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Archive for the ‘The Chicago Way’ Category

WATCH: Ex-rep sues Pritzker, Illinois over race-based congressional map

Posted in Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, SNAFU, Springfield, The Center Square, The Chicago Way, Transparency, Unions on May 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The entrance of the federal court in the Southern District of Illinois is shown in East St. Louis. Photo: Greg Bishop / The Center Squar

By Sean Reed | The Center Square

Illinois’ congressional district map is being challenged over what some argue are unconstitutional racial requirements for districts. A former Republican state representative sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the State Board of Elections late last week.

Jeanne Ives, a former representative of the state’s 42nd district, brought the case backed by J. Christian Adams, president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of Illinois, the official complaint claims congressional maps drawn after the 2020 U.S. Census are unconstitutional because the Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 mandates the creation of “racial districts.”

Ives told The Center Square Daily that state Democrats have brazenly moved to draw maps based on racial lines.

“It’s very obvious to anybody looking at Illinois maps, and Illinois law, that these districts are in fact – they use race to design the districts and the SCOTUS decision makes it abundantly clear that you just can’t do that anymore,” Ives said.

Ives said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which determined Louisiana’s district map as unconstitutional because of an over-reliance on race, is what has explicitly made it clear that Illinois’ congressional map as unconstitutional.

Report continues here.

Related: “U.S. Supreme Court decision puts brakes on Illinois redistricting amendment”

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Mayor Johnson determined to block Bears’ move to Arlington Heights

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Dumb Bunny, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, Overhead, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Rendering of the proposed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights. | Provided by Manica Architecture

By Fran Spielman | Chicago Sun*Times

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday mounted the legislative equivalent of a goal-line stand against the Bears’ quest for the property tax break needed to pave the way for a domed stadium in Arlington Heights.

Johnson questioned why any lawmaker from Chicago would even think about providing a massive tax break for a professional sports team valued at nearly $9 billion, while ignoring the need for what he calls progressive revenue to increase school funding and help working people struggling to make ends meet.

“If we’re asking anyone to tighten the belt, we should look at whose belt is exploding — and that’s the ultra-rich. As their bellies get fat and our people are starving, this is not the time to balance the budget off the backs of working people,” the mayor said at his weekly news conference.

“The type of tax structure that they would set up for large corporations and billionaires without a clear pathway to provide certainty as well as equity for everyday working people, I believe that’s a mismatch there. And quite frankly, the infrastructure they’re even discussing in the suburbs — those infrastructure needs have been present on the lakefront for a very long time.”

Hours before joining fellow Chicago-area mayors in Springfield, where he has had little success, Johnson made it clear that he would use whatever political muscle he has to block the so-called megaprojects bill now before the Illinois Senate after clearing the Illinois House on April 22.

Though Chicago is no longer part of the conversation to build a domed stadium needed to keep the Bears in Illinois and stave off a move to Northwest Indiana, Johnson is still holding out hope to keep the Bears in the city.

Article continues here.

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Obama Presidential Center releases information for ticket sales

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Ethics, Immigration, Politics, Taxes, The Chicago Way on April 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

 

You’ll soon be able to purchase tickets to visit the museum at the Obama Presidential Center.

By ABC7 Chicago Digital Team

CHICAGO (WLS) — You’ll soon be able to purchase tickets to visit the museum at the Obama Presidential Center.

Tickets for Founding Members go on sale starting April 21.

Ticket sales open to the general public on May 6. You’ll be able to book a date to visit, starting June 19 through November 30.

Admission is $30 for adults, and $23 for children ages three through eleven.

Kids two and under can visit for free.

The museum is also free on Tuesdays with proof of Illinois residency.

Article continues here.

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Editorial: Maria Pappas’ property tax numbers don’t lie. Governance in Illinois has been a stark failure for 30 years.

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Cook, County, OP/Ed, Overhead, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way on March 31, 2026| 2 Comments »

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi speaks about the results of the triennial reassessment and proposed property tax relief legislation on Jan. 29, 2025, at the County Building. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

Cook County’s property tax system is a Rubik’s Cube for even those relatively steeped in assessments and equalization factors value to decipher. So pity the ordinary property owners who have to pay the taxman two times every year.

All they know is that the tax cost of owning a home — you know, that thing we call the American Dream — keeps growing at rates that seem unsustainable. And, naturally, they want to know who to blame.

One Cook County officeholder, Assessor Fritz Kaegi, already has felt the public’s anger, losing his Democratic primary reelection race to challenger Patrick Hynes. Kaegi in many respects simply was the messenger who got removed for being in a post directly related to property taxes when many Chicago homeowners got the bad news late last year that their taxes had soared due to the pandemic’s deflating effect on commercial property values.

