Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: CPS teachers out-earn many in other districts, but union says pay not the whole picture and numbers can be misleading
In their push for a new contract with reduced class sizes and more support staff, Chicago teachers have twice rejected pay raise proposals from Mayor Lori Lightfoot, keeping the dispute over wages alive in an attempt to force the issue on their other priorities.
While Lightfoot has tried to entice the union into an agreement by arguing that her proposals would make CPS teachers among the highest paid in the country, a Tribune analysis of state and national salary data shows that the district’s teachers already out-earn most of their public school colleagues.
Chicago Tribune: With focus on possible CPS teachers strike, school support staff and parks workers say their contract demands need more attention too
As next week’s strike date nears for tens of thousands of public employees in Chicago, union officials decried the city’s offers for Park District and school support staff workers, saying Mayor Lori Lightfoot isn’t taking negotiations seriously.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 73 gathered at their headquarters on the Near West Side Thursday, asking the city to negotiate with the sense of urgency that Lightfoot has publicly asked for.
WBEZ: What’s The Public Appetite For A Chicago Teachers Strike?
Officials from the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools have been behind closed doors most days this week, trying to reach a contract deal ahead of an Oct. 17 strike deadline.
Meanwhile, parents, students and Chicagoans are debating whether teachers should walk.
Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposes consolidation of suburban and downstate police and firefighter pension funds
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday unveiled a plan to merge roughly 650 local pension funds for suburban and downstate police officers and firefighters into two statewide funds in an effort to narrow a widening funding gap and ease the property tax burden on homeowners.
The idea of consolidating the public safety pension funds — which together have roughly $11.5 billion in unfunded liabilities — is not new, but many previous attempts have failed to gain traction in the General Assembly as police and firefighter unions and other interests have pushed to retain local control.
Crain's Chicago Business: Pritzker pension team looks for savings but finds costly threats instead
But buried in today’s report from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Illinois Pension Consolidation Feasibility Task Force was a stark warning: A new pension system adopted by the state for those hired after Jan. 1, 2011, generally known as “Tier 2,” may have slashed benefits too far to meet federal standards.
Champaign News-Gazette: Delay only raises questions
Senate President John Cullerton should heed the advice he’s getting from prominent Democrats.
State Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, is the subject of increasing scrutiny from federal investigators.
But he’s not the only one getting a lot of heat. So is Sandoval’s Democratic colleague, Senate President John Cullerton, who so far has resisted calls to remove Sandoval from his position as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Chicago Tribune: Indicted Chicago Ald. Edward Burke spent nearly $400K in campaign funds on legal defense team: records
Indicted Ald. Edward Burke spent nearly $400,000 in campaign funds on the high-powered legal defense team handling his public corruption case, according to a newly filed campaign finance report.
Friends of Edward M Burke reported paying downtown firm Jenner & Block $245,348 in September. The committee also paid $146,234 over two payments in August and September to Loeb & Loeb.
Chicago Sun-Times: Caught on tape: Ex-Ald. Danny Solis sought money from Jerry Reinsdorf group
With FBI agents secretly listening in, then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis was caught on a wiretap four years ago discussing plans to solicit campaign money from a development group whose owners include Chicago sports mogul Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the Bulls and White Sox, that needed his help at City Hall.
Michigan Avenue Real Estate Group needed Solis’ approval for a $40 million apartment complex they later built in the alderman’s 25th ward on the site of Carmichael’s steakhouse about a mile east of the United Center, the Bulls’ home.
Crain's Chicago Business: Feds subpoena ComEd, Exelon in another pol probe
The utility, along with parent Exelon, received a grand jury subpoena Oct. 4 requiring “production of records of any communications with certain individuals and entities, including Illinois State Senator Martin Sandoval,” the companies disclosed last night in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing.
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Lori Lightfoot considering breaks for ride-share pool passengers, taxes on online purchases for 2020 budget
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is thinking about trying to levy a tax on online sales and about hitting solo passengers in ride-share vehicles with higher fees than those carpooling as part of a downtown congestion fee in her 2020 Chicago budget.
Two weeks ahead of her first budget address, where she will lay out her plans to close an $838 million shortfall for next year, Lightfoot told WLS-AM 890 reporter Bill Cameron during a Thursday interview that a city sales tax on online purchases might be in the works.
Chicago Sun-Times: Lightfoot exploring higher ride-hailing fees on solo riders in congested areas
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she is exploring the possibility of raising ride-hailing fees but applying the increase to solo passengers in congested areas.
Chicago currently imposes a “72-cent flat, fixed charge per ride booking” on Uber, Lyft and Via that “does not fully support the goals of equity and reducing congestion and greenhouse emissions,” transportation experts from the Metropolitan Planning Council and seven other groups have told the mayor.
Chicago Sun-Times: While Illinois sports betting stalls, Indiana reaps $813K in one month of tax revenue — money ‘we’re not getting’
With newly legalized sports betting stuck behind the starting gate in Illinois, sportsbooks across the border in Indiana have sprinted to a lucrative launch, Hoosier gambling regulators announced Thursday.
Bettors in Indiana plunked down more than $35.2 million on sports contests in September, which marked that state’s first month of legal sports wagering, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Northwest Herald: Constitutionality of consolidation law challenged in court by townships
A new state law allowing voters in McHenry County to more easily dissolve their townships already appears headed for tests in court and on the ballot.
Two township road districts in the county filed a lawsuit in circuit court challenging the law’s constitutionality.
Northwest Herald: Board approves referendum asking voters whether Nunda Township should be abolished
B. Forbes Salvesen of unincorporated Nunda Township said the work the township road district’s employees perform is incredible and not something that McHenry County could duplicate if the township were to be abolished.
However, residents may be faced with that reality in 18 years after the Nunda Township Board voted Thursday to approve a referendum that could consolidate the township in 2037.