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· As though there weren't enough casualties - schoolkids and teachers, the elderly, disabled and their caregivers, to name just a few - in the fiscal trainwreck that is the Illinois budget, now we can add more. Retirees. And taxpayers, of course, who a
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· Peter Anthony, president and CEO of UGN Inc., an auto parts-maker based in Tinley Park, is weighing where to invest $14.5 million on a plant expansion next year that will create 30 jobs. Anthony is juggling three eager suitors — Indiana, K
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· Melrose Park's police chief has quietly paid back more than $82,000 in pension benefits he improperly received while still on the village police force, after the Chicago Sun-Times revealed the unusual arrangement. Police Chief Sam Pitassi
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· JOLIET -- When City Councilman Anthony Uremovic made a surprise announcement about his retirement last month, he explained that he was spending more time out of town on research and on a consulting business. He didn't mention that retiring right away
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· Park commissioners in Highland Park deliberately inflated the compensation package of their retiring executive director to bump his pension by tens of thousands of dollars per year. Bellwood officials were surprised — surprised! — to learn their vill
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· Just when you thought the state of Illinois' fiscal trajectory couldn't get worse, Springfield has done it again. The major Illinois pension funds are selling off core assets to pay benefits. The biggest fund, Teachers' Retirement System, may have to
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· The state government's inability to adopt a reasonable budget, combined with borrowing billions of dollars, will cost taxpayers an extra $551 million. That's the conclusion of a new study by the Civic Federation of Chicago, a nonpartisan r
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· SPRINGFIELD — This school year, many parents across the state are having to pay a little more to send their kids to school. District officials throughout the state say they have bumped up their fees to account for late state payments to th
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· Huntley District 158 soon could get $1.1 million from the federal government. Carpentersville-based District 300 could get $1 million. And Crystal Lake District 155 could get $868,929.36. But, the key word is “could.” The I
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· It's all but official now. You can see it in the sudden explosion of campaign signs on suburban lawns, the steady increase in political commercials on television, the growing ubiquity of candidate appearances at debates, luncheons and town meetings.
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· A warning to Illinois politicians cranking up their post-Labor Day hype machines to woo voters: They're blasé at best about you, and they sure don't think the state or federal government is going to help them through uncertain times. Yet t
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· Illinois' $13 billion budget deficit was the topic and target of a candidate forum Thursday in Naperville featuring a dozen DuPage County legislative hopefuls. The event was sponsored by the DuPage Work Group, an advocacy group for people
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· As we head into the homestretch of the campaign season this Labor Day weekend, to say we are disappointed in the discourse of the governor's campaign would be an understatement. Surprised? No. Dismayed? Absolutely. We focus here
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· SPRINGFIELD - This school year, many parents across the state are having to pay a little more to send their kids to school. District officials throughout the state say they have bumped up their fees to account for late state payments to th
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· Budget figures released by the Illinois State Board of Education earlier this month project a substantial decrease in state funding to public school districts. The board’s 2011 fiscal year budget shows a drop in funding from $7.3 billion t
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· The inability of Springfield to work on anything was a theme when local state representatives discussed how the state was failing its most vulnerable residents Thursday night. Area representatives and candidates for the Illinois General As
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. • State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld was in session in Springfield earlier this year when he got a call from his secretary back in his district office. She was calling from her cell phone because the district office phones, whic
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· Two Highland Park Park District commissioners resigned in the wake of an outcry over huge bonuses awarded employees, officials said Wednesday. Commissioner Stacy Weiss tendered her resignation Wednesday, while Nancy Rosenbaum handed in her
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· SPRINGFIELD - State Sen. Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor, is taking heat from a teachers union over suggestions that school districts could consider forgoing teacher pay raises. Brady said his proposed cuts to the state b
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· After passing what it thought was a tough budget, city officials in Champaign are looking for more to cut. Declining tax revenues and shortfalls in promised state appropriations are pushing local governments, including Champaign, into tough budg
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· Highland Park Mayor Michael D. Belsky is proposing broader local and statewide reform concerning governmental pension and financial practices in response to the Park District's festering pay-and-pension controversy. Belsky announced last w
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· The new finding that Illinois politicians squandered $551.3 million due to their own bumbling confounded us: What would 551,300,000 dollar bills look like? Well, if we have our math straight, they would stack 37.4 miles high, give or take more raises
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· Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady gave some details on Tuesday about his plan to create more jobs and acknowledged that parts of his plan would add as much as $1 billion to the state’s $13 billion budget deficit. Brady, who als
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· The state's budget problems continue to hit close to home. One of the latest examples is the news last week that the Decatur school district's transportation reimbursement from the state will be reduced by $1.4 million this year. The cut i
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· SPRINGFIELD - The GOP and Democratic candidates for governor made their way around the state Tuesday, outlining their commitment to creating jobs in Illinois while taking political jabs at each other. Gov. Pat Quinn and state Sen. Bill Bra
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· Forget about gun control, energy, abortion, public safety and all the other issues that are cluttering up the Illinois gubernatorial race. The only things that matter in the race between Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger
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· CHICAGO - Illinois taxpayers will have to shell out an extra $551 million to cover the cost of borrowing because of the state's deteriorating bond rating, according to a new report released Monday. The Civic Federation of Chicago, a nonpar
