For the first two years of his term, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner had an ally in the comptroller’s office to help navigate the uncharted waters of running a state left lurching along without a complete budget.

That afforded him some control over how the state spends money amid severe cash flow problems, such as when he pushed the comptroller to make lawmakers get in line with everyone, delaying their paychecks by months. It also gave the governor a stronger grip on the narrative of how the state is faring during the historic impasse, allowing his administration to keep wraps on agencies’ projections of how much interest payments on overdue bills are costing taxpayers.

A Democratic state senator from Evanston who put together ads last fall attempting to link Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to President Donald Trump has told leading Democrats he will formally launch his campaign for governor on Monday, sources said.

Sen. Daniel Biss, who has served in the Illinois legislature representing the northern suburbs since 2011, has scheduled a 10 a.m. Facebook Live event “to address his plans to build a movement to take our state back from wealthy and insider interests,” according to an email his campaign released Sunday.

Ald. Ameya Pawar, a Democratic candidate for governor, said he’s willing to discuss term limits for state officials but doesn’t think the debate is worth holding up a state budget.

Pawar limited himself as an alderman to two terms, and he’s serving in his second now. In speaking on WGN-AM 720, when asked if he thought Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner had done anything correctly, Pawar voiced support for term limits for governor and legislative leaders.

The Illinois Senate’s “grand bargain” budget compromise has had a rough go, with false starts, misfires, a lukewarm Republican reception, and Democrats abruptly pulling the plug last month when GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner weighed in against it. And that doesn’t count taxpayers’ reaction.

The 12 disparate measures comprising the grand bargain were cobbled together in an attempt to recharge stalled negotiations over a two-year budget stalemate that has fueled a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. An Associated Press analysis of Senate records shows nearly 4,700 witnesses wanting a say in at least one of the individual measures. Less than a fifth recorded support.

The programming out of Springfield feels a lot like a television singing contest: Just when you think you are about to see something happen… they take a commercial break.

You sit there feeling fooled again.

The bill for high-end office space in Chicago rose almost 20 percent in 2016, the biggest increase in the U.S. and second-highest in the world.

Chicago’s one-year jump is especially striking considering the city is typically known for less dramatic fluctuations in property values and rents than those seen in coastal markets such as New York and San Francisco.

New electrical outlets, bathrooms, seats and floors are among the improvements coming to 302 Metra rail cars.

The passenger cars slated for renovation are 9 to 15 years old. It costs about $700,000 to spruce up each car, compared to about $3.5 million to buy a new one, Metra said Friday.

To the children of Chicago Public Schools teachers: The embarrassment that can come with being the teacher’s kid may well be worth it.

Children of any CPS staffer admitted to the highly-selective University of Chicago will go tuition-free, the university and the mayor’s office announced on Friday. The child does not have to be a CPS graduate.

When a tea party conservative defeated a 24-year officeholder in last month’s Republican primary, it ended one of the longest-running political dynasties in the Chicago area, spanning three generations over about half a century.

The office at stake — the Algonquin Township Highway Department — is hardly glamorous. It maintains a patchwork of 60 miles of roads, runs a recycling center and operates a bus service for seniors. The department has been controlled by Commissioner Bob Miller’s family since the 1960s — previously through his father and grandfather — and Miller himself has worked there for more than 40 years.

Municipal sales tax numbers throughout the Quad-Cities are on the rise.

While challenges continue for some cities, local officials say the increasing revenues are a good sign for future progress in the area.

The two candidates for the 1st District seat on the Peoria City Council agree on the biggest issues facing the poorest district in the city: jobs and crime.

But the two differ on how to deal with those problems. In fact, a tiff over what approach to take with Tax Increment Financing (TIF) has resulted. Denise Moore, elected in 2013, wants to insure that the South Village TIF fund with about $2 million is available to meet the needs of a big project for the district, while challenger David Berry calls for money to be spent on job programs for area residents.

The Metro East is among three Illinois metro areas that saw unemployment rates go down in January, but if you live anywhere other than the Metro East, the Chicago area or the Quad Cities, it didn’t look good.

“For the first time in long time, we actually have a metro area that’s back up in to double digits, Rockford up over 11 percent. Now that’s because Fiat Chrysler has a shut down as they re-do a plant, but still that does show up in the numbers,” says Illinois Department of Employment Security Spokesman Bob Gough.

The Metro East unemployment rate fell from 6.7 percent in January 2016 to 6.6 percent in January 2017. About 38 hundred jobs were added during that time, and there were 439 fewer unemployed people active in the labor force.