Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois paid $275 million in late interest fees to private lenders during state budget crisis. And it owes them hundreds of millions more.
Third-party financers have been paid at least $275 million in late interest fees from the state under a program allowing them to buy claims for goods and services from state vendors who were not promptly paid due to the state’s financial problems, a new report showed Tuesday.
The report from state Comptroller Susana Mendoza said the private firms bought more than $5 billion in state liabilities from providers of state goods and services. Those providers opted to take an up-front payment, usually 90 percent, in return for assigning the debt to the lender who also collects interest as high as 12 percent a year.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Pritzker Wants More Money for Schools, but Funding Challenges Loom
Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker wants Illinois to become a national model for education, and on Tuesday he announced the transition team that will help guide his policies for trying to make that happen. But Pritzker was unable to say where the money will come from to fulfill that pledge.
“There’s no future for the state if we let education drop off the priority list,” Pritzker said, even as he simultaneously vowed to accelerate sending more state funds to needy schools while addressing immediate challenges ahead, including a larger-than-anticipated deficit in the state budget – a budget he’ll inherit upon his Jan. 14 inauguration.
WBEZ: Veto Override Means Legionnaires’ Victims’ Families Could Be Awarded Up To $2 Million
Families of Legionnaires’ victims at the state-run veterans’ home in Quincy can now receive up to $2 million dollars in damages if they win their negligence lawsuits against the state of Illinois.
In a debate Tuesday that turned ugly and personal, the Illinois House of Representatives voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto by the bare minimum, with a vote of 71-36.
Crain's Chicago Business: City moves to extend life of Goose Island, other TIFs
Rahm Emanuel soon will leave as Chicago’s mayor, but that isn’t stopping him from quietly pushing through legislation in Springfield to extend the life of four city tax-increment financing districts—including one in the Goose Island area that’s part of the huge proposed Lincoln Yards development.
Approved late yesterday in the Illinois House was a measure adding another 13 years each to the lives of the Bryn Mawr-Broadway, Goose Island, 95th/Western and 71st/Stony Island TIF districts. The Illinois Senate is expected to concur as soon as today, meaning that districts would continue to get to spend much of the growth in property taxes within their borders until 2032 to 2034, depending on the districts.
Chicago Sun-Times: $2M city contract will provide free lead filtration systems to 30K metered homes
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has awarded a $2 million contract to a Maryland company to provide free water filtration systems to owners of Chicago homes with water meters after some tested positive for elevated lead levels.
The contract calls for Safeware, Inc. to “supply and deliver ZeroWater pitchers and filters” to owners of metered homes that request them.
Chicago Sun-Times: Gas tax hike needed to fund capital bill, says city transportation commissioner
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made “remarkable” progress on the transportation front at a time of “extreme financial stress,” but Illinois desperately needs a capital bill bankrolled by a gas tax increase to pay for a backlog of projects, a top mayoral aide said Tuesday.
After spending the last four years feuding with outgoing Gov. Bruce Rauner, Emanuel has put a transportation funding bill at the top of his wish list for the four months he’ll have to work with Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker before leaving office.
Daily Herald: DuPage County approves $433.8 million budget with some cuts, no tax hike
DuPage County Board members on Tuesday approved a $433.8 million budget for fiscal 2019 that reduces spending and continues to hold the line on property taxes.
The budget, which takes effect Saturday, is roughly $5.8 million less than DuPage’s current spending plan. It also includes a reduction in full-time head count.
Daily Herald: Crystal Lake District 47 to adopt lower tax levy, retire bonds
The Crystal Lake Elementary District 47 school board tentatively has approved levying roughly $74.8 million in property taxes for 2018.
The levy reflects a 0.3 percent rate reduction based on last year’s tax levy due to the district paying off its general obligation bonds in February.
Peoria Journal-Star: Peoria gets closer to fixing $6 million budget deficit
With the year closing, the Peoria City Council discussed Tuesday night a measure to raise the final $1.2 million in order to help close the city’s $6 million shortfall in the 2019 budget.
The measure, a public safety pension fee, is getting closer to reality as the council continued its discussions on the matter.
Decatur Herald & Review: $68 million: 5 things to know about Decatur's 2019 budget proposal
City leaders today (Wednesday) will field questions from the public about the upcoming year’s balanced budget proposal, which holds the line on taxes in part by keeping staffing levels low, before the council votes on the plan in December.
A public hearing on the plan is set for 4 p.m. in the council chambers on the third floor of the Decatur Civic Center, 1 Gary K. Anderson Plaza.
Belleville News-Democrat: For years, St. Clair County helped pay employees in other counties. That’s changing.
St. Clair County could save at least $100,000 annually after eliminating salary and benefit contributions for eight probation officers who were never employees of the county to begin with.
County Board Chairman Mark Kern said St. Clair County is “not responsible” to help pay for those employees, who work for other counties in the Illinois Twentieth Judicial Circuit courts.