In presenting his first budget proposal, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker dispensed with some of the traditional practices of his predecessors, replacing smoke and mirrors with hopes and prayers.

“It’s a tradition in true keeping with our democracy and a task that requires humble honesty and some bold optimism,” Pritzker said Wednesday in a combined budget and state of the state address. “Today I offer that proposal and report with an eye toward our shared history and our hopes for the future.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday he will press the General Assembly to approve a graduated income tax before it adjourns in May — with both a constitutional amendment to put before voters and companion legislation setting forth the new tax rates.

Pritzker’s ambitious timetable would set the stage for an immediate political showdown in the legislature to be followed by a protracted 17-month public campaign leading up to a November 2020 referendum.

Dark forces will be at play as a massive war over Illinois taxes is set to begin in earnest.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker campaigned on the pledge of moving Illinois from a flat income tax to a graduated one, in which there would be tiered rates tied to an individual’s wealth.

The fate of two proposed tax-increment financing districts that would earmark as much as $2.4 billion in public money to fuel a pair of megadevelopments on the city’s North Side and in the South Loop is now in the hands of the Chicago City Council.

The Chicago Plan Commission today approved the proposed TIF districts, meant to help finance infrastructure projects that would pave the way for developer Sterling Bay’s $6 billion Lincoln Yards project along the North Branch of the Chicago River and Related Midwest’s $7 billion vision for a mixed-use campus known as the 78 between Roosevelt Road and Chinatown.

An estimated $4 million summer construction plan that will provide elementary school air conditioning and a number of student-oriented resources to Prairie Grove Consolidated School District 46 was unanimously approved by the district board Thursday.

The plan consists of projects aimed to address school shortcomings that were identified in a health and life safety study performed late last year as well as additional amenities to improve student success. Board President Joseph Ricciardi said planning expenses totaled about $250,000.

Warren Township High School District 121 officials and union representatives are reporting progress toward a teachers contract as they head into a daylong meeting Friday, working to avert a strike that could start as early as March 13 if the two sides fail to reach an agreement.

During a Daily Herald endorsement interview Wednesday, Board President Tom Drake said the many talks between the two sides have been productive.

Lime is withdrawing its green- and yellow-painted shared bicycles from the Rockford region.

During a Feb. 13 conference call, Lime representatives told officials from the city of Rockford and the Region 1 Planning Council that it is retreating from the pedal bike rental business in most of its markets in favor of electric scooters and electric bikes. And the company followed that call with a letter from Gabriel Scheer, Lime’s director of strategic development, in which the company formally withdrew from its agreements with municipalities in the area.

The Urbana school board will vote Sunday on whether to demote three of its top officials to teaching positions.

Former Superintendent Don Owen and assistant superintendents Kathy Barbour and Samuel Byndom are listed on the agenda for a board vote to not renew any of their employee contracts.

A year after the Springfield City Council passed an ordinance that would tax online travel companies, the city says it hasn’t seen a dime from Airbnb.

Since the ordinance’s passage, the company has said that it would enter a voluntary tax agreement with the city to collect and remit the tax from its individual hosts.