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In Elk Grove Village, Northlake and Franklin Park combined, assessment reductions and incentives shaved the taxable property value of the data centers by $2 billion. The figure translates to $100 million in tax savings for data centers that would’ve helped suburban property owners out.
Local and state officials are reassuring Illinoisans about the safety of mail-in voting, while also encouraging them to return their ballots early after a new ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court could cause “chaos” ahead of the November election.
““We cannot continue to govern by searching for loose change in the couch or, every time there’s a budget challenge, we revert back to proclivities that have caused tremendous harm to working people in this city,” the mayor said.”
“In the first 15 months following President Donald Trump’s return to office, local officials from at least 75 agencies across Illinois fed information to federal immigration agents, sometimes in apparent violation of state law. In over a third of Illinois counties, at least one police department, sheriff’s office, or state’s attorney’s office collaborated with federal agents. At least 150 people in Illinois were swept into the immigration system this way, in a state that presented itself as a shield against it.”
“For the past several years, I have been building this massive Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center to teach young people the trades as a way out of poverty and violence. And I’m sitting here, wondering if I made a mistake. Have I created something that is outdated?”
“I did not start this coalition to hand anybody a list of tax breaks,” Tracy said. “I started it because the people who know what a rule actually costs are never in the room when it gets written. A workforce shortage. A permitting delay. An energy bill that doubled. Those show up on a shop floor in Quincy a year before they show up in a hearing room in Washington. The fix is not complicated. Ask the people who do the work, and then write it down in language they can read.”
Hal Dardick, director of research for the Cook County Treasurer’s Office, said that if homeowners in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs want hope for lower tax bills in the future, local governments have to pinch pennies and bring in more people and businesses. Added Treasurer Maria Pappas: “It depends on whether the city, county and the state can be seen as a business-friendly place.”
Completion is expected in 2041, which dovetails with the expiry of the commission’s contract with the City of Chicago, officials said. “They don’t put anything back into the system; that’s the problem,” DuPage Water Commission board Chair Jim Zay said. “This year we’ll pay them $130 million, and they put nothing in for infrastructure.”
Introduced to the community in 2016, the project received enough Chicago Housing Authority vouchers to earmark 61 apartments for tenants earning 60-80 percent of the area median income. The project was awarded $18 million in tax-exempt bonds by the city in 2022.
“Let’s be clear. We want to make sure that our roads are pothole-free, that we’re making sure to build more so we can build our economy across the state of Illinois,” Gov. JB Pritzker said of the rate increases.
“My kids went to Francis Parker School in Chicago. One of the school’s mottos is “everything to help, nothing to hinder”. The city of Chicago’s motto should be ‘everything to hinder, nothing to help.’ Especially true of infrastructure or capitalistic enterprises.”
Most of Illinois’ local municipal pensions are distressed and hundreds are deeply distressed, imposing a costly drag on the towns and cities that sponsor them.
There’s an irony surrounding the battles over solar farms in Illinois. Residents are being forced – through mandatory surcharges in their electric bills – to pay for the very subsidies that help make solar projects profitable. Their own money is being used to finance solar farms that many residents don’t want. That’s exactly what’s playing out in Effingham today.
