A $1.12 billion budget gap spurs Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to circulate a menu of 26 tax hikes. Instead of making Chicago even more hostile to taxpayers, he should be looking at budget reforms and ways to stop spending so much.
As Chicago faces a major deficit for fiscal year 2026, Mayor Brandon Johnson is considering resurrecting a failed idea that punishes job creation: the corporate head tax.
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.
The mayor’s Chicago budget plan includes a $76.5 million property tax hike despite $3.5 billion in federal aid and funds permanent programs with temporary revenues but includes no push to fix pensions.
Illinois employers are hurting from a lack of workers while the state unemployment rate remains high. When a parent can stay home and make $51,627 on unemployment, the prospects of getting more workers back to work this summer appear dim.
Lame duck lawmakers and the outgoing Illinois House speaker are trying to hand trial lawyers some extra cash. Gov. J.B. Pritzker is being urged to veto the bill.
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson On Wednesday, Alderman Scott Waguespack introduced an ordinance that would allow mobile food trucks to prepare food on-site. The existing food trucks in the city are only allowed to sell food that is prepared and packaged beforehand. The Chicago Sun-Times reports: “If we have all of our bases covered in terms of health...
Illinois students could soon benefit from scholarship money to help them find a tutor, attend ACT or SAT prep sessions, pay tuition, get special education services or assist with other academic needs. That will happen in Illinois only if Gov. J.B. Pritzker lets the state’s schoolchildren benefit from the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, established...