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· Western suburbs — The ripple effects of Illinois’ financial crisis are hitting some people like a tsunami. Being owed about $1.8 million by the state, Seguin Services in Cicero had to raise revenue to keep its doors open. The organization,
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· Red ink is splattered across Morgan County’s 2011 ledger book. County commissioners still passed a $6.3 million budget Monday, even though projected expenses exceed revenue by $279,000, which is 4.4 percent of the General Fund budget.<br /
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· YORKVILLE -- Kendall County's budget planning continues to be a good news, bad news scenario. The bad news is the same as it has been -- reduced revenue and late tax payments from the state are conspiring to put the county in a deficit tha
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· It’s been one of the flashpoints of the 2010 campaign for governor: Is Illinois’ business climate friendly enough to bring in new employers and encourage existing ones to expand? The Republican candidate, state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomingt
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· Many hear "tour" and think rock star or exotic travel plans. But several conservative-leaning organizations are seeking to change that through newly formed spinoff campaigns, all aimed at getting candidates to be precise about solutions an
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· Illinois' pension crisis entered a dangerous new phase last week when the large state employee retirement funds said they would have to sell off big chunks of their investment portfolios to raise cash for payments to retirees. As first rep
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· SPRINGFIELD -- The state's miserable bond rating has driven up borrowing costs for state government by more than $500 million since last year, a government watchdog group says. The nonpartisan, Chicago-based Civic Federation analyzed the n
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· Only Illinois would cut its budget by forcing state employees to take furlough days ... and then decide to pay them. Apparently, the employees didn't much like the idea of taking the equivalent of a 9.6 percent pay cut, 24 unpaid days off,
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· CHAMPAIGN – His newly revised income tax increase plan, Gov. Pat Quinn said Friday, includes calling on school districts to use property tax cuts to return about one-third of the new money they'd receive. The governor also said that there
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· CARPENTERSVILLE – Next month, the District 300 school board likely will give final approval to a fiscal 2011 budget that calls for $6.3 million in deficit spending. After approving $9.3 million in cuts already for the next year, district o
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· Faced with budget crises, the three regional systems that handle behind-the-scenes functions at libraries and media centers across the Fox Valley are planning to merge. The plan includes combining with two other northern Illinois library systems
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· Illinois’ five state-funded pension systems are faced with selling assets to pay for retiree pension benefits, in part because state government isn’t paying its share of pension costs. The sales will drive the systems even deeper into debt
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· Suburban school officials are a little leery of Gov. Pat Quinn's call to link an income tax hike and property tax cuts. While they welcomed the idea of property tax relief, they also expressed concerns about becoming even more dependent on
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· Faced with budget crises, the three regional systems that handle behind-the-scenes functions at libraries and media centers across the Fox Valley are planning to merge. The plan includes combining with two other northern Illinois library systems
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· NORMAL — The state must cut taxes on businesses but can offset that lost revenue by broadening its sales tax and being less reliant on economic incentives, a tax expert told McLean County business leaders Thursday. Illinois ranks 30th out
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· Three Highland Park Park District Board members should step down for voting to approve a series of exorbitant bonuses, salary increases and pension-bloating payouts to top district executives between 2005 and 2008. The three -- Park Board
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· Western Illinois University's operating budget suffered a $3.7 million reduction for the 2011 fiscal year due to cutbacks in state funding. The 3.7 million dollar cutback leaves Western with an operating budget of $56.2 million for this fi
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· The federal government is sending an anticipated $22.7 million to Southland school districts for the 2010- 11 school year, the payoff from a federal jobs bill designed in part to save the jobs of thousands of teachers who were laid off this year.<br
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· Two different worlds. That's what was described at a Chicago School Board meeting Wednesday, as board officials calmly insisted they would be ready to open schools Sept. 7 with a balanced budget and hundreds of restored jobs - while teache
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· Read-aloud-to-children advocate and author Jim Trelease writes that a community's free lending library is arguably its "most treasured cultural asset." Evanston residents should embrace his assertion and support the Evanston Public Library Board's pl
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· Myriad nonprofit organizations serving Latinos and other immigrants are cutting services and laying off staff members -- and some are in danger of closing their doors -- because the State of Illinois has failed to pay millions of dollars in promised
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· With the economy still locked in a recession and unemployment in Illinois sticking above 10 percent, many viewed a $26 billion federal aid package to stave off layoffs of teachers, police officers and other government workers as a positive step to ge
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· Illinois employee pension funds are sending up flares warning they may have to sell off as much as 10 percent of their investment portfolios unless lawmakers find a way for the financially hobbled state to make its pension contributions this fiscal y
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois was shut out on a whopping federal education grant for a second time Tuesday despite building support and adopting school reform laws after losing out on the first round of money. The state was hoping to use as
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· Rick Lochner showed up at the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce Illinois is Broke luncheon Monday to find out just how dire the state's budget crisis is. The president of RPC Leadership Associates and Literacy DuPage noted that there are
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· Illinois is facing financial ruin unless something is done to address its estimated $130 billion debt related to pension and retiree health care costs, according to a coalition of organizations and residents seeking reform. Members of the
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· Illinois State Universities Retirement System, Champaign, expects to sell $1.2 billion in investments this fiscal year to raise liquidity to pay pension benefits to participants, said Daniel L. Allen, chief investment officer. SURS could u
