A new report says that overspending, not underfunding, is to blame for the Chicago Transit Authority’s budget woes.

CTA is facing a $577 million budget shortfall.

The city hired or promoted 490 employees in the six weeks since Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a hiring freeze, with the Chicago Police Department seeing the most new hires.

The employment data, obtained by WBEZ through an open records request, includes 268 new hires through Oct. 21. In all, the hires and promotions total roughly $31.4 million in annual salaries – a fraction of the $223 million end-of-year deficit and $982.4 million budget gap for 2025.

Aldermen briefed on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plans are expecting the mayor to propose a 2025 property tax increase to help close Chicago’s yawning budget gap.

Three aldermen who spoke to the Tribune on background Monday said Johnson administration officials told them in one-on-one briefings that the mayor will recommend a property tax hike as part of his plan to balance the budget. The mayor’s team did not specify how large such a tax increase would be, the aldermen said.

Nearly 140,000 Illinois residents will soon receive checks containing payments of between $50 and $100.

The checks are part of an effort from Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerich’s office to return property to Illinois owners, without the need for filing a claim.

It’s good to be number one normally, but in this case absolutely not. The most dangerous town in America with less than 15,000 people living there is in Illinois.

I saw this brand new ranking just shared on YouTube by World According To Briggs. This is a major channel with more than 1.23 million subscribers. They crunched numbers to look at what amounts to the most dangerous small town in America which means those places with 15,000 or less residents.