On June 28 the Illinois House of Representatives failed to pass Senate Bill 484, an illusory property tax freeze that did not offer real reform, left Chicago homeowners out in the cold, and would have left in place an opaque and expensive property tax system that benefits special interests over taxpayers.

Senate Bill 484 would offer a freeze in name only, as it fails to address the very costs that drive up Illinois homeowners’ property tax bills.

A four-year freeze riddled with exceptions won’t help Illinois homeowners. Illinoisans need a long-term freeze on local property tax levies and a cap on the tax burden for individual homeowners.

In two separate deals with JPMorgan, CPS borrowed $387M to make a teacher pension payment at end of June and as a result of the deal, will accumulate at least $7M in interest.

The budget plan proposed by Republican General Assembly members would raise taxes by over $5 billion without enacting any significant spending reforms.

Senate Bill 1 provides a $215 million annual pension bailout and other carve-outs worth hundreds of millions of dollars to CPS.

While the Better Government Association has claimed Illinois’ budget contains no fat to trim, a deeper analysis reveals the state has many areas of expensive inefficiency to reform in state and local government costs, the Medicaid program and K-12 education.

Illinois state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie has introduced a pension bill that is unfair to new and current workers, is potentially unconstitutional, bails out Chicago Public Schools’ pensions, and perpetuates Illinois’ broken pension system.

State lawmakers’ latest bill not only forces a failed “evidence-based” education funding program on Illinois, but also bails out Chicago Public Schools.