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The bonds that funded the $660 million Soldier Field renovation are paid off with part of the city’s hotel tax — but that financing package also assumed hotel tax revenue would grow a rosy 5.5% a year. When it doesn’t, Chicago taxpayers are supposed to make up the difference – as they did in 2011.
The speaker dismissed as unfounded Lightfoot’s fears of an elected school board dominated by her political adversaries in the Chicago Teachers Union. Rather, he argued, the CTU “should be concerned with who else may dominate” school board elections. “You have charter schools that are very well-funded…You have business groups that may want to chime in. I’m a product of an elected school board. I know all of the interest groups that get involved in elected school board races. Teachers unions don’t always prevail.”
“There will be masks still required on public transit, in schools, and healthcare settings and certainly there will be some businesses that decide to continue having mask policies, and people are going to be making their own decisions,” Chicago’s public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said.
“The return of suits, it’s a beautiful thing,” said Christine Bane of the Roanoke Restaurant. “We’re seeing a lot of our old customers that used to come in daily coming back.”
“If we want our children to be able to grow up, to live and to be able to thrive, we have to end this infatuation with gang culture, period,” Alderman Raymond Lopez said Thursday.
Gov. Pritzker said, “You’ll see IDES reopening over the next month or two. They’re still working out the security concerns at all of our offices.”
He said, “The reality is that we have a lot of work to do in the State of Illinois.”
“We can’t crystal ball who will serve on the Chicago Public Schools board if it becomes a fully elected body in 2027. But it’s a foregone conclusion who would run CPS if it happens. Make way for the power-hungry, politics-driven Chicago Teachers Union.”
“Illinois Democrats hold a statehouse supermajority, every statewide office and a state Supreme Court majority. That sounds like a monopoly on power. But with voters starting to revolt against the state’s fiscal woes and political corruption, Democrats are now working to further entrench their power.”
Included in the coalition’s legislative agenda is a bill mandating U.S. history classes K-8th grade incorporate the role American-Muslims and other faith-based communities play in American history, and another to allow student-athletes to tailor their uniforms to their personal preferences for cultural or religious reasons, such as to wear a hijab or yarmulke.
Pritzker seemed to kick start his re-election bid with a whopping $35 million personal donation to his campaign coffers in March. But one political insider said First Lady MK Pritzker is not very happy with the lifestyle created by the demands of her husband’s job.
Back in February, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced a $12.5 million investment of taxpayer dollars for cameras and license plate readers that will go up in 47 different locations – specifically meant to help investigate expressway shootings. The Illinois State Police say the program is still in the planning phase.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday that he’s confident an energy deal that failed to advance before the spring session ended will come together in bill form for lawmakers to return “for a brief moment” to pass it.
Attracting more residents will be a challenge for smaller communities in a state that is losing residents.
The bill would establish a repository system for people to return their unneeded prescription drugs to pharmacies, which would then re-dispense them to Illinoisans who may be struggling to afford necessary medication. Illinois Pharmacists Association Executive Director Garth Reynolds says this is a program other states have and would meet a real need.
The budget included four of the nine tax increases requested by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, projected to bring in $655 million. It also increases lawmaker base pay by nearly $1,200 to $70,645. Illinois lawmakers were already the fifth-highest paid in the nation, and the highest paid among part-time legislators – before the pay hike.
There appears to be potential to make the tax credit permanent.
Under the law, establishments could sell pre-mixed cocktails or a single serving of wine for carryout or delivery, but not through third-party delivery apps like Grubhub or Uber Eats.
Ald. Brian Hopkins said the proposal caught aldermen off guard. “I don’t know a single alderman who supports it, and I don’t know anyone who anticipated it or asked for it. It came out of left field.
The Illinois General Assembly approved the MPEA’s expansion debt service appropriation for fiscal year 2022, the agency said.
In addition, the General Assembly has passed a $30 million appropriation for the authority’s corporate purposes for FY22.” the MPEA said. “Of this amount, $15 million can be used for the Authority’s incentive grant program for FY22, and the remaining $15 million can be used for the Authority’s general corporate purposes.”
Funding increased significantly for Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) and a cover crop incentive program. SWCDs’ operations budget increased by $4 million and a new Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS) line item received $3.5 million.
According to published reports, Illinois set aside $7 million in prize money for a vaccine lottery, and $3 million in scholarships for minors who get vaccinated.
This figure represents a 22% increase from the previous week.
House GOP Leader Jim Durkin said he believes in local control, but not when the Chicago Teachers Union is part of the equation. “I’m not going to give it over to a group of activists who have nothing but … their only desire is to win the mayor’s office.”
It’s possible there will be another surge of cases in the fall and winter, which could mean restrictions are brought back, Dr. Allison Arwady and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. But for now, the numbers look good.
According to HB417, new Chicago Park District employees will pay 11% of their salaries, instead of 9%, into the pension fund. State Rep. Martin McLaughlin supported the bill, but said, “Numbers don’t lie. Thirty years ago our pension cost made up 4% of our budget. Now it makes up almost 30% of our budget.”
A Wirepoints analysis of the IRS’ just-released 2019 migration data shows Illinois lost, on net, 82,000 residents to other states that year. The state ranked third-worst nationally for net resident losses, both in nominal and per capita terms.
The bottom line is that most Illinois lawmakers pretended the hole in the unemployment fund doesn’t exist. It was left to be addressed by future measures unknown, but they almost certainly will include higher payroll taxes on employers.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joins Amy Jacobson and John Anthony on Chicago’s Morning Answer to breakdown the 704-page Illinois budget and talk about the end of the legislative session in Springfield.
Owner Michael Muser is struggling to find servers who were always available in a pipeline of fine dining industry talent. “These are hirable people in many other fields. My concern is they’re gone — they’re gone. I don’t think there’s this small army of hospitality people waiting for some green light to come back.”
Residents opposed to Evanston’s plan say it puts too many restrictions on how they can use the money, and point out that because banks and real estate companies would have to be involved, the program privileges institutions that have historically been the agents of discrimination. “The beneficiaries of this program would be those who initially did the harm of redlining here in Evanston,” said community organizer Sebastian Nalls, 21.
Still, pending lawsuits continue to loom over the process. “There will be things that we have to do to handle that reality,” Pritzker’s cannabis czar Toi Hutchinson said. “And that’s all tied to the first lottery.”
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