Chicago Tribune

Illinois Corruption Watch, October 2014

By Brian Costin
11/01/2014
In October, we found 52 different stories of potential public corruption in Illinois, including a trio of stories related to the election. An Illinois Policy investigation into emails from a group of Kankakee County superintendents revealed potentially illegal activities to pass a countywide sales-tax hike for school facilities. Documents obtained suggest illegal actions by superintendents...

TAGS: good government, waste

Chicago’s budget includes higher tax rates for parking, vehicle leasing and cable TV

By Robert Steere
10/21/2014
Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivered his 2015 Chicago budget proposal to the City Council last week. He did so expressing pride that he did not increase property taxes, sales taxes or the gas tax – the big three taxes that support the city budget. That said, his budget proposal continues to nickel-and-dime Chicago taxpayers with new...

Mayor Emanuel’s minimum wage executive order doesn’t apply to political pals

By Brian Costin
10/11/2014
With great fanfare, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently announced an executive order requiring city contractors and concessionaires to pay their employees no less than $13 per hour. The move was highly touted in both the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, as well as a number of other publications and television news broadcasts. None of these...

TAGS: Rahm Emanuel, transparency, unions

Chicago grifts drivers with shorter yellow lights

By Austin Berg
10/09/2014
The Chicago Tribune released findings from their ongoing investigation into the city’s red-light camera program on Thursday, revealing that with the city’s transition to a new camera vendor came a “subtle but significant lowering of the threshold for yellow light times.” The new vendor, Xerox State & Local Solutions, took over the program in 2013...

TAGS: Chicago, Redflex Traffic Systems

What you aren’t being told about a state-based exchange in Illinois

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/23/2014
A recent piece in the Chicago Tribune shows that some in Illinois remain very interested in establishing a state-based health insurance exchange. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, states have the option of applying for federal dollars to establish a state-based health insurance exchange instead of using the federal exchange, healthcare.gov. But not only...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, health care

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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

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

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016