Get the latest news headlines from around Illinois.
The Telegraph: In Illinois, pensions trump people
A yearlong budget battle is set to push Illinois into uncharted waters.
No state has gone without a budget for a full year since at least the 1930s, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
State Comptroller Leslie Munger announced that come July 1, her office will be forced to stop $23 billion in spending for schools, 911 call centers, domestic violence shelters, federally funded social and human services and higher education.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner, top lawmakers hold lengthy talks on budget impasse, Madigan 'optimistic'
Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders met behind closed doors for three hours at the Capitol on Tuesday, with normally cagey Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan professing optimism, his Senate counterpart proclaiming they’re “halfway there” and Republicans reminding everyone that “caution is always in order.”
If all of that sounds vague, both the tone and the length of the meeting at least marked a change from a month ago, when the meetings were shorter and frustration boiled over. Back then, the governor accused Democrats of spending the state “into a toilet” and turning Illinois into a “banana republic,” while House and Senate Democrats played out an intra-party spat that led to them not even sending Rauner a budget.
Now state lawmakers return to the Capitol on Wednesday for the first time since that May 31 meltdown as talks continue on a stopgap budget, extension of a road construction program and education funding bill. Before the closed-door meeting, blueprints of legislation the two political parties unveiled indicated they were close on a temporary budget but far apart on school spending.
DNAinfo: Chicago Police Face 'Level Of Disrespect' Never Before Seen: Union Boss
Saying the world is “upside down” in the face of “the anti-police movement that’s taken hold,” the head of Chicago’s police union Tuesday called for the “silent majority” to be more vocal in support of cops.
“The perception of a lot of police officers in the City of Chicago is that nobody has their backs,” Dean Angelo Sr., president of the local Fraternal Order of Police, said in a luncheon address to the City Club on Tuesday. He spoke of a “deafening silence” in support of police as they deal with an “enormous level of confrontation, a level of disrespect we have not seen.”
Angelo blamed the “Ferguson effect,” referring to last year’s police protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and said people who record officers with their phones are “hoping for a payday.” He also said new demands for increased paperwork contributed to why Chicago Police “are down over 150,000 street stops” this year.
Sun-Times: Emanuel closing in on deal to save city’s largest pension fund
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is closing in on a deal to save the largest of Chicago’s four city employee pension funds that calls for a mix of cost cutting, employee tradeoffs and new revenue from beleaguered Chicago taxpayers.
The City Council’s Progressive Caucus last year served up a smorgasbord of revenue ideas that included a “stormwater stress tax” on big-box stores and other business giants that put pressure on the sewer system.
Daily Herald: Suburban lawmakers say something's got to give in Springfield
Democratic state Sen. Melinda Bush says she’s “had enough” of politics as usual in Illinois, and the budget impasse that has threatened schools and social service agencies’ survival.
Across the aisle and in the Illinois House, Republican Rep. David McSweeney sings a similar tune.
“We’re sitting here over a year from the end of the last fiscal year without a budget,” said McSweeney, of Barrington Hills. “Everyone’s relied on waiting for our leaders to reach a deal. That hasn’t worked.”
Chicago Tribune: Area mayors weigh in on state budget mess as deadline looms
As Illinois lawmakers face the end of the fiscal year this week, area mayors are weighing in on the a budget impasse that could cause cash to stop flowing to local 911 centers, public health facilities and local schools if the state enters a second year without a budget.
Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said he was asked by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office to sign onto a letter supporting the stopgap budget, but he chose not to do so.
“I appreciate the effort that went into the proposal, but it remains a Band-Aid,” Kaptain said.
Sun-Times: Judge orders Illinois to add PTSD to medical marijuana list
Illinois must add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of diseases eligible for medical marijuana treatment, a Cook County judge ordered Tuesday in a sternly worded ruling that also said the state’s public health director engaged in a “private investigation” that was “constitutionally inappropriate.”
In a lawsuit filed by an Iraq war veteran, Judge Neil Cohen ordered Illinois Department of Public Health Director Nirav Shah to add PTSD within 30 days. It’s the first decision among eight lawsuits filed by patients disappointed with across-the-board rejections by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration of recommendations from an advisory board on medical marijuana.
Sun-Times: Legislative leaders speak of progress as clock ticks
Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday produced competing stopgap budgets and education measures as the clock ticks to a July 1 deadline — but top legislative leaders ended the day speaking of “progress” and optimism after a lengthy meeting with Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The two Democratic and two GOP legislative leaders spent more than two hours with the Republican governor, ahead of Wednesday’s House and Senate sessions.
John Stossel: Convicted and unemployed
Just got out of jail? Odds are that within five years, you’ll get caught doing something illegal and go back to jail.
This is bad for ex-cons, their victims, their families and America.
Some of these people, of course, are career criminals who ought to stay in jail. But most are people who deserve another chance. They are more likely to stay straight if they find work. Work gives people purpose. It fills the idle hours that get many people into trouble.
But America makes it extra hard for ex-cons to find work. Some states make it illegal.
Illinois bans ex-convicts from more than 118 professions.
I understand why people might not want ex-cons to be bank security guards or cops, but in many states (Illinois isn’t unusual) the list of forbidden jobs goes way beyond that.
The Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market group that tries to get these laws tossed out, reports that ex-cons must give up on trying to become a nurse, architect, interior designer, dancehall operator, teacher, dietician, acupuncturist, cosmetologist, buyer of slaughtered livestock, geologist, etc.
WSJ: Teachers Union and Hedge Funds War Over Pension Billions
Daniel Loeb, Paul Singer and dozens of other hedge-fund managers have poured millions of dollars into promoting charter schools in New York City and into groups that want to revamp pension plans for government workers, including teachers.
The leader of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, sees some of the proposals, in particular the pension issue, as an attack on teachers. She also has influence over more than $1 trillion in public-teacher pension plans, many of which traditionally invest in hedge funds.
It is a recipe for a battle for the ages.
Chicago Tribune: Retiring Arlington Heights park district director gets salary spike in final years of service
As the Arlington Heights Park District’s executive director retires this week, about $85,000 worth of unused sick and vacation days he had accumulated since his hiring in 2008 have led to a significant salary spike during his final years of service, according to public records obtained from the park district by the Arlington Heights Post.
Retiring executive director Steve Scholten, 62, whose last day on the job is this week, was paid $182,533 in 2014, with his salary rising $32,516 – almost 18 percent – to $215,049 in 2015, officials said.
Scholten also received a six percent raise on Jan. 1, just months after he had alerted the park district’s board of commissioners that he would be retiring on June 30, but officials said most of the recent salary increase can be attributed to the park district paying out on Scholten’s unused sick and vacation days.