The Springfield City Council voted to add an advisory referendum to the April ballot asking voters whether to eliminate the local township and let the city handle its duties.
Voters decide Nov. 8 whether to pass Amendment 1 – a hidden tax hike that could cost Illinois taxpayers, including fixed-income retirees, their homes and put homeownership farther out of reach for young families.
Despite a full year of job gains, all Illinois metropolitan areas are missing jobs since the pandemic began and the recovery stalled. While May brought job gains statewide, only eight metro areas saw gains while seven saw losses.
One of the state’s biggest employers is relocating their headquarters to Irving, Texas. A decade ago Caterpillar’s CEO warned state leaders of business losses unless they balanced the budget, controlled workers’ comp costs and cut taxes. He was ignored.
The Illinois General Assembly begins a new session Jan. 5, but it is not expected to last long. They may have a new state budget and wrap up almost two months early.
More Illinoisans fled for other states from July 2020-July 2021 than during any other year in recorded history, driving the state’s record population decline.
Six months after state lawmakers hastily approved Illinois’ 2022 budget, a hidden discretionary fund has been identified giving Gov. J.B. Pritzker total control over $2 billion in federal COVID-19 aid.
Illinois state lawmakers resisted efforts to cut tax credit scholarships in Illinois, instead extending the program. Now low-income and minority students need them to make the scholarships permanent so they can get the educations that best fit their needs.
Two groups most hurt by pandemic closures, women and Black Illinoisans, have been the quickest to turn to owning small businesses as a way to recover from the COVID-19 economic downturn.
Gov. J.B Pritzker has warned district administrators since early August that ISBE would strip state recognition from Illinois schools defying his statewide mask mandate. House Bill 4135 aims to give the state board of education that power.
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.