Tribune: Alderman, victimized by squirrel, still fighting trash-seeking furry rodents
Ald. Howard Brookins on Wednesday continued his war on rats and squirrels that gnaw on city garbage carts, with a little help from City Council Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke.
Burke, 14th, presided over a debate about the problem that featured talk of mesh that could force many a rodent into starvation from a damaged palate, coatings like hot sauce that would repel rats and squirrels and the fleeting preventative effects of coyote urine.
Chicago Sun-Times: New study: Chicago City Council is growing a spine — ever so slowly
The City Council is making “glacial progress” toward shedding its reputation as a rubber stamp because Mayor Rahm Emanuel is “undeniably weaker” and the city’s recalcitrant problems are requiring more painful solutions, a new study shows.
There’s almost nothing that angers Emanuel more than being reminded that he’s been “weakened politically” by being forced into Chicago’s first mayoral runoff and by his handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting video shortly after being re-elected.
Chicago Sun-Times: Aldermen crack down on valet parking, SpotHero
Valet parkers would be reigned in yet again — and SpotHero would have a tougher time escaping the city’s parking tax — under a pair of crackdowns advanced Wednesday by a City Council committee.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) was the champion of both ordinances endorsed by the City Council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety. That’s because nowhere is parking, traffic and congestion a more vexing issue than it is in the downtown area and River North.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel’s plan to cut amusement tax for ticket resellers stalls
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to cut the city’s amusement tax ran into a roadblock Wednesday from aldermen bracing for a painful rescue of the Chicago Public Schools.
Emanuel’s 2017 budget changed the way the city’s 9 percent amusement tax is applied to ticket resales.
Chicago Sun-Times: $108 million Chicago Riverwalk set for official season opener
Summer in the city has taken on a whole new dimension in Chicago, as the 1.25-mile Riverwalk prepares for its first full season as an outdoor destination.
The “official opening” of the uninterrupted promenade, which runs along the Chicago River from Lake Shore Drive to Lake Street, will feature a daylong celebration from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, offering a preview of the activities visitors can enjoy through October.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago police finalize tighter rules on when to shoot, other uses of force
Chicago police officials on Wednesday announced policy changes intended to cut back on questionable shootings and other uses of force that have haunted the department for years.
The changes, made after months of back-and-forth revisions, will tighten department rules that experts and advocates have criticized as too permissive of unnecessary uses of force.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lawyer wants to question Daley about top officials’ Burge testimony
A former Chicago Police superintendent and the top aide to Richard M. Daley when he was Cook County state’s attorney have given conflicting accounts about Daley’s response to torture allegations that only he can resolve by giving a deposition, according to a new court filing.
An attorney for Stanley Wrice, who has filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city, is seeking to question Daley to resolve a “significant contradiction” in the testimony of former Supt. Richard Brzeczek and that of Richard Devine, who served as Daley’s first assistant state’s attorney. Devine later served as Cook County state’s attorney from 1996 to 2008.
Chicago Sun-Times: Dorothy Brown to be interviewed by federal authorities, Sneed hears
Sneed hears that the federal investigation into Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office is red hot.
Translation: Sneed is told the feds are this/close to questioning Brown as part of their probe into whether jobs and promotions were effectively for sale under her watch.
Decatur Herald & Review: Elevated lead levels found at 12 Decatur schools
State-mandated tests showed elevated lead levels in nearly 100 water sources across the Decatur school district, according to results released this week.
The results showed that 97 samples tested higher than the five parts per billion, the standard that requires parents to be notified under state law. Of those, 30 tested higher than 15 parts per billion, the standard at which the federal Environmental Protection Agency requires action to be taken.
Belleville News-Democrat: Alorton trustees hire seven; mayor says she’ll set their pay later
The village board voted 4-2 at their last meeting to hire seven new employees, but instead of setting their pay, they left that to Mayor Joann Reed who told them she would figure out the amount “later,” according to the two trustees who voted against the measure.
“We don’t know what they are going to be paid. And we can’t afford them anyway,” said Trustee Gwen McCallum, who said she opposed any hiring without first setting salaries.
The Southern: Senators raise concerns about lead exposure in Cairo; HUD says water filters are 'precautionary' and lead levels do not indicate an emergency
Water filters have been installed in all Alexander County Housing Authority occupied units after testing revealed some water samples at two developments contained levels of lead at or above the Environmental Protection Agency’s lead action level, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In an emailed statement, Jereon Brown, HUD’s general deputy assistant director for public affairs, said the last of the water filters were to be installed on Tuesday inside units in Thebes.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Airport tax expansion plan hits some turbulence
A plan to expand the taxing power of the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority has hit some turbulence.
Officials hoped State Sen. Jason Barickman, a Bloomington Republican, would push legislation allowing the authority to tax all of McLean County and to dramatically increase tax rates, but he will not, Barickman said in a letter.