Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times: Battle lines drawn: Madigan ‘stands by’ his ‘thoughts’ about Arroyo successor selection
The speaker spoke. The ward bosses didn’t listen.
And so now the fight begins.
House Speaker Mike Madigan warned a group of Cook County Democratic committeemen against including former Rep. Luis Arroyo in the process for picking his replacement.
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she’s not expecting additional Chicago property tax hike for 2020; budget plan advances
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she won’t need to hike Chicago property taxes in 2020 beyond what she’s already outlined.
There’s no guarantee property taxes can be held down in the future, she said, especially if she can’t get state lawmakers next spring to make changes she wants to the proposed Chicago casino taxing structure.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot agrees to raise aldermanic expense allowance
Mayor Lori Lightfoot agreed Monday to raise the annual aldermanic expense— from $97,000 to $122,000—to appease aldermen demanding more staff for their ward offices and build support for her 2020 budget.
Instead of budgeting $4.85 million for the annual aldermanic expense allowance, the city will spend $6.1 million — about a 26% increase. The additional $1.25 million will come from unspecified spending cuts and revenue increases, officials said, as the City Council’s Budget Committee approved the mayor’s $11.65 billion spending plan.
Crain's Chicago Business: Lightfoot is killing Emanuel's Infrastructure Trust
The trust, launched with a flourish at the start of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, has been criticized for accomplishing little at a snail’s pace and depending on public financing, even though it was created with a goal of freeing taxpayers from the cost and risk of funding big infrastructure projects.
Daily Herald: First Carol Stream property tax in decades will cost average homeowner $232 a year
Carol Stream residents will pay a village property tax for the first time in more than 40 years.
Trustees unanimously agreed Monday to establish the municipal tax, making Oak Brook and Willowbrook the only remaining towns in DuPage County not to levy a real estate tax.
WTTW: Slow start on reform at the Chicago Police Department
An independent federal monitor tasked with overseeing the reform of the Chicago Police Department says CPD is already falling behind on its efforts.
On Friday, the monitoring team led by Maggie Hickey released its first report on the police department’s progress and revealed it had missed 37 of 50 agreed-upon deadlines for preliminary compliance.
Chicago Tribune: Children are being locked away, alone and terrified, in schools across Illinois. Often, it’s against the law.
The spaces have gentle names: The reflection room. The cool-down room. The calming room. The quiet room.
But shut inside them, in public schools across the state, children as young as 5 wail for their parents, scream in anger and beg to be let out.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot’s minimum wage compromise advances, to cheers from restaurant owners
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to raise Chicago’s minimum wage to $15-an-hour by 2021, but maintain a “sub-minimum wage” for tipped workers, cleared a key legislative hurdle on Monday to cheers from restaurant owners.
Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia said the “pragmatic” mayoral compromise advanced by the City Council’s Budget Committee “balances the needs of hard-working Chicagoans” struggling to make ends meet with “neighborhood businesses that drive our economy.”
Northwest Herald: Grafton Township adopts town fund, road district levies
The Grafton Township Board of Trustees formally adopted 2020 property tax levies on Monday for the town fund and the township’s road district, both of which are 10% less than what was requested last year.
Last month, the township board agreed on a property tax levy of roughly $727,000, which is about 10% lower than last year’s levy and about $433,000 lower than its 2015 levy.