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Under Bring Chicago Home’s proposal, the transfer tax for purchasers of high-end properties valued at over $1 million would rise substantially from $3.75 per $500 of a property’s total sale price to $13.25 per $500 in value. Revenues from the increase in the transfer tax would be earmarked for homeless programs.
The announcement comes a day after U.S. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer declined to issue a temporary restraining order against the new licenses in a lawsuit by two plaintiffs claiming the state’s residency requirements violate federal law.
Gov. JB Pritzker said there may be some ambiguity in the law to clear up. “I know they’ll get through this, look at all of what’s necessary,” Pritzker said. “But I want to be clear, she’s somebody that is always trying to do the right thing.”
Amendment 1 would enshrine permanent power for public unions in the state constitution which could mean higher taxes, higher costs, and potentially costly litigation for business owners.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin added that the need for such an investigation is important because it offers a chance to learn more about what happened. “These are all legitimate questions, not just for criminal prosecution, but for history.”
Flossmoor police responded to Foxx’s home at 10:09 p.m. Saturday after her husband, Kelley, called 911 to report a domestic, according to the police report. “While en route to the address, dispatch informed us the domestic was physical and there were no injuries ‘yet,’” an officer wrote. Kelley Foxx said his wife “got mad about something that was posted on Facebook that he did,” an officer wrote. According to the report, officers “did not see any evidence to support an arrest in this incident.”
A national republication of our Wirepoints column.
The bill also seeks to expand behavioral health training, incentives the hiring of individuals in recovery from substance use disorder or mental illness, and makes it easier for advanced practice registered nurses to treat patients.
While the $750 million may cover only about a week of state spending, considering the overall $46 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, it still marks a near-tripling of its previous high-water mark. Per the spending plan signed by Gov. JB Pritzker for the upcoming fiscal year, it’ll receive another $280 million after July 1, bringing its balance to over $1 billion.
Mendoza says ultimately, she would like to see the rainy-day fund be 7.5% of the state’s current budget. That would be about $3.25 billion.
If the numbers hold, it would represent a brutal repudiation by Illinois’ Republican voters of Irvin, his array of mainstream party endorsements and, most pointedly, his $50 million benefactor, Chicago hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin.
All Illinois residents, regardless of income, are eligible. The law does, however, state that the EPA should “prioritize the review of qualified applications from low-income purchasers and award rebates to qualified purchasers accordingly.”
Danielle Cruz explained, “But with Illinois laws, the squatters are more protected than the actual homeowners…(I)n order to get her out, even though she does not have a lease with us, and she’s not an actual tenant, we have to go through the whole eviction process to get her out.” Cruz said that process could take anywhere from six to 18 months due to backlogs.
Consider these: 10,000 students leave the district as enrollment drops, $1.26 billion in federal COVID relief money spent, 5 days of canceled classes amid a standoff between CPS and its teachers union, 22,114 COVID cases among students (and 9,125 cases among adults), and 4,000 students without reliable bus service early in the school year.
This meeting comes as Illinois continues to lose out on battery plants to neighboring states. General Motors is building a $2.3 billion battery plant in Ohio, while Ford is partnering with South Korean company SK Innovation to build three battery mega-factories in Kentucky and Tennessee. And last month, Samsung and Dutch automobile company Stellantis announced that they’re building a $2.5 billion plant an hour east of Illinois’ border in central Indiana. Samsung had previously considered a site in Normal.
The number of counties at the “high” level marks an increase from last week’s 19 as some Chicago-area counties that had dropped down to medium last week returned to the heightened level.
Chuck Casto, researcher for the small business referral network Alignable, said Illinois businesses are concerned they may have to close their doors if prices continue to rise. “In Illinois, we’re looking at 49% of the people we polled said they were worried they might have to shut down because of inflation and everything that goes into that like elevated gas prices and elevated rent.”
The Chicago Police Department announced on June 1 that its Bureau of Detectives had “cleared” 139 murder cases so far in 2022. “A homicide clearance rate of 58%,” the press release said. But “clearing” a murder does not mean someone is charged with the murder. CPD can also “clear” a homicide if it believes the killer has died or if it’s confident about the case, but the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office refuses to pursue charges.
“They wanted to shut down the coal plants. Coal plants got shut down,” state Rep. Tim Butler said. “Now your rates are going up because we don’t have enough energy in the market. And this is exactly what we told people was going to happen, and it’s coming to fruition.”
Ald. Stephanie Coleman, co-chair of the reparations sub-committee, said a guaranteed basic income program earmarked for African American men would “give some young folks an opportunity to be stewards of their communities and be change-agents….If we can find $12 million for gas cards, certainly we can find some resources to really address one of the most vulnerable populations in our city. This can really help get our city a better, safer city.”
Republicans are calling for a special session to deal with rising gas prices.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, in April, accepted an offer to lead Sinai Health System — one of the state’s top medical nonprofits. The Illinois Ethics Act requires department heads like Ezike to wait a year before accepting positions with companies that hold contracts overseen by their departments, or with companies their departments license or regulate. And while in office they cannot engage in job negotiations with companies that lobby their agencies.
When we sum up Illinois’ out-migration losses since 2000, it turns out the state has lost a cumulative $535 billion in AGI that it could have taxed over the last two decades. It’s cost the state at least $25 billion in lost revenues.
According to the charges, former House Speaker Michael Madigan quietly greenlighted efforts to kill his own daughter’s legislation as he pressed ComEd to give jobs to two political allies, including a coveted position on the utility’s board of directors.
The leasehold tax system works only if the government landlords cooperate with Cook County’s taxing officials. But that frequently isn’t what happens, the Sun-Times found.
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