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Top Illinois Stories
The First Amendment strictly prohibits taxes that single out content the state doesn’t like. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Illinois’ new state spending plan does, and it’s poised to soon be signed by Governor Pritzker.
In the lawsuits pending against DuPage and the other northern and central Illinois counties, the counties have again filed a so-called third party complaint, seeking to either escape liability or force some of the larger private "tax buyers" to join in any liability and potential payout to people whose homes were unconstitutionally taken. In March, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis rejected the counties' attempts to also force the state of Illinois to shoulder some of the blame.
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State lawmakers adjourned for the summer without advancing a bill to merge the Illinois Gaming Board with the state Racing Board under a streamlined Department of Gaming Regulation and Enforcement — one that’s not subject to open meetings that are accessible to the public and press.
Jim Dey: "The Ammons is Titianna, daughter of state Rep. Carol Ammons and Champaign County Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons. ... Following in her parents’ footsteps, Titianna was elected to the Champaign County Board in 2020, ran for but lost a contest for Urbana city clerk a year later and now is the county’s chief deputy circuit clerk. Whether the recent indictment for wrongfully collecting unemployment benefits while holding multiple jobs changes any of that remains to be seen."
"Democrats want a pat on the back for 1.3 cents per gallon in relief at the pump and a two-week sales tax holiday on school supplies. That's not tax relief. It's spare change packaged as a policy victory while they pass the largest budget in state history."
"Despite its constitutionally mandated flat rate, Illinois can still generate additional income tax revenue — and make state tax burden fairer — by increasing its rate, while simultaneously implementing a tax credit targeted to low- and middle-income earners, to offset any additional income taxes the rate increase would otherwise generate for them."
Illinois lawmakers approved a nearly $56 billion state budget last week, but one measure backed by farm groups was left out. Supporters of the Family Farm Preservation Act said it would help keep family farms in family hands by reforming estate tax policies.
Analysis from Pew Research Center finds the Midwest alone is set to see a 64 percent increase in development, and overwhelmingly, the development is planned for rural areas. About two-thirds of planned data centers in the U.S. are located in rural communities.
Under this leadership, the $18 billion state employee pension fund divested from hedge funds investments, with Levine arguing that hedge fund “returns are terrible, and the costs are enormous.”
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., aimed at strengthening oversight of federal childcare assistance programs and cracking down on fraud.
Despite the decision not to formally participate, Illinois may still have some presence at the fair. The state will be represented by the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
"Pritzker has been sharply criticized for quite a while for focusing more on the national political front than on governing Illinois. And while all or parts of several bills on his priority list did pass, the danger for Pritzker is that this Bears failure will overshadow everything else and highlight his national ambitions because it’s something that transcends the statehouse. His attendance record, while not a complete look at his work, does him no favors."
The law immediately bans the sale of intoxicating hemp products to people under 21. A new set of hemp regulations will kick in this November, including child-proof packaging and a ban on marketing and packaging catered to children.
"We lose 50 percent of our students already," said Sen. Jason Plummer. "It's actually slightly above 50 percent to out-of-state colleges and universities. Legislation like this will only increase that number. It will push more of our young minds to other states."
The General Assembly established the Illinois Independent Tax Tribunal in 2013 to resolve taxpayer disputes with the Illinois Department of Revenue. After Gov. JB Pritzker sought to transfer the tribunal’s responsibilities back to the Illinois Department of Revenue, the tribunal’s chief administrative judge, James Conway, turned to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
President Trump’s Executive Order No. 14398, issued March 26, directs federal agencies to adopt new contract terms prohibiting federal contractors, including state agencies and instrumentalities, from engaging in “racially discriminatory DEI activities” in connection with their contract work. Illinois and its agencies regularly contract with the federal government, and the coalition states collectively hold existing federal contracts worth billions of dollars.
Turner agrees with Gov. JB Pritzker’s pause on data center tax credits. “I see no need for the tax credits, because those companies have plenty of money, and if they are going to build a data center, they don't need any tax credits,” Turner said.
David Berger, who co-founded Ivy Hall, was found guilty last year in federal court of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds by converting cocaine money into private jet flights for a trafficker. His cannabis license was terminated May 11. A separate development involving a newer Fox Lake cannabis shop raises new questions about the opaque system for licensing cannabis businesses and Berger’s continued role in the industry.