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· CARPENTERSVILLE -- Community Unit School District 300 is looking at a budget with a $6.3 million deficit for the 2010-11 school year. Plus, the district likely will end the 2009-10 school year with a $2.8 million deficit when last year's n
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· PEORIA — The state is late with its funding commitment to RSVP of Peoria and Tazewell Counties, and that potentially could jeopardize the organization’s ability to supply volunteers to its 125 partner agencies. The Retired and Senior Volun
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· SPRINGFIELD - Illinois Republicans are raising questions about the dismissal of an ethics inspector who had been investigating a top aide to Gov. Pat Quinn. On Aug. 13, Quinn announced he was replacing Executive Inspector General James Wri
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Republican candidates for Illinois treasurer and comptroller said Monday they want to merge the two positions into a single financial office for the state. Dan Rutherford and Judy Baar Topinka say the merger would s
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· While their individual approaches differ, both 56th District state representative candidates agree that pension reform is a key ingredient to solving Illinois' financial woes. In fact, Republican Ryan Higgins and Democrat Michelle Mussman,
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· The federal government’s crackdown on the State of New Jersey this week for misrepresenting the condition of its pension funds raises a question: Who else might have pension numbers that could draw regulatory fire? Cities and states are sc
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· In April, the New York State Comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, issued a damning report on the Empire State's financial practices. Albany's budgets, he observed, increasingly employ "fiscal manipulations" to present a "distorted view of the State's financ
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· Illinois is broke. In the short run, it is running out of cash - and borrowing to cover its own operations as well as to fund health care, schools, local governments and social services. Or it simply fails to pay its bills - borrowing, in effect, fro
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· Dozens of Highland Park residents confronted their Park District commissioners Thursday night, demanding that they resign for approving a series of exorbitant bonuses, salary increases and pension boosting payouts to top district executives between 2
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· Illinois voters have waited long enough -- too long, in fact -- to learn how politicians intend to resolve the state's financial crisis. As the Republican candidate for governor, state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington has to do more than say
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· The summer is always a slow time for schools (and school reporters), but the return of students in the fall has a way of quickly bringing issues back to the fore. In most school districts in Illinois, the main issue right now is the state's budg
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· Gov. Pat Quinn said he is showing the "guts and fortitude" to tell Illinoisans that it will take huge budget cuts and a tax increase to get the state budget back on track. Quinn said during an exclusive phone interview Wednesday that his p
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· Taxpayers must cover at least a third of a $3 trillion bill for public employee pensions even if lawmakers eliminate cost-of-living increases and raise the retirement age, according to an academic study. “Even if states uniformly eliminate
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· The next big issue on the national political horizon may be whether the federal government should bail out the many budget-strapped states and municipalities across the country, especially their overly generous and badly underfunded pension plans.<br
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· Dennis Byrne's Aug. 10 column on Illinois' financially imperiled pension system struck a nerve. The presidents of the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers have responded with an essay that says the Tribune is being u
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· Leaders of the state teachers unions ask, "How much longer will the Chicago Tribune allow itself to be used as a tool of terror" by reform advocates in their "quest to deprive hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans of the reasonable retirement they, in
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· Yes, Rod Blagojevich had his federally recorded tantrums about the opinion pages of this newspaper. But for all his sworn spluttering, the then-governor stopped short of exposing what the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Illinois Education Associa
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· This is the second in a two-part series on the state of Naperville's public safety pension systems. Wednesday's story focused on the problems with police and fire pension funding levels. Today's story looks at solutions that have been presented by bo
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· "One of the most consistent complaints among teachers is that they don't get paid enough," CNNMoney.com reports. Of course that's the perception of educators. And the popular culture. The Hollywood version of the overworked, underpaid teac
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· Gov. Pat Quinn likes to attack Republican challenger Bill Brady for failing to have a budget plan. Brady says he’ll slash the state’s budget and scrutinize every dollar spent to root out waste and fraud. Both candidates need to
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· PEKIN, Ill. — Watching state funding for education in Illinois is almost like watching a slapstick comedy. School officials have watched the governor, the comptroller and the Illinois State Board of Education run here and there saying this and t
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· This is the first in a two-part series on the problem of public safety pensions and their funding. Naperville's police and fire pension funds tanked in fiscal year 2009. The Police Pension Fund lost $10.5 million. The Fire Pensi
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· SPRINGFIELD -- Republican Bill Brady said Tuesday he won't be able to offer a detailed plan for balancing Illinois' crumbling budget until after he becomes governor. Brady has made the budget crisis a major part of his campaign, accusing D
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· A majority of Illinois’ registered voters prefer to balance the state budget through spending cuts than by borrowing or higher taxes, according to a poll commissioned by a conservative think tank. The Illinois Policy Institute says the pol
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· Chicago, whose credit rating was cut by two companies this month, is selling $164.1 million of municipal bonds for schools as its cost of borrowing has risen about 40 percent for taxable Build America securities. The city plans to issue de
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· Cutbacks, budget problems and funding concerns are headlining the Champaign City Council’s agenda this fall. “We’re in such bad shape. I don’t understand how we’re going to do it without raising taxes,” said Tom Bruno, council member-at-large.<b
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· PEORIA — A federal stimulus grant could pay for 10 police officers next year and potentially keep the department from having to lay off additional men, Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard said Monday. But the grant - the COPS Hiring Program -
