Todd Stroger

2016: Chicago’s year of the tax hike

12/31/2016
To address the city’s worsening financial crises, Chicago politicians turned up the dial on their usual answer to budgetary woes: raising taxes.

Chicago now home to the nation’s highest sales tax

By Hilary Gowins
07/15/2015
Buying local just got a lot less appealing for Chicagoans. The city reclaimed the highest sales-tax rate of any major city in the nation on July 15, when the Cook County Board, which oversees Illinois’ largest city, voted to raise its portion of the sales tax, bringing Chicago’s combined rate to 10.25 percent from 9.25...

TAGS: Chicago, sales tax

Illinois corruption watch, August 2014

By Brian Costin
09/05/2014
At least 84 corruption-related stories have been reported from across the state of Illinois in August alone. Atop August headlines is the recent revelation that a federal grand jury subpoenaed the emails of Gov. Pat Quinn’s ex-chief of staff in relation to Quinn’s anti-violence grant program. The case, which has been referred to by some...

TAGS: Chicago, corruption, cronyism, transparency, waste

Illinois Corruption Watch: April 2014

By Brian Costin
04/30/2014
45.  April 30, 2014 Sun-Times: Criminal probe of Quinn anti-violence plan rocks governor’s race A criminal grand jury has launched a probe into Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence program —  once likened to “a political slush fund” — delivering a major blow to the Democrat as he seeks re-election this fall. On Tuesday, the Quinn...

Stroger Administration Spent 79K on Zoo Party

By Chris Andriesen
11/30/2010
by Kate Piercy Restore homes damaged by floods or throw a picnic party? Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s administration decided to use federal grant money meant for restoring homes damaged by floods to instead treat families whose homes were damaged by the floods to a nearly $79,000 party at Brookfield Zoo. The Chicago Tribune reported: The Sept....

Calls for Budget Cuts in Cook County

By Chris Andriesen
11/20/2010
by Ashley Muchow Cook County Board President-elect, Toni Preckwinkle, recently warned county officials they would be responsible for making major spending cuts in their budgets to close the county’s $487 million gap. Preckwinkle met with elected county officials, including Cook County Clerk David Orr, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, and Treasurer Maria Pappas, asking each to cut...

More Corruption in Cook County

10/05/2010
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s deputy chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, has been accused of rigging contracts. The story in the Chicago Tribune described the details. “A bond hearing is scheduled today for a top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger accused of steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to her own...

Cook County Board President allegedly violated a ban on political hiring more than 150 times.

09/10/2010
by Kate Piercy According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, “the attorney at the center of a long-running lawsuit,” Michael Shakman, told a federal judge Thursday that since the start of 2008, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger violated a ban on political hiring more than 150 times: Stroger’s administration altered the list of jobs not covered...

Stroger Uses Jobs to Reward Friends, Punish Foes

07/15/2010
by Will Compernolle A court-appointed watchdog group claims Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is “using the county payroll to reward those who backed his failed re-election effort and punish those who did not,” the Chicago Tribune reports. Stroger’s staff has lowered minimum job qualifications, pretended not to know job applicants when they did, tried to invoke...
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FAQ: How the federal scholarship program would help Illinois students

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...

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016