“State Rep. Curtis Tarver II introduced a bill last week, House Bill 2455, to close the judicial FOIA loophole and expressly make the court system in Illinois subject to the public-records law… Illinois is the only state in the country where these sorts of financial and administrative records of the courts are not available either through FOIA or by court rules or other state laws, according to research by the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Civic Federation.”

State Rep. Mike Coffey, who owns a restaurant in Springfield, argues that the current system of tipping good service is capitalism at work. “I think that is what differentiates the Untied States of America from a lot of these other countries. We reward hard work, so it gives the customer the ability to reward somebody for great service and take away if the service is not great.”

Carbon capture and storage “could play an important role in achieving the state’s decarbonization goals,” according to the report, which was commissioned by the state legislature. But as the fight over Navigator CO2’s pipeline illustrates, battle lines are being drawn, with opponents questioning carbon capture’s very reason for being — its real-world effectiveness in reducing greenhouse gases.

State Representative Blaine Wilhour said the solution is school choice. “We have continued to fund failed programs in our education system for too long. It is time to adopt policies that will produce good results with minimal investment. It is time for our education dollars to follow students and give families real choices in their kids’ education.”

Sheila Weinberg, of Truth in Accounting: “The biggest problem with this financial catfishing is that big decisions will be made based on deceptive information. Spending will be increased because of the false narrative that the state has a surplus of money, when Illinois is hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.”

“While reviewing the governor’s proposed budget, I was disappointed to not see an increase for LGDF,” state Rep. Anthony DeLuca said. “This funding impacts fire and police services, garbage pickup, snow removal, water and other core services that municipalities provide for people. It would be prudent and beneficial for the state to properly prioritize the LGDF in this budget so that municipalities are better equipped to deliver critical basic services that residents depend on each and every day.”

“However, many of the structural fiscal flaws that created years of deficits remain in place. Which means Illinois decision-makers have the rare opportunity to thoughtfully consider reforming the state’s fiscal system, with an eye toward building the capacity needed to sustain investments in core services over the long haul, rather than just dig out of the crisis du jour.”

Jim Dey: “(Professor Kent) Redfield said there are several tax-hike possibilities Democrats could pursue — the progressive tax, expanding the sales tax to services, taxing retirement income above certain levels or an income-tax surtax devoted to paying off the state’s onerous public-pension debts. But he said legislators will probably want to avoid taking any action until after the 2024 election in the hope the public’s surly mood will change.”

The project is the largest capital project in the Department of Natural Resources history. Some of the older beach ridges at Illinois Beach State Park date back 3,000 years.

“Last week, my suicidal 15-year-old grandson ingested and smoked a cocktail of several drugs. His loving parents found him nonresponsive, with a heart rate near 200 beats per minute. The emergency responders and doctors saved his life. Sadly, it was not his first attempt.”

“Exports are absolutely crucial to the agricultural sector, particularly in the Midwest,” University of Illinois agriculture economist Gary Schnitkey told The Center Square. Soybean farmers, for example, export 50% of their crop. One of the failings of U.S. trade policy in the past few years, Schnitkey said, is the failure to remove non-tariff trade barriers with

Jim Dey: “Sheila Weinberg, CEO of Truth in Accounting, attributed part of Illinois’ improved financial picture to ‘billions of dollars in federal tax funds for COVID-19 relief.’ Weinberg noted credit ratings are not an indication of overall state finances, explaining that the upgrade is better news for bondholders than taxpayers. ‘It’s just the rating on the risk of whether the bonds will get paid,’ she said, noting that rating agencies are ‘looking out for the bondholder.'”

“There is being destitute, oppressed, exploited or crushed — and then there is America’s inner-city student population, most of them minorities…. As the authors of the Wirepoints report stressed: Defenders of the current system are sure to invoke COVID as the big reason for the low scores. But a look at the 2019 numbers shows that the reading and math numbers were

I’s time the Illinois Supreme Court steps up and revisits the issue of “repeated ethical lapses associated with gut-and-replace legislation,” which was used to create two controversial state laws that have since drawn national attention: bans on so-called “assault weapons” and cash bail. That was the sentiment of the three-justice panel of the Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon

When the Illinois State Board of Education launched the grant program in 2020, one of the main goals was to help school districts better meet the needs of their local teacher pipeline, said spokeswoman Jackie Matthews. ISBE reported Illinois had 2,139 unfilled teaching positions in October 2021, with most of the unfilled positions concentrated in underresourced communities and in bilingual and special education roles.

The Democratic Party of Illinois began by initially looking at 400-some races and then identifying more than 100 what they call “fringe” candidates in 60 different school board districts. All of those districts and most of those candidates will be targeted in what party officials say will be a “robust” campaign. “It’s going to be very much a voter education program,” explained a Democratic Party of Illinois official. The state party will be “shedding light on the fact that there are candidates supported by these national extremist groups that are on their ballot.”