The money was established under bipartisan legislation Gov. JB Pritzker signed last July. The bill, known as the Prescription Drug Affordability Act, put new regulations on pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, companies that are responsible for negotiating drug prices between employer health insurance plans and pharmaceutical drug companies.
Illinois State Rep. Justin Slaughter talks a new Illinois bill that would lift the current cap and provide exonerees who obtain a Certificate of Innocence with $50,000 for every year they were wrongfully convicted. Slaughter said the awards are funded by taxpayers.
"When you want to build something in the Land of Lincoln, you know you’ll need to pay extra to get permission. Perhaps it’s a special concession, a promise to hire only certain unions, or put in a community benefits agreement that puts cash in the pockets of some favored constituency. This practice has a name: pay to play. That’s a cute term for very real corruption."
Saying a Chicago federal judge overstepped his constitutional authority, Florida's state attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to quickly reverse that judge's ruling that the Florida attorney general cannot use Florida state courts and Florida state law to sue the Chicago-based American Academy of Pediatrics for allegedly misleading the public about the safety of child gender transitions.
Though the program has cut the state’s liability down by billions of dollars, Illinois Policy Institute analyst LyLena Estabine said the program represents only a small portion of overall liability – but the state has more options it could use to further lower the use of taxpayer dollars to pay the retirees.
Illinois law does not require all school districts to provide free bus service, but community consolidated districts, community unit districts and consolidated districts are required to provide free transportation for pupils from kindergarten through 12th grade who live 1.5 miles or more from any school to which they are assigned.
The lawsuits, filed in Illinois and New York Thursday, contend the legislation “discriminates against people with disabilities by singling them out for lethal prescriptions rather than providing equal access to the care, support, and suicide prevention services offered to those perceived as non- or less disabled,” according to the End Assisted Suicide coalition.
In addition to support from the State’s Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) program, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is working with the City of Mattoon to fund related road improvements. The company's expansion will create 100 new full-time jobs and retain 719 existing full-time jobs in Coles County.
Illinois is still the only state that doesn't aim to fully fund its pension obligations; it sets a statutory 90% funded target as opposed to the actuarially recommended 100% funded target. While Pritzker didn't achieve passage of his plan to fully fund the state's pension system by 2048, he did get other pieces of his proposal across the finish line: an extension of the state's pension acceleration or buyout program, and a redirection of surplus revenues to reduce pension debt.
Top Chicago Stories
African American Contractors Association president Omar Shareef said that a total of seven separate subcontractors have contacted him for help with pursuing missing payments in the past several months. Some of the contractors are owed seven figures. They’re willing to settle for less, as long as they can keep their businesses running.
Anthony Riccio, who retired as the second-ranking Chicago police official, said the spike in air bag thefts likely means criminals have noticed that police aren’t doing much to combat the problem. Of the more than 1,260 theft cases opened this year, almost 60 percent had already been suspended.
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Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez called the device a “bomb,” though a police spokesperson characterized it as a “suspected firework.” Sigcho-Lopez, who is among the City Council’s most progressive members and who is running for Congress as an independent Democratic Socialist, said the incident’s exact motive remains a mystery, and he has contacted a lawyer to make sure the incident is properly investigated.
"CPS projects that it will have to spend almost $800 million of operating revenue in 2027 to service its debt. In other words, as much as 8 percent of the district’s budget gets spent on repaying debt. ... Many of the possible solutions are tied to two of the reasons CPS carries so much debt in the first place — an unsustainable number of school facilities and cyclical fiscal crises."
“It’s to the point that they wished they never had done (the project).”
"The specific clause that broke the deal, according to the former mayor (Rahm Emanuel): FIFA insisted the contract include the right to demand a dome be built over the open-air Soldier Field. ... The practice of granting private parties the use of public property is called a concession. And Chicago has done a horrible job of managing those concessions."
Videos shared online show dozens of people gathered at Ford City Mall as drivers performed donuts and other stunt-driving maneuvers in the parking lot. Such events have drawn large crowds across Chicago in recent years and have frequently required police intervention due to reckless driving, property damage, and violence.
A window was shattered, but no injuries were reported.
