-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Top Illinois Stories
“In reality, the bills do nothing to address the factors contributing to higher premiums, such as higher repair costs, more severe weather, and legal system abuse,” the lobbying groups said in a statement. “Instead, the bills implement a fundamental shift in Illinois’ regulatory environment and move the state towards a more rigid rate-approval system similar to struggling insurance markets like California. This shift will make it harder for insurers to respond in real-time to market conditions and adjust rates up or down based on actual claims experience.”
A sweeping Illinois bill to water down audit requirements is on pause, but its backers have secured the support of the Democratic nominee for state comptroller and hope to push the legislation through next session.
“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.”
More Highlighted Illinois Stories
“What exactly will be the cost of this bill? What impact will this bill have on our state? And yet here we are again, avoiding what is in the rules and in the law so we will know what the cost of things are that we’re voting on,” state Rep. Patrick Windhorst said.
As of May 29, 13 county boards had adopted resolutions urging Gov. JB Pritzker to opt Illinois into a new federal program that will funnel donated funds to students for tutoring, special-needs services and other academic uses. The board resolutions follow a March 17 nonbinding ballot question in 31 counties in which 63 percent of those who voted on it supported opting in.
Illinois’ sales tax on gas is supposed to go into a “lockbox” for transportation, but lawmakers aren’t adhering to that mandate. For years the state has diverted sales tax revenue on gasoline to fill gaps in the budget, arguably violating the transportation fund lockbox provision in the Illinois Constitution.
Waukegan Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, turned herself in Wednesday after prosecutors said she submitted her dead mother’s vote-by-mail ballot during a March primary election, which has resulted in two charges, including one Class 4 Felony.
The bill, which passed 110-0 in the House on Wednesday and 52-5 in the Senate last week, would make Illinois the first state to require independent, third-party audits of the safety practices of large frontier artificial intelligence developers.
For Gov. JB Pritzker, the two bills represent a continuation of his push to put greater controls on the Illinois insurance industry. In 2023 and 2024, he successfully pushed legislation giving the Insurance Department authority to review and approve rates for small- and large-group health insurance plans.
This plan ensures utility companies and contractors can access service lines on private property at no cost to property owners. It also expands who can authorize and perform the replacement.
Mayor Craig Johnson also pointed to the financial upside, with data centers generating major revenue in 2025, including $45 million in property taxes, $11.1 million in building permit fees, $4.5 million in electric tax revenue, and $1 million in sales tax revenue.
NetChoice Director of Policy Patrick Hedger said Illinois could face costly legal challenges after NetChoice secured permanent injunctions against digital ID mandates in Arkansas, Louisiana and Ohio. Hedger said HB 5511 is unconstitutional because it regulates activity outside of Illinois.
Mary Wagoner, of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago: "These buyout programs are not going to solve Chicago’s problems on their own, but the city must do what it can to chip away at its pension costs. ... Implementing a buyout program in Chicago would be a signal to residents, rating agencies and investors that the city is taking its pension challenges seriously by availing itself of proven tools to address pension debt."
The time off can be used in addition to the twelve weeks of unpaid, federally mandated leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The four state Senate Republican budgeters, including Sen. Donald DeWitte, R-West Dundee, warned that a 3,178 page version of the budget previously introduced isn’t close to resembling what is likely to be the final product.
“The US Department of Justice created what they're calling the anti-weaponization fund – or as I call it the Jan. 6th and Insurrection Fund,” state Rep. Bob Morgan said. “Anybody who is enriching themselves by participating in part of an insurrection should definitely be taxed for that potential payout.”
The commissioners are allowed by law to hold jobs outside of their state roles (each commissioner is paid a salary of about $150,000), but they are required to disclose the side pay if it exceeds $7,500 in a calendar year. Nina Harris, the commission's chairperson, did not disclose she was paid more than $7,500 in 2024 by the Springfield Urban League.
House Bill 0131 and Senate Bill 2512, which contain the proposed budget for fiscal 2027, would appropriate about $11.6 billion to contributions for the five systems. These payments are required by a 1995 state law known as the “Edgar Ramp.” But while that would satisfy the legal requirement, it would not — by a long shot — meet the fiscally responsible requirements determined by the state’s actuaries.
In the wake of federal changes to the SNAP program to promote work and ensure the right people get benefits, Illinois lawmakers propose developing an alternative definition of “low-income” to count more students. The Illinois State Board of Education requested the initiative.