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· More than 20,000 students packed their bags and headed out the door Monday morning for the first day of class in Community Unit District 300 schools. District 300 started school earlier this year so students would have more time to prepare
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· HAMPSHIRE -- It was the first day of school, and in Mrs. Latimer's fourth-grade class, students at Gary D. Wright Elementary School here were busy coming up with team names. Judith Latimer had grouped her students' desks into clusters, or
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· State Rep. David Miller, D- Dolton, wants you to know he makes $76,000 a year as a member of Illinois' General Assembly. And if Miller, the Democratic candidate for state comptroller, has his way, you'll soon be able to easily access an on
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· States continue to grapple with ongoing budget imbalances. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that for the third year in row shortfalls will exceed $100 billion, with the current year expected to approach $200 billion. Unfo
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· Congress is gone for August—heaven be praised—but that hasn't stopped unions from quietly mobilizing to push through a big new priority this fall: a pension bailout. Big Labor is going Code Red on the issue, in the face of a looming accounting change
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· Gov. Pat Quinn Friday criticized his Republican opponent for saying it was wrong for Congress to approve more education and Medicaid money for states, including Illinois. Illinois expects to get about $500 million more for Medicaid program
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. --- State agencies are struggling to decide how to reduce their budgets after Gov. Pat Quinn announced more state spending cuts but didn't say exactly where they'd be made -- creating confusion and uncertainty for people who depend
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· Public pension systems in Illinois have long served as vehicles for the government to borrow money out of the view of taxpayers. In place of even higher public employee salaries, politicians have made unfunded pension promises extending far beyond th
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· Even as the Obama administration promotes charter schools as a way to help raise the academic performance of the nation’s students, half of Chicago’s charter schools have been running deficits in recent years, an analysis of financial and budget doc
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady said Thursday that Congress was wrong to pass an aid package that will give Illinois nearly $1 billion for teachers and health care. Brady said the $26 billion legislation wi
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· GALESBURG — The $415 million Illinois school districts will receive from the federal government to help save teachers’ jobs is meant to provide cash-strapped districts some relief. But while local districts would welcome the ass
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· Local charities are struggling to survive under current financial conditions and government decisions. Meanwhile, the disadvantaged pay the price. On paper, many charities seem to have relatively stable financial records. But their black o
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· It's August, with autumn looming, and that means something bad is happening. No, not Brett Favre scheming for attention. The bad thing is the spectacle of state governments from Texas to Vermont trying to buy off voters with their own money. <br
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· An advisory referendum will be placed on the ballot in Vernon Hills this fall asking local voters if they support "meaningful" statewide police and fire pension reform. On Aug. 2, the Vernon Hills Village Board voted unanimously to pass a
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· Western suburbs — If a reality TV show were based on how legislators conduct business in Springfield, nobody would believe it. The utter implausibility of government operations is laughable. But the real joke is on us. A sales tax holiday
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· Illinois lawmakers might have to return to Springfield in a special session if the state wants to spend more than $400 million in education aid it expects to receive from Washington. Then again, maybe they won’t. State officials
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· The Republican candidate for Illinois governor appears to be backing away from an astonishing claim he made yesterday in the western part of the state. Bill Brady told an audience in Quincy, Ill. that he would balance the state's devastate
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· David Vaught, Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director, told Bloomberg News last week that the governor, if re-elected, would seek to increase the state income tax on personal income from 3 percent to 5 percent next January. The campaign of his Re
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· Highland Park property taxpayers will be paying for a good chunk of the multimillion-dollar pension payouts resulting from the Park District Board's generosity in rewarding top executives with bonuses after they announced retirement. Ralph
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· The city of Evanston plans to borrow $8 million to pay off some pension obligations arising from the early retirement incentives that spurred a larger-than-expected wave of departures in 2007 and 2008. Nearly 60 city employees, including a
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· La Grange has joined Oak Brook, Downers Grove and a growing list of municipalities putting the question of statewide pubic safety pension reform to voters Nov. 2. The Village Board approved Monday placing an advisory referendum proposal on
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· Responding to dozens of calls and e-mails she has received, state Rep. Karen May, D-58th of Highland Park, reported Monday that she spent last week developing a pension-reform platform that she will introduce to her colleagues in the General Assembly
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· After months of fruitless job searching, 44-year-old Park Forest teacher Rachel Martin got an unexpected phone call Monday: the White House wanted her help in urging Congress to pass a $26 billion jobs bill that could put thousands of teachers back t
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· WASHINGTON -- Summoned back from summer break, the House on Tuesday pushed through an emergency $26 billion jobs bill to protect 300,000 teachers, police and others from election-year layoffs. President Barack Obama immediately signed it into law.<br
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· Glen Ellyn, IL — The state’s only educational facility for children that are both deaf and blind, the Philip J. Rock Center and School in Glen Ellyn, might be closing its doors in the coming months due to a budget crunch caused by $1 billion it is ow
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· GENEVA — Kane County Health Department employee Silvia Vega works with women who have extensive needs and helps them get basic services such as medical care and family nutrition — services that the mother of two may need herself following Tuesday's c
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· Illinois public employees who think the state constitution guarantees that they'll get all their pension benefits may have another think coming. Politicians' and public labor unions' assurances aside, there's another, not-well-publicized s