So leave it to the always-canny Cook County treasurer, Maria Pappas, to issue a comprehensive report less than two weeks after voters made their displeasure known at the polls — saying to residents, in effect, “No, it’s not your imagination. Property taxes really are that bad.”

Pappas, who as treasurer has the unpleasant task of delivering that bad property-tax news straight to people’s mailboxes and thus could be vulnerable to suffering Kaegi’s fate come November when she’s up for reelection, was able both to confirm what angry residents suspected while also tacitly saying: I’m on your side.

Additionally, Pappas has a seasoned, competent staff, and they were able to frame the property-tax awfulness in ways the average Joe and Jane can understand. Over the past three decades, went their analysis, total property tax levies in Cook County rose at roughly twice the pace of inflation and considerably more than than average wages. From 1995 until 2024, Cook County tax levies rose nearly 182% to $19.2 billion from $6.8 billion, according to the study. Inflation over that period was 91%.

Those simple findings, in and of themselves, are as damning of our state and local governments as anything we can think of. They represent nothing less than abject failure of governance.

Editorial continues here.

Related: “Cook County property taxes doubled the rate of inflation in past 30 years, Treasurer Maria Pappas study finds”

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Some blame taxes as Illinois grows on paper but loses residents

Posted in Cost of Living, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Fat Bastard, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes, The Center Square, The Chicago Way, Unions on March 31, 2026| Leave a Comment »

By Sean Reed | The Center Square

Illinois’ population has continued to narrowly grow this year, despite a significant number of cities in the state losing residents to other states.

Some say the trend of increasing tax rates is to blame.

The majority of metropolitan areas in the state have lost residents again in 2025, with Census Bureau data estimates showing only two major areas with any real domestic growth, Rockford and the Illinois portion of the St. Louis metro.

Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic analysis for the Illinois Policy Institute, said taxes are driving Illinoisans beyond state boundaries.

“Illinois already imposes one of the highest tax burdens in the country, with the nation’s highest property taxes, among the highest sales taxes, and a 32% income tax increase in 2017,” Hill said. “If state leaders are serious about reversing domestic outmigration, they must focus on tax relief and reducing regulatory barriers to make Illinois more competitive and affordable.”

Rockford is the only main metro in the state that saw true population growth, according to the data. The gain came from all areas, domestic and international migration, and a natural population increase.

The Chicago metro, including surrounding counties, saw a domestic migration loss of almost 34,000, with the area only growing by 4,200 people when accounting for international migration.

Darren Bailey, the Republican nominee for Illinois Governor, also pointed to state taxes as a big reason people are leaving Illinois.

“It’s pretty simple. It’s affordability. People can’t afford to live here. I mean that is the number one far and away issue. I have been in Chicago for the last two weeks,” Bailey said. “Property taxes are too high – especially for our friends here in Chicago, they have escalated in the last three years much faster than ours have in the rest of the state.”

Article continues here.

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JB Pritzker Blames Trump For Student Allegedly Murdered By Illegal Alien — But Suspect Released Under Biden

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Crime, Daily Caller, Deception, Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, RealClear Politics, The Chicago Way on March 25, 2026| 1 Comment »

By Jason Cohen | Daily Caller

Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Tuesday blamed President Donald Trump for the murder of female college freshman Sheridan Gorman, allegedly at the hands of a criminal illegal alien.

Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan national released twice under former President Joe Biden in 2023, allegedly shot and killed Gorman on Thursday near the Loyola University campus as she tried to flee, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Despite the suspect’s history, Pritzker placed the blame on “national failures” and the Trump administration when speaking to reporters.

“This has been a terrible tragedy. And I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily … there have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “They’re national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst.”

“And in my view, we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do,” Pritzker also said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “But it is the job of the federal government to go after immigration enforcement, and it is the job of our local and state law enforcement to prosecute or catch violent criminals and prosecute them, and we should continue to do that both on the state level and the national level.”

Pritzker attempted repeatedly to portray Chicago as safe just months before the killing, despite the city suffering from a lengthy violent crime crisis. The governor has in recent months feuded with Trump over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and backed a January lawsuit brought by his state against Trump’s DHS.

Article continues here.

Related: “Sheridan Gorman’s Murder—and Chicago’s Silence,” “Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledges ‘real failures’ in immigration system after Loyola student’s killing”

 

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Transit sales tax hike makes suburbs pay for Chicago problems

Posted in Illinois Policy Institute, METRA, Overhead, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Traffic, Unions on December 11, 2025| 1 Comment »

Chicago-area transit riders deserve safe, reliable service. But the Regional Transportation Authority board might soon ask the wrong people to pay for it.

By Dylan Sharkey | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinoisans shouldn’t be taxed for a service they can’t use, but the Regional Transportation Authority board is expected to vote on doing just that: imposing a regionwide sales-tax increase.