Following in the footsteps of New York and California, Illinois state lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that seeks to increase transparency and accountability among the largest and most capable artificial intelligence models. The Illinois attorney general would have exclusive authority to enforce civil penalties up to $3 million per violation.
Similar to communities like Logan, Sangamon, and Champaign counties, most of the 100-plus people at the meeting voiced their opposition to any future data center project. Their concerns include the use of power and the loss of farmland.
“When you consider how many students are actually showing up on a daily basis, it just goes to show that students in Illinois public schools are not being engaged effectively in a way to ensure that they're showing up to class,” said Illinois Policy Institute Manager of Education Policy Hannah Schmid.
The goal of the bill – as said by state Senate sponsor Rachel Ventura – is to shut private equity out of homeownership in Illinois, which both Republicans and Democrats on the committee agreed at least somewhat contributed to an ongoing housing shortage.
He did not give a specific reason for stepping down seven months early, beyond saying he had promised upon election to give the job all he had and to “know when the time was right to step away.”
The budget became more complicated earlier this month when analysts for the General Assembly and Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget office lowered revenue projections for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1. The revisions by the governor’s office revealed a $149 million gap between what Pritzker proposed spending and the amount of revenue the state will have to support it — and that includes $728 million in new taxes and revenue changes proposed by the governor.
Retired Police Chief Tom Weitzel: "Illinois politicians have spent years insisting violent offenders can be safely managed in the community with ankle monitors. This case proves — in blood — that they are wrong. A career criminal who had already escaped monitoring was given chance after chance. Now a Chicago police officer is dead."
"Grifting off taxpayers via property tax schemes is a practice that goes way back for (Gov. JB) Pritzker, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he's seeking to extend these property tax breaks to other billionaires. If he gets his way, Illinois residents will be stuck paying for these sweetheart deals while billionaires get a break."
“Abraham Lincoln, in the House Divided speech that he gave here in Springfield, gave a grim warning that the divisions in America over the issue slavery could destroy our nation,” Durbin, 81, said, from the dais of the Illinois House chamber. “We see similar divisions today. The challenge we face in the days ahead could be just as serious."
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.
Top Chicago Stories
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.
More Highlighted Chicago Area Stories
Friday, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office approved a felony charge of possession of contraband in a penal institution Friday. Jail staff found a 6-inch sharpened piece of metal with a handle made of medical tape in his pants pocket. Medina already faces first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and weapons charges in Sheridan Gorman's death.
"(Mayor Brandon) Johnson likes to talk about leading 'with what the data shows.' But robust data that don’t fit his prescribed views obviously aren’t worthy of the same amount of discussion as the biased report he extolled earlier this week."
If ultimately passed and signed by the governor, Cook would move to a new system where the county alone would acquire liens on overdue property taxes, charging taxpayers interest. If the taxes go unpaid after three years, the county would auction off the property deed to the highest bidder and the original homeowner can petition to get the post-debt profits.
"While it is possible to both serve an educational and political mission, CTU members sent a clear message to union leadership: Future funding of political activity should have stipulations and limits, and union dues are not a blank check or a piggy bank for political elections."
Robert Vargas, a sociology professor who leads the UChicago Justice Project, acknowledged that before analyzing response times, his students removed all 911 calls involving shots fired from the city’s dataset. In other words, the study’s conclusions about faster response times, if accurate, did not include gunfire calls, the only type of emergency ShotSpotter was designed to address and the specific response times elected officials had been discussing.
"It seems like bad timing, and it seems hypocritical. It was just two weeks ago that Stacey Davis Gates was in front of the Chicago school board saying this is a five-alarm fire and we need water from Springfield. So you guys need to go down to Springfield," Chicago Policy Center Executive Director Austin Berg said.
Alderman Jessie Fuentes is suing the federal government after federal agents dared to handcuff her when she tried to disrupt a Westside hospital emergency room last October.
"National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are falling almost everywhere. But they’re falling faster in Chicago than in almost all of our peer cities. Since 2017, Fourth Grade Reading and Math scores have fallen by roughly 4 percent in Chicago."
"[This] encounter that I’m going to have with the highest-profile religious leader on the planet is also moving our agenda forward,” Johnson said. “That conversation is not separate and apart from the work that’s happening in Springfield or City Council or anywhere else.”