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· Numerous programs and as many as 68 teachers could be coming back to Cary Elementary District 26 one month from now if the school board accepts a donation of more than $4.3 million. District 26 staff and board members have been in discussi
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· DANVILLE – Danville school officials are projecting that the district will end the current fiscal year about $2.4 million in the red. "That's even sort of a guess," Superintendent Mark Denman said Friday. "We simply don't know what's going
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· GENEVA -- Illinois is a greater credit risk than some countries, like Iceland and Latvia, which have gone bust, an expert said Monday, giving the Kane County Board a crash course in the state's sobering financial crisis. It's a risk Kane C
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· For an illustration of everything wrong with the nation's public pensions, look no further than the compensation in Bell, California. Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo stepped down three weeks ago after news broke that he was making $800,000
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· State pension officials are re-examining the retirement of a west suburban village administrator who the Chicago Tribune revealed was paid $472,255 last year under 10 different job titles, spiking his pension by tens of thousands of dollars. <br
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· Gov. Pat Quinn has been dealt a tough hand. Not only did he enter the governor’s office unexpectedly, without much preparation, he was faced with numerous financial problems and a Legislature not inclined to help him, even though both houses are cont
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· SPRINGFIELD — As Illinois faces a $13 billion budget deficit, a separate $2.2 billion debt has quietly accumulated during the recession – and because of the recession. Illinois started borrowing from the Federal Unemployment Account last s
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· Four years ago, Peter Robertson thought he was leaving the uncertainty of a freelance writing career for the stability of teaching. He'd always wanted his own classroom, and the 52-year-old was pretty sure he'd get hired — schools were eag
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· About 1,200 city school workers will receive layoff notices this week, and principals will begin sharing the budget pain via pay freezes and six furlough days, as Chicago Public Schools officials move today to plug their remaining $370 million defici
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· McHENRY – Area human services providers told state legislators Thursday that they need to know how much money to expect from the state so the agencies can better plan on how to provide their services. The Human Services Advocates of McHenr
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· A combination of extravagant retirement benefits and a lack of fiscal discipline have made Illinois’ pension system the worst in the nation. How much the state needs to contribute to fully fund its obligations ranges from $79 billion to $200 billion,
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· As Illinois faces a $13 billion budget deficit, a separate $2.2 billion debt has quietly accumulated during the recession — and because of the recession. Illinois started borrowing from the Federal Unemployment Account last summer to bolst
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· Open your wallets, ladies and gentlemen. And don't forget your critical thinking caps. Friday begins the 10-day holiday pushed by Gov. Pat Quinn that will temporarily block the state's 5 percent sales tax on most back-to-school purchases. Consumers s
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· I appreciate a good holiday as well as the next fellow, but I'm still trying to decide what to make of Illinois' new Sales Tax Holiday, which starts Friday. In the first place, they say the Sales Tax Holiday will last 10 days. In my book,
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· New Lenox School District 122 expects to have a deficit of up to $1.6 million in its 2010-11 budget. As is the case with many Southland districts, officials say the budget would be balanced - or even better - if the district were receiving funds owed
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· The Evanston Review reported July 28 that the director of the union-backed Illinois Retirement Security Initiative (IRSI) recently told an Evanston audience that reforming the state's pension system would "... jeopardize the state's ability to hire t
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· Village officials, concerned about rapid increases in police and fire pension programs, expressed support Tuesday night for including pension funding reforms on the Nov. 2 general ballot. Mayor Rhett Taylor said local contributions to the
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· An advisory referendum will be placed on the ballot in Vernon Hills this fall asking local voters if they support "meaningful" statewide police and fire pension reform. On Tuesday night, the Vernon Hills Village Board voted unanimously to
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· SPRINGFIELD - State aid to some college students, money for community human service providers and staffing at the Department of Children and Family Services all came under Gov. Pat Quinn's budget knife this week as he completed making $1.4 billion in
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· WASHINGTON – The Senate on Wednesday cleared the last major hurdle to approving a $26 billion aid package for cash-strapped states that is expected to keep some 140,000 teachers from being laid off nationwide and sustain medical care for the poor.<br
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· Cook County School District 130 awaits $4 million in state payments for the school year that wrapped up in June. So news that Gov. Pat Quinn plans to ax an additional $146 million in student transportation funding and $68.5 million in read
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· Like most municipalities in Illinois, Lisle is struggling with escalating pension liabilities. From 2007 to 2009, Lisle's obligations to its police pension fund alone have increased by 21 percent. Prompted by a letter from the Metropolitan
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· Gov. Pat Quinn detailed additional cuts to Illinois’ cash-strapped state budget Tuesday, taking more money out of school transportation grants, cutting operations funds for psychiatric hospitals and developmental centers, and eliminating a subsidy to
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· The Chicago Teachers Union has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Public Schools in an attempt to halt the dismissals of hundreds of teachers and support staff. CTU President Karen Lewis said Tuesday the school board is arbitraril
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· Non-union state employees will not be required to use holidays to fulfill their furlough day requirement, according to rules issued by the Department of Central Management Services. However, CMS said employees may voluntarily use that opti
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· Two Illinois lawmakers on Monday called for hearings to look into local government pension practices after learning how officials with the Park District of Highland Park intentionally used large bonuses to hike the pension of a district executive by
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· As the economy was taking a historic nosedive, parks officials in Highland Park were paying three of their executives far more — $435,203 in one case — than anyone in similar posts across the suburbs, the Tribune has found. Parks officials
