Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel calls for property-tax hikes, garbage-collection fees and ridesharing surcharges as a stop-gap measure to plug the city’s $750 million budget hole.

City leaders are focused on the wrong kind of belt tightening.

Driverless trains and buses could dramatically reduce the cost of Chicago’s expensive public transportation system, resulting in much-needed savings for taxpayers.

Through this latest bit of gamesmanship, Madigan delayed the enactment of the state’s uncontroversial federal-funds pass-through legislation.

Buying local just got a lot less appealing for Chicagoans. The city reclaimed the highest sales-tax rate of any major city in the nation on July 15, when the Cook County Board, which oversees Illinois’ largest city, voted to raise its portion of the sales tax, bringing Chicago’s combined rate to 10.25 percent from 9.25...

State money for city branding is nonessential.