Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Peoria Journal-Star: Bruce Rauner to lawmakers: Help me balance the budget
Gov. Bruce Rauner today continued to insist the recently passed state budget is wildly out of balance and called on state lawmakers to work with him to find cuts that will bring it into balance.
Coincidentally or not, the four legislative leaders are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss outstanding issues still facing the state.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner boosting Amazon bids of both Chicago and St. Louis
Even as city and state officials head to Seattle for a Tuesday tour in a bid to land Amazon’s second headquarters for Chicago, Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday acknowledged his administration also will work with neighboring St. Louis on its bid to woo the internet giant.
The decision by a re-election-seeking governor who needs to keep his Downstate base happy was a reprisal of the regional politics Rauner recently played during his battle with lawmakers over funding for local schools.
Chicago Sun-Times: Rauner, Rahm sending team to Amazon’s Seattle HQ — to look, not talk
Gov. Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel are sending a team to Seattle on Tuesday as part of their efforts to persuade Amazon to bring its second headquarters — along with 50,000 jobs — to Chicago.
Mayoral spokesman Grant Klinzman on Monday said the delegation will be surveying the Amazon campus “to help determine which Chicago area sites would best fit the company’s future needs,” he said in a statement. The mayor’s office, however, said the team isn’t meeting with Amazon officials during the trip.
Chicago Tribune: For Chicago warehouse owners, Amazon effect is already big
It could be several months before Chicago finds out if it lands Amazon’s 50,000-job second headquarters, but the e-commerce company is already making a big impact on the area’s economy.
Led by Amazon leases, there’s been more warehouse space gobbled up in the Chicago area over the past year than anywhere in the country.
Chicago Sun-Times: New bond court rules take effect, but not much of an effect
As a new set of judges took over bond court Monday, the wheels of justice turned just slightly more slowly at the Cook County Criminal Court Building.
With a half-dozen new judges appointed to preside in bond court — now called the Pre-Trial Division — the usually brisk pace of bond hearings slowed. In what had been called Central Bond Court, Judge Michael Clancy dispatched with a docket of about 30 felony defendants and sundry warrant arrests in about two hours. With the shorter roll call in the courtroom where murders and sex crimes are handled, Judge David Navarro moved swiftly through a docket that required him to set bond in only one case.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: New Law Requires Illinois to Track Food Deserts
A new state law requires Illinois to track food deserts, or areas lacking fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods.
The law tasks the state’s Department of Public Health with providing an annual report that identifies food deserts within the state and “provides information about health issues associated with food deserts.”
Daily Herald: Elgin looks at options for budget cuts, tax increases
The Elgin City Council examined potential spending cuts and revenue increases Saturday as it deals with losses in state funding while trying to avoid dipping into reserves to balance the budget.
City Manager Rick Kozal asked staff members for a 5-percent cut scenario for each department, along with ideas for fee and tax increases, at the committee of the whole meeting. A proposed 2018 budget is expected Nov. 1.
Peoria Journal-Star: East Peoria sales tax increase on City Council agenda
An item to increase the sales tax on some purchases in East Peoria is on Tuesday’s City Council agenda, but it could be pulled without a vote.
Commissioner Dan Decker is scheduled to read the agenda item, but said last Friday it could get pulled for lack of a majority vote. Decker and Commissioner Tim Jeffers support the increase of one-half of one percent as a means toward solving a $1.7 million budget shortfall. Commissioners Gary Densberger and John Kahl and Mayor Dave Mingus have so far opposed in public the tax increase.
Belleville News-Democrat: A Belleville sales tax was set to expire at the end of the year. Now it’s permanent.
Belleville aldermen unanimously agreed Monday to permanently keep a 0.25 percent sales tax that was first charged to replace the city’s wheel tax over five years ago.
The sales tax produces about $1.1 million annually and supports the $28 million general fund used to pay for the city’s day-to-day operations.