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· States are deciding it's time their workers retire later. Lawmakers in at least 10 states have voted this year to require many new government employees to work longer before retiring with a full pension, or have increased penalties for ear
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· NEW YORK -- The states are broke, and like many consumers, they're borrowing big time to get out of their fiscal binds. The amount of debt that states are carrying spiked 10.3% last year to $460 billion, according to Moody's Investors Serv
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· Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director, David Vaught, gave some insight into what part of the solution to the state’s budget deficit might be when he told Bloomberg News last week that the administration intends to raise the income tax from 3 percent to 5
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· CHICAGO– Gov. Pat Quinn appears to be having a problem with message control concerning his tax policies, thanks to one of his top aides. The governor’s budget director, David Vaught, said lawmakers intend to increase the individual tax rat
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· Recently, under attack for giving big raises to his staff, Governor Quinn issued an order requiring all State nonunion employees to take off 12 more days of unpaid work this year - which now makes a total of 24 unpaid "furlough" days. These days of n
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· Countless barrels of ink have been spilled in lamenting Illinois' fiscal crisis brought on by the staggering growth in unfunded pensions and retiree health obligations, now amounting to $130 billion. But consider the matter from the standp
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· It's kind of like maxing out your credit cards. If you and your neighbor each lose your jobs, you'll both be in trouble, but if you've already rung up big debts, you will end up worse off. It's the same with the states. Most continue to st
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· GALESBURG — Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Sheila Simon thinks the state needs to start raising incomes taxes and isn’t shy about admitting it. Simon campaigned Thursday in Galesburg, meeting local Democrats at Innkeeper’s co
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· It turns out Chicago wasn't bluffing about teacher layoffs. About 400 Chicago Public Schools teachers were let go this week. And by early August, an additional 1,000 teachers will be cut, CPS tells us. It turns out the school system's $370
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· Chicago, Ill. — While thousands of state workers take a month of unpaid time off and the state wallows in economic distress, the Illinois Policy Institute finds state lawmakers continue to enjoy one the nation's highest state salaries. Acc
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· Each month the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce encourages members and the community to join us for our luncheon. In addition to providing members with an opportunity to connect with one another and build relationships, our luncheons pr
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· LOVES PARK — Staff members at Illinois Growth Enterprises were celebrating last month — the end of the fiscal year — after making sacrifices during the past 12 months to keep the organization afloat. Then, state officials pulled the rug ou
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· It has begun. The first round of the long-anticipated, school-based layoffs by Chicago Public Schools to deal with a record $370 million budget deficit will claim 600 staffers by week's end. Notices began going out Wednesday to 400 classro
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· Just in case you blinked, here's a summary of Gov. Pat Quinn's actions on the state budget in the last several days. A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that Quinn had awarded raises averaging 11.4 percent to his staff at a time when he
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· What happens when poor intention meets bad execution? Illinois budget policy is created. Sorry to sound jaded and not stand around the campfire holding hands and talking about “shared sacrifice,” but it seems ludicrous that every new
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· Just a small percentage of about 2,700 nonunion state workers in agencies under the governor will be exempt from Gov. Pat Quinn’s new administrative order to take 24 furlough days in the fiscal year that began July 1. But for most of the n
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· We've all gotten a little numb as Illinois' financial crisis has continued to deepen — for good reason. Figures like $5 billion in unpaid bills are kind of hard to grasp. Maybe the following will end the numbness. It certainly shocked m
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· A question to hit the ballot this November in Illinois will look something like this: "Should the Illinois General Assembly and the governor immediately pass meaningful police and fire pension reform that will reduce the future funding obl
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· Several recent news reports have indicated that Illinois is planning on selling pension obligation bonds in order to come up with the cash to make its contributions to the five state public retirement systems for the next fiscal year. This is by no
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· When Gov. Pat Quinn’s office issued an administrative order last week requiring non-union state workers to take 24 furlough days this fiscal year, the declaration said the resulting pay reduction would not affect pensions. On Tuesday, the
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· Morris Elementary District 54 will end up on the financial watch list as result of money due by the state of Illinois. As of July 9, the state still owed the district $393,534.92. A large source of the funds not paid to the district c
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· Tears well up in Michelle Lefrere’s eyes as she talks about all the people she worries will go without services if Springfield’s 32-year-old Epilepsy Resource Center closes as planned in late July, the victim of state budget cuts. “It’s ju
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· AURORA -- Too much power in two few hands. That's the way two Republican state legislators described the state of state government Monday night, before about 20 people at an Aurora Republican Women's Club meeting at Prisco Center. Sta
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· Comptroller Dan Hynes tried to hammer home the seriousness of the state’s budget problems in a quarterly report issued last week. Here’s how Hynes succinctly summed up the state of the state. “Illinois ended the year in the wors
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· Shortly before Tim Baldermann retired as Chicago Ridge's police chief, the town boosted his salary by more than $70,000, handing the 44-year-old as big a paycheck in retirement as he earned full time on the police force. The deputy police
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· Illinois budget director David Vaught received a 20 percent raise. I was talking to my mom on the phone last week and just as I was about to hang up she stopped me short and insisted that we talk about Gov. Pat Quinn’s bigtime raises to h
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. • Illinois is going to market today to borrow $900 million through bond sales. It's part of what may ultimately be some $4 billion in borrowing to get the state through this fiscal year. Illinois is looking at a potential