“Teen takeover in Chicago. Five officers badly hurt. Mayor and Governor are terrible. Should call for help!” Trump wrote on social media.
"I don't run unions; I run the city of Chicago. So I don't opine on any decision that any labor union decides of what they're going to do with their working file," Johnson said.
"A parental accountability ordinance is for parents who just keep allowing their 14-year-olds to be out on the streets at 3am," Ald. Brian Hopkins said. "There's no excuse for it."
Prosecutors claimed that Rashad Johnson, 18, intentionally hit the officers and said his possession of an illegal 30-round MAC-10 pistol proved he is a danger to the community at large. “I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially to people that are young and have no criminal history,” Judge Ankur Srivastava said. “But it’s not like you didn’t know how to drive and accidentally hit the accelerator … I think you made a choice, and your choices endangered people’s lives. You have hurt a lot of people.”
"What makes the situation particularly frustrating is that Chicago still possesses enormous strengths. It remains one of the world’s greatest cities with extraordinary architecture, culture, universities, transportation infrastructure, and economic potential. Millions of people still love this city and desperately want it to succeed. But hallmark cities can absolutely decline through prolonged bad governance. History is filled with examples of major urban centers hollowing themselves out through ideological rigidity, fiscal irresponsibility, and administrative incompetence."
Financial distress, as defined in the report, includes credit accounts in forbearance, deferred payment status or otherwise showing signs of trouble. Experts point to several contributing factors: stubborn inflation, uneven wage growth, high housing costs and lingering labor market uncertainty.
Johnson said the “safest cities in America have one thing in common: They invest in people.” To underscore the point, he put up a chart that showed dramatic declines in shootings and homicides in neighborhoods where the city hired the greatest number of young people.
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?”
"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."
Rebecca Weininger, 0f the Anti-Defamation League Midwest, said of Chicago's mayor, “He is cherry-picking Jewish voices that are acceptable to him — either because they are anti-Zionist or because they are willing to go along with any crumbs that he is willing to feed them." She believes Johnson’s strained relationship with the Jewish community is either based on “abject ignorance or intentional exclusion” of those she called the “mainstream Jewish community.”
Shunza Walker, a tattoo artist who was born and raised on the West Side, was driving his black Maserati less than a mile away from the intersection where Reed would die after Chicago police officers stopped him 15 days later. Walker’s lawsuit claimed that traffic stop violated his constitutional rights and left him scared to drive anywhere in Chicago, a feeling that intensified after Reed’s killing made headlines across the city, igniting a firestorm over CPD’s use of traffic stops.
Emmanuel Andre, Chicago’s Deputy Mayor for Community Safety, says he believes added investment from the city is paying off. However, concerns are rising that the pendulum could shift in the wrong direction as the billions in federal COVID relief money the city was able to spend on those initiatives have dried up. "Resources are finite and it causes us to make some really difficult decisions as to what and where should money be invested,” Andre said.
Thirteen people, ages ranging from 14 to 28, received felony charges for possessing a weapon and battery. Police said charges are pending against one more person. Officers confiscated dozens of weapons, including tasers, guns, knives, and bear mace.
“Just as he is using his pulpit, I’m using the executive order pen to protect all of Chicago," Johnson said. The roughly 50-member delegation headed to Rome includes business leaders, Johnson’s deputy mayor for economic development, his sustainability officer, advisor Jason Lee, and top council ally Jason Ervin, as well as non-Catholic faith leaders to represent Chicago’s religious diversity.
"As teen takeovers grow increasingly brazen, and with the summer approaching likely to spiral out of control, Chicago is in need of penalties for those who engage in violent mob actions. Make no mistake, these public disturbances are a direct product of city leadership refusing to ensure that there are consequences for the disruption, damage to property, and the disrespect and often endangerment of police. The mayor's talk of 'systemic causes' is nonsensical excuse-making."
CPD said officers were on foot trying to shut down the incident when a blue sedan ran into five of them. After hitting the officers, police said the car drove over the curb and came to a stop after crashing into a CPD vehicle, pole and a fence.
Wirepoints Research and Commentary
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn't you deliver a few bond upgrades, too 
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
SIGN UP HERE FOR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
FOLLOW US
WE’RE A NONPROFIT AND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS ARE DEDUCTIBLE.
MORE WIREPOINTS ORIGINAL STORIES
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do. 
The state's existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis. 
Recent Comments