The Illinois Senate could vote as early as Wednesday on a budget bill supported by Democrats and even some Republicans, including Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno.

A busy week awaits a fresh group of lawmakers in Springfield, where Illinois Senate leaders could try to push forward a massive budget package the same day Gov. Bruce Rauner gives his State of the State address.

They’re scheduled to start trying Tuesday with committee hearings on the tax hikes, gambling expansion, state worker pension changes and other ideas that make up their effort to break Springfield’s historically long budget gridlock. How those hearings go could suggest their fate before the full Senate later in the week, possibly Wednesday.

You can leave Chicago, but it never really leaves you.

You eventually may get used to warm winters and inferior pizza, but you’ll never stop getting hounded if the city believes you owe parking fines.

Cash-strapped Chicago State University spent about $200,000 over the past two years to lobby state lawmakers, including contracts with consultants closely tied to legislative leaders whose inability to pass a state budget has contributed to the school’s financial crisis.

With Chicago State’s budget woes forcing administrators to lay off hundreds of employees, including professors, money continued to flow to the politically connected to help with the university’s legislative strategy in Springfield and with communications advice for school leaders.

There’s a business adage about employees resisting new ideas: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s recognition that change is uncomfortable, and ingrained workplace habits and beliefs are hard to uproot — even when poor performance demands a different approach.

On Jan. 13, the U.S. Department of Justice excoriated the Chicago Police Department for its appalling record of officers using excessive force, including shooting suspects who pose no immediate threat. Nowhere in the 164-page investigative report do you find the phrase “culture eats strategy,” but that’s the takeaway from one of the report’s crucial findings: how an entrenched code of silence shields Chicago cops from accountability for wrongdoing.

Chicago Public Schools building engineers say a plan to put the rest of the district’s schools under private facilities management companies is going to cost the broke school system dearly.

And they’re surprised the district has already planned which schools will be managed by Aramark and SodexoMAGIC before the Board of Education has inked a deal with the two companies, whose past work has drawn complaints.

A measure backed by Illinois’ treasurer could help ensure that insurance companies have paid out money properly to beneficiaries of life insurance policies.

The proposed legislation would require companies to examine the past 20 years of their records to ensure that money was distributed properly, the (Peoria) Journal Star reported.

This coming week is going to be a tense one for a lot of people desperate for the state to finally end the budget stalemate.

The Senate has scheduled committee hearings on the various components of the “grand bargain,” that series of a dozen or so bills negotiated by Senate President John Fullerton and Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno that are supposed to help bring an end to the impasse. Cullerton was quoted last week saying the Senate as a whole could begin voting on those bills as early as Wednesday.

Teachers are becoming a precious rare commodity in Illinois.

Gov. Bruce Rauner recently signed legislation meant to streamline the process for teachers transitioning into Illinois from other states and encourage such migrations. While administrators in the region praise the measure as a step in the right direction, many are left wondering if procedural deconstruction would not serve as a better marker of progress.