An additional 285 bars and restaurants have applied for state licenses to offer video gambling in Chicago, records show.
Chicago is required by state law to develop a balanced budget. However, unlike New York City, there are no legal requirements to balance the operating budget on a structural basis, develop and adhere to a multi-year financial plan, or refrain from issuing debt unless it is in line with a formal financial plan.
Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Macquline King, who appeared under subpoena, could neither confirm nor deny whether the district withholds information about a child’s “gender identity” in the classroom from parents.
"The city’s substitution of massive developer subsidies for a comprehensive affordable housing approach has seen the cost to build new city-funded affordable housing surge, rising from an average of $400,000 to nearly $750,000 per unit since 2019."
The indictment alleged Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry orchestrated a scheme to use laboratories — some of which were allegedly operated by Mahmood Sami Khan— in Illinois and Texas to submit nearly $900 million in false claims to the government from April 2021 to June 2022, prompting more than $293 million in fraudulent reimbursements.
CTU leadership and other proponents of the sustainable community schools model argue that they will uplift neighborhoods and provide students needed support services. But at the eight CPS high schools that have used the model since 2018, proficiency is lower while absenteeism and spending is higher. Those eight schools also are seeing enrollment fall as families flee them.
"If the model is fair, why did bills go haywire? The answer sits one floor down, at the Cook County Board of Review, a separate elected body that hears appeals after the assessor sets a value. The assessor proposes; the Board disposes. And the Board has been busy. The University of Chicago report found that commercial appeals there shift 3-4 percent of the tax base onto residential property every single year, effectively undoing the equity the assessor's office tries to build in."
The $16.6 billion, 2026 budget approved by a City Council majority lifted the Chicago ban on video gambling and assumed Chicago would generate $6.8 million by licensing newly legalized video gambling terminals across the city.
“Local taxing bodies like suburban school districts and municipalities are going to be waiting months for revenues they need for operations. They had to go out and take payday-style gap loans to keep the lights on and that's costing school districts over $120 million in interest,” Chicago Ald. Brendan Reilly said. Legislation requiring the county to reimburse taxing districts for interest lost and debts incurred did not advance during the General Assembly’s spring session.
Regional Transportation Authority board Chair Kirk Dillard made it clear in a letter to transit officials that any changes to executive leadership at the CTA now need the OK of Illinois' brand-new transit governing body. It's not clear if Chicago's mayor is on board.
The pension commission that Mayor Brandon Johnson created shortly after taking office disbanded without releasing a single report after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a police pension sweetener that, over time, will make Chicago’s pension crisis $11 billion worse.
"You cannot praise the police while empowering the revolving door system that puts them at greater risk every day. You cannot claim to back law enforcement while refusing to seriously confront the catastrophic failures of the SAFE-T Act."
Diana McCluskey, chief school business official for Community Consolidated School District 15 in Palatine, testified that her district had lost "approximately $4 million due to this unfortunate situation. Where are we going to make that up from? We aren't a corporation."
The number of vacant offices throughout downtown rose in 2025, and the first few months of 2026 brought no relief. The downtown availability rate stood at 30.4 percent in the first quarter, up from about 29 percent one year ago, according to a Transwestern report. The Central Loop fared worse than any downtown submarket.
Ald. Marty Quinn called the purchase “not a good deal,” a “colossal risk,” and a potentially poor use of $50 million of tax increment financing district money — something the city may regret when facing a billion-dollar budget gap later this year, he added.
When Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Macquline King testified before Congress, U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens questioned the academic proficiency rates for students in Chicago Public Schools: “Is a 77 percent failure rate in reading ok? A 76 percent failure rate in math and 88 percent of our Black students not being able to read, is that ok Dr. King? Is that success or failure?” King replied, “That is not acceptable."
While the motive behind the burning cross was not immediately clear, cross burnings in the U.S. have historically been seen as “symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The Illinois Network of Charters praised the longer terms and a greater emphasis on academic performance as part of the district’s new oversight measures, but still criticized CPS for waiting until the summer to tell charter families and staff how many more years their schools would survive. Jodie Cantrell, chief of public affairs for INCS, described the delay as a political move for which “children pay the price.”
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A mess of uncertainty and litigation is sure to follow. 
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Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
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