In a position statement released yesterday, the Civic Federation announced it supports passage of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s (FPDCC) property tax extension limitation law (PTELL) referendum that will be on the November 8 election ballot for voters in Cook County. The referendum question asks Cook County voters whether the Forest Preserve District’s property tax limiting rate…
With the increasingly polarized political environment and the November 2022 mid-term election approaching, the debate about pretrial reforms in Illinois has been at the forefront in the news media and on social media. The pretrial reforms, referred to as the Pretrial Fairness Act, were passed via Public Act 101-0652, known as the SAFE-T Act (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today).…
Bring Chicago Home, a grassroots coalition dedicated to securing an earmarked revenue stream to combat homelessness, has launched a campaign to put a referendum on the City of Chicago ballot asking voters to approve an increase in the Chicago real estate transfer tax (RETT) for high-end properties selling for over $1 million. Properties valued at less than $1 million would continue to be taxed at…
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has selected Bally’s Corporation to develop a mega casino in the River West neighborhood at the site of the Chicago Tribune’s current printing plant at Chicago and Halsted Avenues. In addition to the casino, Bally’s proposes the development of a theater, an outdoor music venue, a hotel, an extension of the Riverwalk, a park, restaurants and other amenities. The goal…
Update (May 24, 2022): The Cook County Finance Committee held a special meeting on the elected officials’ salary ordinance and approved the salary increases laid out in substitute ordinance 22-2825. It was also ratified by the Board of Commissioners. The elected officials’ salaries will increase by 10% in FY2023, and the lesser of 3% or the rate of CPI in each year thereafter. The Civic…
On December 15, 2021, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance (SO2021-3243) to regulate sports wagering in the City. The new legislation lifts a previous City ban on sports betting and allows for a 2% tax on gross sports betting revenues. It also allows for the opening of sports betting locations (also known as “sportsbooks”) in and around five of the City’s sports stadiums, among other…
The Chicago City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) on September 14, 2021. The FOP is the union representing the approximately 11,000 police officers for the City of Chicago, who make up the majority of approximately 13,000 Chicago Police Department employees. The new contract replaces the most recent collective bargaining agreement for…
On August 24, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed legislation that will create a Higher Education Evidence-Based Funding Commission to evaluate higher education funding in Illinois. The Commission will make recommendations to the General Assembly and the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) on how to establish an adequate and stable equity-based funding model. This blog post includes information…
The Illinois General Assembly recently passed major revisions to its initial 2019 adult-use cannabis law. The revisions target an important provision of the original law that was meant to ensure access by disadvantaged communities to the growing and lucrative cannabis industry. House Bill 1443 awaits the Governor’s approval, and he has indicated he will sign it. In previous blog posts about…
Recently, Cook County, the State of Illinois and other jurisdictions across the U.S. have begun to implement policy changes to reduce reliance on monetary bail and release more individuals while awaiting trial. These changes come amid a national push to make the criminal justice system more fair and reduce the number of criminal defendants held in jail pretrial based on their inability to pay…
