Server Luis Torreijos is worried patrons wouldn’t be as generous with tips. He currently makes more than twice the minimum wage. “And thank God for that. I’ll be able to afford to send my kids to college, have a decent life, and I don’t understand why they want to change it,” Torreijos said.

If passed, schools would have until September 1, 2027, to select a new school or athletic team name, logo, or mascot. They would be allowed to continue using their current logos until that time.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a new government agency reduce redundancies, but I guess we’ll see,” state Rep. Blaine Wilhour said.

“Why are they [Cook County] receiving $6.9 million to do some prosecutions, when DuPage County is apparently doing the same thing and they get absolutely nothing,” said state Rep. John Cabello. “The State Appellate Prosecutors should be doing it all. I don’t trust the leadership of Cook County’s State’s Attorney’s Office to do any of this.”

“Lives were lost because of the lack of responsibility and due diligence at the PRB,” House Minority Leader Tony McCombie said. “When innocent people die because of bad policy, we must correct course immediately.”

James Hartmann’s departure is the latest fallout from a memo sent March 21 to members of House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s Democratic supermajority instructing the lawmakers not to respond to questions from a Tribune reporter regarding the thousands of dollars in political contributions the speaker’s leadership team made to Welch-backed candidate Michael Crawford, who defeated veteran state Rep. Mary Flowers in the March 19 primary.

Also noteworthy is another opinion piece—one that’s bouncing around the world of nonprofit activists—that also appears to reject leftist excess. But it’s a little harder to know what to make of this one. Rachel Pritzker, a member of a prominent Democratic family, wrote that “at a certain point, I came to see that my efforts, under the banner of ‘democracy,’ were actually furthering the decline of democracy.”

The bill, if fully funded, would provide all student teachers with a $10,000 stipend for a semester of work. If they don’t receive full funding, the program would prioritize low-income student teachers.

Rolling up to a Tesla charging port, state Sen. Dan McConchie grimaced that wheelchair users like him couldn’t use it—or any of the others at the gas station. They’d all been placed on a raised surface that he couldn’t readily reach. McConchie introduced a state bill to improve relevant accessibility standards, including electric car chargers.

Even though numbers were slightly down, Illinois sports betting totaled nearly $1.3 billion and trailed only New York and New Jersey. Illinois filled its coffers with nearly $20.3 million in tax revenue while Cook County received $1.36 million.

A child tax credit could help Illinois’ neediest residents keep more of their paychecks while encouraging work. Pritzker’s proposal phases-in benefits with earned income, a sign of good tax policy.

Despite taking up 20 percent of the state’s general funds, experts said lawmakers still underpaid the five statewide government retirement plans.

Writes Katherine Loughead, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, “Of the 32 states whose overall state and local tax burdens per capita were below the national average in 2022, 24 experienced net inbound migration in FY 2023. Meanwhile, of the 18 states and D.C. with tax burdens per capita at or above the national average, 14 of those jurisdictions experienced net outbound migration.”

Nearly 70% of Illinois firefighters are volunteers. The Volunteer Emergency Worker Credit, which the Illinois Department of Revenue said will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis, allows firefighters who work for free or for a small stipend to shave $500 off their 2023 taxes.