Funding for a third Chicagoland airport was included in the latest state budget. The controversial plan brings a risk for more corruption and overspending that will cost taxpayers millions.
A watchdog has accused Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough of running an “illegal patronage” operation, and is calling for federal oversight of her office.
Some Illinois lawmakers supplement their income doing property tax appeals work at private law firms. A property tax relief task force that includes some of those lawmakers killed a proposal to end that conflict of interest.
Chicago’s top FBI officer offered term limits as one solution to Chicago’s culture of corruption, suggesting more revelations are on their way, as he moves into an executive role in Washington, D.C.
Lawyers for Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan argued that even if he did recruit so-called “sham candidates” to siphon votes away from his 2016 primary opponent, such tactics aren’t against the law.
Ald. Ed Burke has long been criticized for operating a lucrative law business in the politically clouted world of Cook County property tax appeals, a world in which the speaker of the Illinois House of Representative continues to make money.
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.