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· And so it was prophesied: Illinois is headed into a public-pension death spiral even sooner than predicted. The Land of Obama leads the way. The state of Illinois — broke, overleveraged, and still refusing to get its accounts in order — is
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· The state of Illinois, its debts escalating with its backlog of unpaid bills, Wednesday sold $900 million in Build America Bonds to support public works projects, but paid a higher interest rate for the privilege. Nevertheless, state offic
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· Downers Grove resident Edris Byers reads about three mystery novels a month. Some of the books she finds at her local library, but other, harder-to-find titles are ordered through an online interlibrary loan system and delivered to her hom
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· NEW YORK -- Just two weeks after Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn chopped $1.4 billion from the budget, the cash-strapped state is turning to the debt markets to get it through the fiscal year. On Wednesday, it plans to raise $900 million through B
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· While Illinois continues its biggest borrowing spree in recent years, it is paying a steep premium for loans because of its failure to significantly address its financial crisis, observers say. In peddling another $900 million in Build Ame
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· The state, selling the federally subsidized taxable debt to pay for transportation and various capital projects, borrowed $8.7 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, the most since it sold $10 billion to fund its pension plan contribution in fisca
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· ELGIN -- Laura Buchanan told a story of a 4-year-old child who was labeled with severe behavioral problems and a lack of social skills to such an extent that school officials recommended the child see a psychiatrist. What no one knew was that th
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· Did you know that a commission named by Gov. Pat Quinn wants to raise the retirement age for state workers to a minimum of 72? Yes, right there on page 96 of its recent report, Mr. Quinn's Economic Recovery Commission says that — along w
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· Almost 2,000 fewer meals will be served each month to senior citizens in Sangamon and Menard counties, and transportation services to seniors will be cut in half as part of $55,000 in cuts scheduled to take effect Monday. Previous budget c
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· SPRINGFIELD – It's no surprise, but devastating nonetheless: Revenue into the state's coffers for the fiscal year that ended last Wednesday dropped a breathtaking $2 billion, or 7 percent, from the year before. In terms of dollars, it's th
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· We give Gov. Pat Quinn a hard time quite often, and we recognize that. Thing is, he makes it so easy. Here's another editorial idea he served up to us, big and delicious: At the same time he's been traveling Illinois
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· July 9 (Bloomberg) -- States may face increased retirement- fund deficits and pressure to stop skipping pension contributions under proposals being reviewed by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. Pension-forecasting proposals from
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· " Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has handed out raises — some of more than 20 percent — to his staff while proclaiming a message of 'shared sacrifice' and planning spending cuts of $1.4 billion because the state is awash in debt." —The Associated Press
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· Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn apparently believes that his own staff is immune from the "shared sacrifice" he says is necessary to address the state's horrific financial situation. At the same time he was planning on spending cuts of $1.4 billio
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· SPRINGFIELD -- The last budget year was a record-breaking one for Illinois finances, and all the records were bad. Comptroller Dan Hynes’ office on Wednesday issued its final report for the 2010 fiscal year that ended June 30. Among its fi
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· Don't say you didn't see it coming. This spring, the Illinois House leadership declined to call a vote on Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed full-percentage-point increase in the income tax. House members, sensing public sentiment, wouldn't have ap
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· Whew! Gov. Pat Quinn's new Illinois budget came along in the nick of time, just hours after the state's fiscal year began July 1 and a day before Quinn and the other state politicians headed out for a long weekend of parade appearances. It
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· CHICAGO — Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo. Pa
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· Gov. Pat Quinn boasted about budget cuts that ... he can't specify. Budget director David Vaught asserted that balancing a budget by borrowing is a swell idea. By the end of their Thursday news conference -- intended to project frugality and good ste
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· Gov. Pat Quinn signed the new state budget into law Thursday, making what he said are $1.4 billion in budget reductions and warning that more could be on the way. But anyone hoping for a detailed look at how state government plans to spend nearl
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· Last Wednesday's Sun-Times editorial about the need for pension reform in Illinois got its conclusions right but not its facts. Illinois is broke. The core of the problem is the state's unfunded retirement-related obligations to members of
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· More than 6,000 new moms and their babies will need a new route to find basic medical care as the Kane County Health Department prepares to lay off at least 50 employees. The announcement came Wednesday after Paul Kuehnert, executive direc
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) ― Illinois legislators stuck Gov. Pat Quinn with the task of managing the worst budget crisis in state history, and now he's about to reveal what he plans to do. Quinn is slated to announce Thursday, the first day of the s
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· Critics of creating a 401(k)-style retirement benefit for public employees Wednesday pounced on gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady’s suggestion that the state move away from its current pension programs and into a system widely used in private indust
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· From the disabled who need help to stay in their homes to school districts trying to balance their own budgets, people who rely on state spending are bracing for Gov. Pat Quinn's budget scalpel. Quinn said Monday he's preparing to deal wit
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· Today is the last day of Illinois Fiscal Year 2010. Tomorrow, July 1, launches a brand new budget year. Nobody's celebrating a fresh new start at the State Capitol, because all that hard-working Illinois taxpayers have paid in this year th
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· GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady Tuesday appeared to back off his proposal that the state cut its minimum wage to the federal level. But Mr. Brady promptly waded back in to the political deep end, suggesting that one way to help the
