Lawmakers may approve a statewide delivery tax on Doordash and Uber Eats to fund Chicago transit, hitting all Illinoisans who shop online, even those who don’t use CTA, Metra or Pace.
Chicago Transit Authority ridership is still below pre-pandemic levels. Crime and a budget shortfall make matters worse, but there are cost-effective ways to make it safer.
The vote is over on the Chicago Public Schools budget. It dodged some immediate problems, but the financial mess will continue. Taxpayers will feel the pain long into the future.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is burnishing his national image as a Democratic presidential candidate by inserting himself in the Texas redistricting controversy. But Illinoisans are growing tired of Pritzker and taxation, pushing his favorability rating into the negative.
Ridership on Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace is still down 30% from pre-pandemic levels. The agency overseeing all three needs to look at spending before demanding $1.5 billion from taxpayers.
A violent Independence Day weekend has Chicagoans worried about violent crime, but it was a spike and not a trend. Crime is falling, thanks to new law enforcement efforts.
J.B. Pritzker wants a third term as Illinois governor, but based on his history of boosting taxes and creating spending records, can Illinois afford him for four more years? Will the state grow even smaller as Illinoisans get fed up and leave?
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson likes to parrot platitudes about taxing the rich to fix the city, CTA and Chicago Public Schools finances. But all three made bad decisions and did not adjust to post-pandemic realities. And the rich can move away.
Illinois students are struggling to meet proficiency standards on state assessments. Instead of working to improve student learning, the state wants to lower standards to hide the crisis.
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.