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“I get the concept, and we’re open to it,” Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said in an interview about efforts to encourage more housing options in towns like his. “What we’re not open to, absolutely not open to, is the state telling us how to zone and take away the due process rights of our residents.”
Of the incumbent board members, only Sean Harden, the current president who was appointed by Mayor Johnson, is not running. Two current board members — Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer — are giving up district seats to run for president.
But Ald. Peter Chico, a former Chicago police officer, said that data would not change his firm belief that residents of his ward would be safer if a gunshot detection system covered the ward. “What about when there are no calls?”
The Illinois Revenue Alliance is made up of several organizations in the state…including labor unions like SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Chicago Teachers Union, and community and advocacy groups. Their mission is to advocate for programs to help low and moderate income families thrive. “We have to only raise taxes on the wealthiest individuals in the population,” their spokesman said.
Corbett has enlisted Carolyn Schofield of Crystal Lake to be his running mate. Schofield is a former Republican McHenry County Board member who ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 alongside former Republican State Sen. Paul Schimpf. She also recently left her job as a staff assistant for the Illinois Senate Republican caucus.
One of the clearest red flags in the budget process is the growing divide between Gov. JB Pritzker’s revenue assumptions and more cautious projections from the General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) and Pritzker’s own Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB). COGFA and GOMB estimates this month predict revenue will be $720 million to $900 million short of what Pritzker has forecast.
In 2011 Illinois enacted the largest income tax hike in state history. At least some of that increase could have offset rising property taxes, but instead the state kept 100 percent of the additional money, decreasing the percentage given to local governments. Since Gov. JB Pritzker took office, total property taxes in Illinois have risen 27 percent, from $31.8 billion in 2018 to $40.37 billion in 2024.
Union leaders like to pitch “solidarity” among their members, but it’s often a political fiction. So it was last week when the rank-and-file of the ChicagoTeachers Union rejected a union ballot question seeking a dues increase. Take that, comrade.
Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach’s office said the three most common crimes for someone who’s gone AWOL while on electronic monitoring are retail theft (24 people), theft (18 people) and aggravated battery (18 people). That doesn’t include 59 people who violated restrictions on where they can go because of a domestic violence charge.
“As you know, we now are one of the best states in the country for infrastructure but that is because were are making the investments that come from the motor fuel tax that gets imposed,” Pritzker said. “I think we have enough here so we could make some sort of pause, but I think that is something the legislature is going to consider over the coming week. We will see.”
“Almost half (44 percent) describe the city’s condition as excellent or good, but just a quarter say the same about (Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s performance, and not quite half say it’s been fair or poor. That gap matters. Voters are not saying Chicago is in a doom loop. They are saying the city has potential that is not being translated into capable governance that would make their hometown flourish even more.”
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