Minimum wages for Chicago and Cook County are increasing July 1. Inflation has rapidly outpaced wage growth, cutting the average Illinoisan’s pay by $2,200.
Cook County officials promised to make the nation’s now-largest publicly-funded guaranteed income experiment permanent May 18 shortly after introducing the initiative. The trial will start accepting applicants in the fall.
Chicago and Cook County health officials announced plans to revoke pandemic masking and vaccination entry requirements by Feb. 28, the day Illinois’ statewide mask mandate will be lifted. Pritzker has warned Illinoisans to keep masks handy.
Chicago and Cook County leaders have exercised executive emergency powers for 22 months to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Why can they do that and when does it end?
Cook County businesses should be checking for proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test before letting anyone in their doors, the health department has declared.
Illinois courts’ long history of being friendly to plaintiffs and personal injury attorneys showed up again in a reform group’s annual ranking. Cook County, St. Clair County and Madison County together moved up in the rankings of “judicial hellholes.”
While phasing in the tax impact of sharp increases in assessed value could help Cook County’s commercial property owners adjust, holding down property taxes requires reducing spending through public pension reform in Illinois.
A Board of Review employee claims corruption is rampant in his Cook County office after an FBI affidavit states he was charging $2,000 to lower assessment on commercial properties and $1,000 for homes.
The minimum wage for residents working in Chicago and Cook County is increasing July 1. Research suggests the rise in wage rates will benefit the working Chicagoans at the expense of the city’s vulnerable unemployed.
Amendment 1 would allow government unions to nullify hundreds of Illinois statutes – including laws aimed at protecting school children – simply by contradicting them in union contracts.