State Rep. Ryan Spain said now the revenue from the tax is being moved from downstate to Chicago transit. He added the bill can work with the budget because Chicago did not need as much money as they received. “This sales tax that I’m speaking about was promised as a delivery into the Road Fund,” Spain said. “Those dollars have now been rescinded and transferred beginning on July one to fund Chicago land transit.”

“The result of this effort to not work together with the federal government to resolve the issues, particularly related to immigration and enforcement of our laws, has resulted in huge problems in our state,” said state Rep. Patrick Windhorst. The bill’s legality has also been questioned.

Rep. Marti Deuter is pushing a bill that would allow drivers to have a speed control device installed in their car rather than having their license suspended. “Speeding is a chronic problem on our streets and is a threat to public safety,” Deuter told a House committee last month. “Speeding is a factor in nearly half of all deadly crashes. Risk of fatality increases as speed increases.”

Politicians in Michigan and Illinois are pushing for help to build barriers and blast annoying sounds to repel the fish. Meanwhile, boaters are taking matters into their own hands.

“For the benefits, it is true that data centers bring revenue. In Aurora, that will mean approximately $1.6 million annually in both property and utility taxes to the city each and every year,” Aurora Mayor John Laesch said. “Aurora residents living near data centers have described a constant low-frequency hum day and night. It’s not loud in a traditional sense, but persistent. People have described trouble sleeping, increased stress, a loss of quiet in their own homes.”

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour said the board should do its due diligence about federal tax credit scholarships that would not cost the state a dime. “I really don’t want to hear people come in here and talk about inequity in education and all this when you’re just leaving that stuff off the table because of politics,” Wilhour said.

Meanwhile, not far from Evanston, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to hold a public engagement forum called “Repair Chicago” to “gather lived experiences of harm of Black Chicagoans” as part of an effort to implement reparations. On the state level, Illinois’ reparations commission released a report laying out what it called the state’s history of harms against Black residents.

The poll findings underscore the growing affordability crisis facing many Illinois residents, particularly in the state’s urban centers like Chicago. “The pension buyout program moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension,” said Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints.

Both reports highlight the dramatic increase in the use of tax increment financing Statewide, along with the cost of that growth to local taxpayers. Just in Cook County over the past 30 years, TIF district property tax collections have increased by 1034 percent from $160 million to over $1.8 billion in 2024.

Walmart has notified the state of plans to close the Matteson facility and its impact on 111 employees.