Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Champaign News-Gazette: Financial report tough on state
Illinois is a real contender when it comes to a race to the fiscal bottom.
When it comes to its finances, the state of Illinois has gone from bad to worse. The good news, if one can call it that, is it’s not yet the worst.
Truth in Accounting, a financial watchdog group, recently released its 10th annual report on the “Fiscal State of the States.”
Crain's Chicago Business: CPS stability, and your taxes, at stake as strike looms
Not surprisingly, the Chicago Teachers Union says CPS is flush with cash and needs to reward long-suffering teachers, while the Chicago Board of Education asserts its current proposal—”the most generous offer in CTU history,” a top aide to Mayor Lori Lightfoot calls it—is as sweet as the city can afford.
WBEZ: Chicago Mayor Says ‘We Are Down To It’ As Strike Deadline Looms
As the clock ticks toward an Oct. 17 Chicago teachers strike, Mayor Lori Lightfoot made clear Monday she’s sees the window of opportunity to avoid a strike closing.
“I am definitely concerned,” she said at a press conference Monday morning as she stood side-by-side with Schools CEO Janice Jackson and Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle. ”We have a number of open issues. We have moved and met them on issue after issue. We can’t bargain against ourselves.”
Chicago Tribune: Why your commute could get faster: Metra looks to buy new locomotives, rail cars with state capital money
Metra expects to spend close to $2.6 billion in the next five years on locomotives, rail cars, bridges, stations and other improvements that could potentially speed the daily commutes of Chicago area residents.
More than half of the funding for the planned purchases will come from the capital program passed by the state legislature earlier this year. Most of Metra’s total spending, or almost $1.2 billion, will go towards new and rehabbed locomotives and rail cars, while $409 million will be spent on bridges, tracks and structures and $365 million on stations, according to a capital program overview that will be discussed at Tuesday’s monthly board meeting.
Chicago Sun-Times: Worth Township official, a former legislator, gets feds’ attention in red-light camera probe
A Worth Township official who once served briefly as a state legislator and now moonlights as a sales consultant for a politically connected red-light camera contractor has been subpoenaed by federal authorities investigating the company’s activities.
John M. O’Sullivan, 51, of Oak Lawn, is Worth Township supervisor and previously served as the township’s Democratic committeeman.
Chicago Sun-Times: ‘We don’t pay people off,’ CEO of red-light camera company insists amid federal investigation
The politically connected CEO of a red-light camera company under federal scrutiny insisted “we don’t pay people off,” amid new revelations that agents recently approached another village mayor and a company salesman as part of their investigation.
“There is no subpoena to SafeSpeed,” Nikki Zollar told the Chicago Sun-Times late last week in her first public remarks since federal agents fanned out across the southwest suburbs on Sept. 26, seizing records and interviewing people.
Northwest Herald: McHenry Township committee efforting independent look at financial impact of township elimination
The answer to a recurring question regarding the impact of township abolishment may be on its way.
A McHenry Township committee wants to hire an independent agency to determine the financial impact the elimination of the township would have on taxpayers via a cost study analysis.
Rockford Register-Star: Hard Rock Casino Rockford wins City Council approval
Hard Rock Casino Rockford has won the blessing of City Council and its proposal now moves on for consideration by the Illinois Gaming Board.
City Council on an 11-1 vote Monday certified Hard Rock International’s $310 million proposal for a 65,000-square-foot casino, a Hard Rock Café and a 1,600-seat Hard Rock Live venue at the location of the former Clock Tower Resort on East State Street near the entrance to Interstate 90.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Normal lays out options for local cannabis businesses
Normal City Council wants to hear from more corners of the community before deciding whether to ban, regulate or broadly approve local cannabis businesses once recreational cannabis becomes legal Jan. 1.
The council hopes to get feedback from local law enforcement and businesses, possibly funneled through the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, at its Oct. 21 meeting, and could start moving toward a regulated process for new cannabis businesses in Normal the same night.
Decatur Herald & Review: Decatur City Council OKs keeping utility tax rate, hears from protesters on cannabis decision
Utility customers will continue to pay a 4.25% tax on natural gas and electricity consumption after Decatur City Council members on Monday decided to end a sunset provision that would have lowered the rate next year.
Council members voted 6-0, with an abstention from Councilman David Horn, to remove the sunset language that they had included when voting to increase the tax rate in 2015. If they had not taken any action, the tax rate would have reverted to 1.25% in 2020, a move that would have cost the city millions of dollars.
Belleville News-Democrat: St. Clair County tax levy jumps 5% for 2020, but does that mean your taxes will go up?
The St. Clair County Board has raised the tax levy by 5% for 2020, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your property taxes will go up.
The county increased the tax levy last year by 5%, too, only to abate the portion it didn’t need.