The board will meet Dec. 18 to adopt its 2026 budget, which relies on raising the RTA sales tax by 0.25 percentage point across Cook County and the collar counties. Pritzker is expected before 2026 to sign the bill authorizing the tax, which would take effect July 1 and then need final transit board approval within 60 days.

Supporters argue it’s needed to avoid looming service cuts and big fare hikes tied to transit’s “fiscal cliff.” But the tax collects money from suburban shoppers with sparse transit options and sends it to the urban areas where agencies have made poor decisions and failed to enact needed change. It also lets leaders ignore existing funds already taken from taxpayers.

What is the RTA sales tax?

To fund CTA, Metra and Pace, residents in areas served by mass transit currently pay:

  • 1% sales tax on general merchandise in Cook County.
  • 1.25% sales tax on qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances in Cook County.
  • 0.75% sales tax on general merchandise and qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances in DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

If Pritzker and the RTA board approve, the 0.25% will be added to all three existing sales taxes to generate $478 million leaders claim is needed to avoid transit’s fiscal cliff. That fiscal cliff is mostly a Chicago Transit Authority problem: Metra and Pace serve the suburbs and have challenges of their own, but the CTA dominates the RTA’s budget.

Penalizing people who don’t use CTA is a problem when it takes the biggest share of the budget. Part of the funding solution is using money from the state’s road fund, which has more than $3 billion taxpayers have already contributed. The state should spend what it already has before taking more.

Read more here.

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WATCH: Ex-Illinois governor pushes for ‘millionaire’s surcharge’ amendment

Posted in Look For The Union Label, Politics, Springfield, Taxes, The Center Square, The Chicago Way, Unions on November 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The push continues to have voters answer whether there should be a 3% surcharge on Illinois millionaires. | BlueRoomStream, Greg Bishop / The Center Square

By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

The push continues to have voters if Illinois should be a 3% surcharge on millionaires.

Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn this week relaunched his effort to bring about the ballot referendum after the nonbinding question was approved in 2024. He stopped at the state capitol in Springfield on Wednesday.

“We need a millionaire amendment for property tax relief for families and businesses all across Illinois,” Quinn told reporters.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Tracy said such a tax will push higher earners out of the state.

“They can’t, you know, can’t control spending,” Tracy told The Center Square. “So they have to ever increase taxes. And then they always want to tax the rich. But where has that ever worked?”

Quinn is pushing for the binding measure to be approved by legislators by May 3 in order to be placed on the November ballot.

The amendment, if approved, would allow the state to levy a 3% surcharge on millionaires for a property tax relief fund.

Read more here.

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The Chicago/Springfield way: “Elections board deadlocks on $10M fine for Senate President Don Harmon”

Posted in Capitol News Illinois, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Fat Bastard, Illinois State Board of Elections, Politics, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way on October 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

L to R: Senate President Don Harmon, Governor JB Pritzker and Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Emanuel “Chris” Welch

By Ben Szalinski | Capitol News Illinois

Article Summary

  • The Illinois State Board of Elections deadlocked, 4-4, on partisan lines when determining whether Senate President Don Harmon violated fundraising restrictions in 2024.
  • The board fined Harmon $9.8 million for accepting greater campaign donations than the law allowed in 2024. He appealed, leading to Tuesday’s hearing before the full board.
  • After the split vote, the board postponed official action on the fine until its next meeting in November.
  • A hearing officer and attorney for the board had recommended the board find Harmon in violation of state law.

This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

Read the full story here.

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Chicago’s Union Boss Gets a Promotion | Wall Street Journal

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, Clown Car, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Fools and their money, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions, Wall Street Journal, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on October 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Stacy Davis Gates | Nam Y. Huh Nam/Associated Press

Stacy Davis Gates will bring her educational failures to Springfield.

By The Editorial Board | Wall Street Journal

Talk about failing up. Stacy Davis Gates, the Chicago Teachers Union president who has presided over the educational failures of Chicago public schools, has been elected to lead the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Here we have in a single event the problem that is ruining Illinois.

From her new perch, Ms. Davis Gates will be the voice of more than 100,000 Illinois teachers, faculty and others at the statewide union. Downstate parents wondering what’s ahead are warned: It won’t be higher test scores. Less than a third of Chicago eighth grade students are proficient in reading and math. For that, she gets a promotion.

Students and parents don’t get to vote in union elections, alas. But union teachers do and they care most about money and dodging accountability for student failure. Ms. Davis Gates has delivered on both counts. In 2024 she told a Chicago radio station that academic testing “at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy” and “you can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority.”

Yes, grading is racist, so stop using tests to judge students—and heaven forbid don’t hold teachers accountable. By the way, Ms. Davis Gates sends her own son to a private school.

Read more here.

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