Long known for financial instability, Illinois on Tuesday got its first credit rating upgrade in more than two decades on the strength of the state’s latest budget.
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Pantagraph: Illinois gets first credit rating upgrade from Wall Street since George Ryan was governor. But it’s still in the basement.
In upgrading Illinois’ credit by one step — to two notches above junk bond status instead of one — Wall Street ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service noted that the $42 billion spending plan for the year starting July 1 “increases pension contributions, repays emergency Federal Reserve borrowings and keeps a backlog of bills in check with only constrained use of federal aid” from President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan.
Rockford Register Star: Illinois economy surges in first quarter
The Illinois economy showed strong signs of recovery during the first quarter of 2021 as businesses continued to reopen from the pandemic and direct government payments flowed to businesses and individual consumers.
Data released last week from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showed the state’s economy grew at an annual rate of 6.4% during the quarter as its gross domestic product — the market value of all goods and services produced by labor and property — approached its pre-pandemic level.
FOX Illinois: Illinois student-athletes set to benefit from new NIL law in a multitude of ways
A historic law that changes the future of college athletics is set to go into effect on Thursday, July 1. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signing a bill into law that will allow college student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness for the first time in their careers. While many are focused on the big name stars who could bring in huge endorsement deals, Illini student-athletes are bringing into focus the multitude of ways that they can benefit from the new law.
Some of Illinois’ most recognizable athletes are already planning ways to bring in revenue.
WGN: Illinois expands childcare benefits to tackle labor shortage
As several red states restrict enhanced unemployment benefits to prod workers back to their jobs, Illinois is expanding government benefits to offer more affordable childcare for parents whose routines were disrupted during the pandemic.
“I think it is a Republican right-wing talking point that says that people are just choosing to be lazy to stay home to get the extra few hundred dollars while they can,” Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-Illinois) said at a press conference in Decatur on Tuesday afternoon.
Southern Illinoisan: Illinois schools lagged behind most other states in access to in-person learning during pandemic: report
New data shows about 10% of Illinois students had access to full-time in-person learning from September 2020 to April 2021, with this access higher for white students compared with students of color.
Illinois ranks 42nd in the country when evaluating the most access to full-time in-person learning during that period of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research published Tuesday in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Wyoming and Montana had the greatest access on average, while Hawaii had the least.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois secretary of state’s office settles lawsuit that alleged automatic voter registration rollout was botched
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has reached an agreement with a coalition of advocacy organizations to settle a lawsuit that alleged his office violated federal and state laws by botching the rollout of automatic voter registration.
The lawsuit, filed in February 2020 in federal court in Chicago, came after a series of problems with the system came to light last year, including a mix-up that resulted in at least one non-U.S. citizen voting in a 2018 election.