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Chicago’s 2020 budget proposal was never truly balanced

By Adam Schuster, Bill Reveille
11/26/2019
Faced with the impossible task of balancing Chicago’s budget without pension reform, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is forced to partially rely on phantom cuts and revenues.

TAGS: bonds, budget, CAFR: Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Chicago, Chicago City Council, Chicago City Hall, constitutional amendment, CTA: Chicago Transit Authority, CTU: Chicago Teachers Union, deficit, emergency fee, homelessness, housing market, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, interest rates, library, Lori Lightfoot, Lyft, property taxes, Rahm Emanuel, real estate, real estate transfer tax, tax hikes, tax increase, TIF: Tax Increment Financing, Uber

Former City Colleges of Chicago leader charged in $350K kickback scheme

11/25/2019
Contracts went to relatives, associates of former vice chancellor in exchange for kickbacks, charges state. Some contracts required no work.

TAGS: Chicago City College, corruption, debt, graduation rate, Juan Salgado, no-bid contracts, Rahm Emanuel, Sharod Gordon

Illinois cellphone taxes are highest in nation, average $374 a year

By Brad Weisenstein
11/18/2019
Taxes alone hike the average Illinois cellphone bill by 31%.

TAGS: 911 fee, 911 tax, cell phone tax, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chicago, Connecticut, constitutional amendment, emergency fee, excise tax, exit tax, Illinois, Illinois Constitution, JB Pritzker, Lori Lightfoot, middle class, municipal pensions, pensions, progressive income tax, Rahm Emanuel, sales tax, taxes, wireless tax

Chicago’s new mayor inherits taxpayers facing biggest public debts of nation’s top 10 cities

05/18/2019
Each Chicago taxpayer is on the hook for $119,110 worth of unfunded state, city, county and other local government debt. Many of the pensions driving those debts become Lori Lightfoot’s problem on Monday.

TAGS: Chicago, debt, Lori Lightfoot, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, property taxes, Rahm Emanuel, taxes

Chicago aldermen give up control of $100M workers’ comp program

By Brad Weisenstein
01/23/2019
A federal corruption charge against Chicago Ald. Ed Burke has led peers to hand control of the $100 million-a-year workers’ compensation program to the city finance department. Burke, who had overseen the program for decades, fought program oversight and staffed it with political allies.

TAGS: Chicago, Chicago City Council, Ed Burke, Rahm Emanuel, workers compensation

Chicago ‘tow-and-sell’ operation flips 50K cars, buries drivers in debt

By Vincent Caruso
01/22/2019
Chicago has seized and sold nearly 50,000 impounded vehicles since 2011, hitching drivers to mounting debts, a recent investigation found. The city’s ticketing laws disproportionately harm low-income residents.

TAGS: Chicago, criminal justice reform, overcriminalization, Rahm Emanuel

2 in 5 Chicago city workers are paid $100K or more

By Vincent Caruso
01/18/2019
Chicago had nearly 15,000 municipal employees paid at least six figures in 2017, up more than 1,000 from the previous year. That’s more than 40 percent of the city’s workforce.

TAGS: Chicago, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, Rahm Emanuel, salaries

Ald. Burke prosecution ends battle against auditing Chicago’s $100 million workers’ comp program

By Brad Weisenstein
01/07/2019
Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered an audit of the city’s $100 million-a-year workers’ compensation program following Ald. Ed Burke’s resignation as finance committee chair. Burke has long fought program oversight.

TAGS: Chicago, Chicago City Council, Ed Burke, Rahm Emanuel, workers compensation

Proposal would make Illinois gas tax burden the highest in the nation

By Vincent Caruso
01/04/2019
Springfield is facing mounting pressure to enact a massive state gas tax hike. One proposal would make the average motorist pay as much as $200 per year in additional taxes on gas.

TAGS: capital project, gas tax, Rahm Emanuel, taxes

Rahm to Springfield: State gas tax needs to at least double

By Vincent Caruso
12/11/2018
Departing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel accelerated calls to boost Illinois’ gas tax to pay for local transportation projects.

TAGS: Chicago, gas tax, JB Pritzker, Rahm Emanuel, taxes, transportation, VMT: vehicle miles traveled

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Budget + Tax / Research Report

Illinois Forward 2024: A sustainable state budget plan


After years of enhanced revenue from federal aid, a return to the basic principles of budgeting can put Illinois on the path to long-term financial stability

View Report

Report Archive

Education / Your Story

John Jacob

Labor / Policy Point

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014
Illinois Policy In the News

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016

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