Harvey is seeking state aid under Illinois’ Financially Distressed City Law, but without pension reform, state oversight offers little hope to fix its $164M crisis.
Chicago’s 2025 budget needed $345 million in fines, forfeitures and penalties. It was $99 million 30 years ago. What will the new budget extract from residents?
If Chicago’s pension systems become insolvent, the city will have to reduce benefits or make serious cuts to city services. The only way out is constitutional reform.
The City of Chicago needs a city charter that will bring some certainty to city government. It should learn from the experiences of other cities when choosing the people who will draft that charter.
Illinois General Assembly members filed 31,011 pages of amendments to bills in the last 24 hours of the 2025 regular session. Truly understanding what they were deciding would require reading 22 pages per minute.
As food costs soar, Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to keep hurting Chicago’s working families with a grocery tax. He faces a $1.12 billion deficit that a $73 million grocery tax won’t budge.
Illinois has the nation’s worst public pension crisis. Nationwide analysis from the Equable Institute shows Illinois state pensions remain fiscally unstable and threaten retirees and taxpayers, underscoring the need for reform.
Out of almost 7,000 bills filed, the Illinois General Assembly passed a little over 400. Some were good. Some were bad. Here are 16 bills that would have improved life in the state had they passed.
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.