Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner to start borrowing $6 billion today
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration will go to the bond market on Tuesday with plans to borrow $6 billion in the coming days to help pay down nearly $16 billion in bills the state owes to scores of businesses large and small.
The state will seek a total of $1.5 billion in tax-exempt general obligation bonds Tuesday, followed by another $4.5 billion in bonds next week. The money will be used to refinance the state’s bill backlog, shifting debt to willing lenders and off of contractors that have been left waiting months to be paid.
Wirepoints: Still no reporting on state's largest pension report
It’s no wonder so many Illinoisans remain in the dark on the severity of our pension crisis.
On October 6 Illinois published its 900-page Biennial Report on all 671 Illinois public pensions. It’s the state’s most comprehensive published data on pensions, both state and local. Critically, it showed that the pensions sank another $17 billion in the most recent year covered by the report — that’s the total increase in unfunded liabilities. For some perspective, that’s roughly half the annual state government’s entire budget.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago and Illinois submit bid for Amazon's HQ2
The Chicago area has formally joined the fray to land Amazon’s second headquarters, which will bring up to 50,000 high-paying jobs to the winning North American city.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said the Chicago area’s bid for HQ2 was submitted electronically Monday, the first of four days the e-commerce giant is accepting bids.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel may opt to raise 911, Uber taxes, setting aside council ideas
While a new City Hall email shows Chicago aldermen floated numerous ideas to raise taxes to close a 2018 budget hole, it’s two tax hikes not on the list that are far more likely to be part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new spending plan.
One is a $1.10-a-month increase in the 911 emergency services fee on all landline and cellphones billed to city addresses. The mayor’s lobbying in Springfield made that one possible, as lawmakers this year authorized Chicago to vote on the 911 increase, which could bring in about $40 million a year.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel to end scoop-and-toss borrowing one year early
Chicago will end the costly practice of scoop-and-toss borrowing in 2018 — one year earlier than promised — under a mayoral budget that pleased a taxpayers watchdog group, but not quite as much as Mayor Rahm Emanuel would hope.
Scoop-and-toss is the dubious practice of refinancing existing debt in a way that saddles future generations of taxpayers with borrowing costs instead of paying off the principal.
Crain's Chicago Business: More power bailout talk in Springfield
One year after Exelon convinced state lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner to bail out nuclear power plants, the second-largest power generator in Illinois has decided it’s its turn. Houston-based Dynegy will push for the General Assembly to consider legislation in next month’s veto session that would likely hike electric bills in downstate Illinois to preserve at least some of the company’s financially ailing fleet of coal-fired power plants. Dynegy’s plants are by far the largest source of electricity downstate.
The move follows recent news that Dynegy and the Rauner administration are working to soften state environmental standards on pollutants emitted by coal burners. The proposal, which was submitted Oct. 2 to the Illinois Pollution Control Board for approval, angered environmentalists who negotiated the standards with the coal industry more than a decade ago.
DNA Info: Broadway Businesses Lost $1.5M During Water Main Work: Chamber of Commerce
It has been almost a year since water main construction began on Broadway, and although businesses are welcoming the news that major work will be finished this week, it’s hard for them to be totally happy.
“The good news is you don’t have to do a water main for another 100 years,” said Maureen Martino, executive director of the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce. “The bad news is some of our businesses are really suffering. They’re hoping the community comes out and supports them, moving forward, so they can try to recuperate some of their losses.”
WBEZ: CPS Secretly Overhauled Special Education At Students’ Expense
After Julie Rodriguez enrolled her 10-year-old autistic son at a public school on Chicago’s Southwest Side last year, she found herself navigating a maze of paperwork that she said seemed designed to prevent her son from getting the special education services he needed.
Rodriguez had just moved to the city from the suburbs, and she brought with her a legally binding special education plan for her son from his suburban public school. She also had a thick binder detailing his behavioral and academic problems, including a detailed analysis from some of the most highly respected doctors in Chicago.
Chicago Tribune: Suit seeks to force some striking Palatine school employees back to work
The Palatine School District 15 school board has filed suit to block school nurses and other staff members who work with students with health and safety needs from participating in a strike that began Monday morning after contract negotiations failed.
The suit, filed at 8:48 a.m. Monday, asks a judge to bar “168 essential nurses and paraprofessional program assistants” from joining their colleagues on the picket line.
Daily Herald: 10-year teacher deal looms over District 15 support staff strike
An unprecedented 10-year teachers deal in 2016 is hovering over contract negotiations for secretaries, classroom aides, nurses and other support employees who went on strike Monday in the same suburban school district.
Palatine Township Elementary District 15 school board President Lisa Szczupaj contends the controversial, lengthy deal has been brought up as part of demands by the Educational Support Personnel Association union, which has been without a contract since July 1. She also said she considers the teachers contract to be “water under the bridge.”
Peoria Journal-Star: Peoria home sales decline 2 percent in third quarter
Despite a strong September, third-quarter home sales in the Peoria area declined 2.3 percent from last year, according to figures released Monday by the Peoria Area Association of Realtors. That’s an improvement from the 9.8 percent decline in area home sales experienced in the second quarter.
Sales from July to September totaled 1,518 homes, down from 1,554 in the third quarter of 2016. Through September, 4,113 homes have been sold so far this year. That’s down 3.6 percent from the 4,266 homes sold in the first three quarters in 2016, according to PAAR.
Quincy Herald-Whig: Quincy local tax collections, state income tax payments down more than $500,000 so far this year
Tax revenue coming to the city of Quincy is about $511,000 short of budget so far this year.
Comptroller Sheri Ray said the city’s sales tax, purchase tax and personal property replacement tax collections, and income tax payments from the state all have been coming in below expectations. The only good news shared in a memo to aldermen involves the state making two income tax payments last month to catch up somewhat on the lag in funding that comes to the city.
The Southern: Audit report finds more than $315,000 missing in Zeigler after former treasurer indicted on charges of fraud, embezzlement
An audit report from accountant Dennis Uhls provides a final number of how much former Zeigler treasurer Ryan Thorpe allegedly stole from the city and recommends a change-up in commissioner seats.
According to the report filed by Uhls Friday, he found a total of $315,890.94 that was allegedly stolen by Thorpe from Jan. 1, 2013, to Aug. 31, 2017. Uhls said in the report that “Thorpe has altered check images from the bank statements and given these falsified records to me for the Fiscal year end audits.”