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“You can’t say, ‘Welcome, come to my state,’ but then turn around and blame a governor saying, ‘Stop sending these folks,'” House GOP Leader Tony McCombie stressed. “I thought we were a welcoming Illinois. You don’t get it both ways.”
The city is in full compliance with approximately 5% of the 4-year-old court order.
According to the 2023 American Farm Bureau Federation market basket survey, families in Illinois will pay $66.92 to host an Independence Day cookout for 10 people. That is significantly more than two years ago, but slightly lower from record highs in 2022 when inflation was running rampant.
“No single act has been more responsible for the surge in youth violence than the closing of Chicago Public Schools campuses for over 17 months. Between 2019 and 2022, CPS has seen enrollment drop by nearly 37,000 students. That is over three times the number of enrolled students in the 50 near-empty schools former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed in 2013.”
Investment managers working with public pensions in Illinois would have to disclose how they integrate factors such as greenhouse gas emissions and labor practices into their decisions and analyses under a measure (HB 2782) awaiting action by the governor.
“The impact of this legislation is far reaching: the cost savings to employers using longer term temporary labor will be reduced if the temporary staffing agencies pass on the new required wage rates and benefit costs to their clients. The consequences of non-compliance are serious and can potentially be financially disastrous.”
In Chicago, an estimated 45,000 teens and young adults are not in school, college, or the workforce; That’s roughly 15% of the city’s 16- to 24-year-old residents. City leaders and experts have long seen reengaging these young people — whom they call “Opportunity Youth” — as crucial to addressing poverty, racial inequities, and gun violence. But overall, Chicago’s programs are often fragmented and lack the big-picture vision and coordination between nonprofits and government
Top Illinois officials agreed last year that police shouldn’t ticket students for minor misbehavior at school and pledged to make sure it didn’t happen anywhere in the state. But a bill to end the widespread practice fizzled this spring because of disagreement over whether it would accomplish its goal and confusion about whether police would still be able to respond to crime on campus.
The CPS budget of $9.8 billion for the coming year is stable due to a combination of federal COVID-19 relief funds and local tax sources, including a property tax increase to the maximum allowed under the state tax cap law. However, CPS faces a fiscal cliff of $628 million beginning in FY2026 after federal relief funds are spent.
Ongoing dedicated revenues to the Budget Stabilization Fund and estimated FY2024 amounts include: 10% of state cannabis tax revenues ($25 million), monthly transfers of $3.75 million from the General Revenue Fund ($45 million), repayment over 10-years from the loan of $450 million to the State’s UI Trust Fund ($45 million), and interest earnings on the fund’s balance ($23 million).
The Illinois Tollway expects 9.2 million vehicles to pass through the 294-mile system between Friday and Tuesday. In Illinois, gas prices have fallen by about 7 cents over the past two weeks. Last Independence Day weekend, gas prices in Chicago averaged about $5.99 per gallon, according to AAA. On Monday, gas prices within the city averaged $4.57 a gallon, nearly $1.50 less compared to last year.
Saying the city needs to “operationalize” its welcoming city promise, Johnson’s Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas laid out a long term plan, indicating officials expect the influx of migrants to continue for some time. That strategy includes maintaining “supply space,” buying shelter sites to use when needed that can serve as community hubs when not, as well as advocating for immigration reform at the federal level “in a way that I don’t know if we’ve seen that before.”
Keeping these record reserve levels in context is key to understanding just how far behind the state is in terms of sound fiscal management and how much work is still left to be done. It took unprecedented revenues and billions in one-time federal aid to get the state rainy day fund beyond the level of a joke.
Illinois lawmaker salaries were already among the highest in the nation. The latest pay bump pushes their annual salary to nearly $90,000. Only California, New York, and Pennsylvania pay their legislators more than Illinois.
“We also cannot ignore the needs of our black and brown communities that are already disinvested in,” Ald. Jeanette Taylor said. “You’ve got people who did not get the rental assistance and are not facing eviction, you’ve got people trying to figure out daycare and summer programs.”
FOX32 Chicago highlighted Wirepoints’ Wednesday press conference in front of the Chicago Public Schools headquarters, where a coalition of concerned Chicagoans spoke out against the district’s 5% tax hike. Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski explained: “the problem is parents aren’t putting up with this. People are fleeing CPS. It’s too expensive, the teaching is not working, and in less than 20 years, it’s gone down 116,000 students.”
Ted joined Anthony Travis, the “Tax Doctor,” on Rufus Williams’ WVON program to discuss the reasons why CPS’ 5% property tax hike is so terrible. In short: because district spending continues to rise even as already-dismal student results fall further. Ted asks the important question: Where is the money going and why isn’t the district teaching Chicago’s kids?” CPS doesn’t deserve any more money until it is held accountable for its failures.
A reported 24 schools have enrolled more than 20 migrant students so far; At least two schools have enrolled more than 100 students. One Wheeling superintendent recalled received three days notice that 40 new migrant students would be enrolling – and because many of these schools are outside of Chicago, they have received no additional funding to support these students with limited knowledge of English.
“Political leaders in their clumsy attempt to bring greater diversity to the system have only diminished its quality. They have made the rank and file cynical about the promotion process and created a crisis in confidence in CPD leadership. A Police Department can be built that reflects the community while not sacrificing quality and generates an esprit de corp.”
Jim Dey: “WBEZ public radio in Chicago recently found ‘nearly $2 million in state retirement checks’ are going out to a ‘mix of federal charged, convicted and self-admitted felons who once served’ in the General Assembly. The pension puzzle demonstrates once again the political establishment’s conflicted relationship between honest government and personal financial gain.”
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