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· CHICAGO — With Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn poised to sign the fiscal 2011 budget today amid a drumbeat of negative financial news, experts recently offered suggestions for tackling the state’s budget crisis that range from expanding the sales tax base to
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· Gov. Pat Quinn said Monday he will make “serious cuts” in state spending Wednesday, although he declined to give any specifics. Quinn said he will take action on the state budget Wednesday afternoon, the last day of the state’s current fis
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· If you've been forced to cut back family finances, you know the dilemma: Something's gotta go, but no one agrees on what. The debate easily can become acrimonious, with everyone pushing his own interests. So it goes with the lat
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· DANVILLE – People keep calling and asking, why aren't you open on Fridays any more? Steve Laker, administrator of the Vermilion County Health Department, answers by reminding people of the deep budget cuts that forced the county health dep
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· Illinois cannot solve its budget problems without generating new tax revenue. That's not me talking, it's Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, a company that objectively evaluates the fiscal viability of governmental entities. It noted the "cumulative
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· For the second consecutive year, the Illinois General Assembly has confronted the state fiscal crisis by “passing the buck.” Last month, the legislature passed a General Funds budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011 that would give most state agencies lump-
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· Illinois schools may face another budget blow, as millions of dollars look to be cut next school year. The state of Illinois is no stranger to budget problems, especially its public school system. In fact, the Illinois governmen
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· As DuPage seniors wait for legislators to fix Illinois' budget woes, many of them are going hungry. The DuPage Senior Citizens Council, which receives 48 percent of its funding from federal and state funds, is still due $420,000 for this f
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· Based on raw numbers, other states have more serious financial problems than Illinois. Nevada and Michigan, for example, both have unemployment rates close to 15 percent. California has a $19 billion budget deficit. But does any
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· If you go to Sacramento this week, don't be surprised to hear champagne corks popping and chants of "We're #2! We're #2!" The cause for celebration? Illinois has overtaken California as the worst credit risk among American states. As of Monday,
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· The website address says it all: IllinoisIsBroke.com. That is the name chosen by a coalition of businesses, civic groups and social service agencies pushing for budget reform in the state. The group is spearheaded by the Civic C
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· Tough June for insolvent Illinois, the deadbeat state. First, Moody's Investor Services whacks the state with yet another downgrade of its creditworthiness. Moody's criticizes "a chronic lack of political will that indicates further erosio
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· Many states are acknowledging this year that they have promised pensions they cannot afford and are cutting once-sacrosanct benefits, to appease taxpayers and attack budget deficits. Illinois raised its retirement age to 67, the highest of
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· Two sides of Illinois’ pension systems need to be fixed to bring the state out of its retirement funding quagmire: the benefits, which some say are overly generous, and the funding, which is $78 billion in the red. The first half got a boost las
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· All pension funds are not created equal, but the most active unions bring home the best deals for retirees. Although each government pension plan in Illinois has its own peculiarities, a GateHouse News Service analysis of statewide and locally f
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· Illinois is broke. Teachers are losing their jobs from Chicago to Champaign, from Will to Williamson counties. Fewer teachers but larger classes won't help our kids learn. Illinois is broke. Libraries are closing. Band, ar
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· Illinois' premier public university may be owed as much as $700 million from the state by year's end, threatening its "entire financial underpinning," its president told a group of regional business leaders Monday. The prediction by University o
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· One of the most troubling social trends in recent years has been the pension gap between state and local employees (who can retire early — often very early — with instant, guaranteed, taxpayer-paid benefits) and the private sector workers whose taxes
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· OPENING SHOT . . . We're Americans, we don't do austerity. Oh, we like conservation -- we embrace the idea of limiting ourselves, voluntarily, of being lean and mean and not wasting quite so much of our bounty, if we so choose. But the idea
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· Pension crises in Chicago, in Illinois and in cities and states throughout the nation threaten the retirement security of public employees, investors' confidence in public securities and, ultimately, the economic recovery on which businesses, consume
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· Seven states will run out of money to pay public pensions by 2020. That hasn’t stopped them from hiring new employees. The seven are Illinois, Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, Hawaii, Louisiana and Oklahoma, according to Joshua D. Rauh of the K
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· For decades, the state of Illinois has put part of its pension tab on plastic, while charging up earlier and more costly retirements without socking away savings to cover the bill. Lawmakers put off tough choices by making the minimum payments t
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· Illinois’ bond rating has been cut a notch by Moody’s Investors Service as a new report shows state revenues continue to slide and the pile of unpaid bills continues to grow. Moody’s cut Illinois’ rating on general obligation bonds from Aa3 to A
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· Although Illinois Democrats claim the state's pension systems today are more secure than they were three years ago when Gov. Rod Blagojevich took office, Republicans argue the future of the pension systems - and the increasing liability of the state
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· SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As a provider of in-home assistance for seniors, St. John's Home and Community Care of Collinsville partners with the state of Illinois, operating on grants through the state departments of Aging and Human Services. But Illin
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· Over 20 years -- a generation or more -- of following the path of least resistance, deferring the pain of necessary cuts and tax increases in favor of continuous borrowing has led Illinois to the abyss of fiscal collapse and constitutional crisis.<br
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· A union representing state employees warned that legislation passed last week to trim pension benefits for newly hired state workers is "opening the door to slashing pensions for existing workers." If only we could believe it. We see the measure
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