Waste watch: Illinois lawmakers hand $740K to ‘Floating Museum’

By Geoff Feinstein

01/14/2026

Illinois’ broken budget process allocated taxpayer dollars to an art group best known for its floating exhibit on the Chicago River.

Steep property tax hikes to hit Chicago businesses struggling from pandemic

By Amy Korte

11/02/2021

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.

TAGS: Chicago, Cook County, COVID-19, property taxes, small business

Legal marijuana sales may be restricted from most of downtown Chicago

By Vincent Caruso

09/18/2019

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proposed zoning changes that would keep marijuana dispensaries out of most of the downtown business district after recreational use becomes legal on Jan. 1 in Illinois.

TAGS: Brendan Reilly, Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, marijuana, zoning

Tax increment financing: A primer

By Chris Lentino

02/21/2017

Local governments create TIF districts to encourage development in “blighted” areas; but TIFs often don’t deliver on promised economic benefits, while they do divert tax dollars from other uses and create opaque slush funds for the mayor to reward insider developers.

TAGS: Chicago, property taxes, taxes, TIF: Tax Increment Financing

Prohibition, prostitution and Chicago’s mini-fiefdoms

By Austin Berg

07/01/2016

A principle once invoked to shake down speakeasies is now used to pick winners and losers in a city desperate for opportunity.

TAGS: aldermanic privilege, Chicago, Dick Simpson, Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, John “Bathhouse” Coughlin, Johnny “Da Pow” Powers, permits, regulations, Thomas Gradel

Chicago TIF districts benefit politically connected at taxpayers’ expense

By Chris Lentino

06/14/2016

City officials are moving to develop the largest remaining plot of vacant land to ensure huge windfalls for a city-run slush fund.

TAGS: Chicago, property taxes, TIF: Tax Increment Financing

Chicago’s new TIF district would siphon millions of property-tax dollars into city slush fund

By Chris Lentino

04/01/2016

Creating a tax increment financing district around the Lathrop Homes redevelopment will ensure that 100 percent of property-tax revenue generated on the site will go to a city-run slush fund.

TAGS: TIF: Tax Increment Financing

Quinn finds millions for dog parks, disc golf and bathhouses

By Brian Costin

01/10/2015

Gov. Pat Quinn doled out $24 million in taxpayer money during his last days in office.

TAGS: budget, good government, Pat Quinn, spending

Two major problems with proposed Chicago pedicab regulations

By Bryant Jackson-Green

04/28/2014

A Chicago City Council committee will consider a new set of restrictions on pedicabs at a hearing this week. Many specifics of the proposal, introduced by 44th Ward Alderman Tom Tunney, are unexceptional, but two provisions stand out as unnecessarily harmful to the pedicab market and consumer choice. For one, the ordinance arbitrarily caps the...

Institute in AP story: Chicago embarks on $7 billion infrastructure plan

03/30/2012

Illinois Policy Institute Senior Fellow Leonard Gilroy was interviewed by the Associated Press about Mayor Emmanuel's $7 billion public-private partnership plan for Chicago.

Chicago River

Waste watch: Illinois lawmakers hand $740K to ‘Floating Museum’

Steep property tax hikes to hit Chicago businesses struggling from pandemic

Legal marijuana sales may be restricted from most of downtown Chicago

Tax increment financing: A primer

Prohibition, prostitution and Chicago’s mini-fiefdoms

Chicago TIF districts benefit politically connected at taxpayers’ expense

Chicago’s new TIF district would siphon millions of property-tax dollars into city slush fund

Quinn finds millions for dog parks, disc golf and bathhouses

Two major problems with proposed Chicago pedicab regulations

Institute in AP story: Chicago embarks on $7 billion infrastructure plan

4 ways to break out of Illinois’ pension trap

Report Archive

Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

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