Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Hopes rise for new passenger trains to Quad Cities, Dubuque
In Moline, Ill., there is a new train station in the same building as a new hotel and just-opened stores.
All that’s needed is the train.
Crain's Chicago Business: Downtown jobs keep soaring as mayoral race closes in
As the race for mayor of Chicago gets seriously underway, new data on job creation in the metropolitan area starkly underlines what will be at stake in a city and region where some areas are enjoying unprecedented growth but others remain stuck in an economic rut.
The data are from Where Workers Work, a publication of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, which, unlike much job data, is based not on a sample or a survey but a hard count of jobs—in this case private-sector positions covered by unemployment insurance, which IDES administers.
Daily Herald: Buffalo Grove trustees question need for 'community engagement manager'
A pair of Buffalo Grove village trustees are questioning whether the town needs to hire a “community engagement manager,” as called for in the budget they’re scheduled to vote on early next month.
The proposed $1.6 million budget for the village manager’s office includes funding to fill the new post, which would cost the village about $100,000 annually, including benefits.
State Journal-Register: City fire, police pension costs expected to outpace property taxes again
For the second year, the city of Springfield’s property taxes revenues are expected to fall short of what the city needs to fund police and fire pensions in the upcoming budget cycle.
Springfield City Council members will vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would maintain the same property tax rate of .9385 cents per $100 of a property’s assessed value. The city rate, which has not been raised since the late 1980s, used to produce enough property taxes to cover police, fire and Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund pension obligations, as well as some operational costs for Lincoln Library.