Editor’s note: There is a lot of information coming at you every day, but not a lot of context. The Illinois Policy Institute is launching "Our Perspective" to give you our take on topics of the day so you can better shape your take on them.
Chicagoans will see their March 19 primary ballots in their mailboxes starting Feb. 8. The last question is on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s tax hike plan.
Illinois ranked 40th overall and the worst in the Midwest for social mobility, a new report found.
This edition of The Policy Shop is by assistant editor Dylan Sharkey. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson just barely won the city election less than a year ago, with about 26,500 of the city’s nearly 1.6 million registered voters handing him the race. A lot has changed since then, and voters are much more polarized in their views...
“Alcohol licensing was easy at the federal level. I am an importer and wholesale distributor, but then you have to get it at the state level because prohibition and bootlegging made it a state-by-state decision on how to sell alcohol.”
Absenteeism rates among Hispanic students in Chicago Public Schools are chronically high. Proficiency in reading and math is low.
Votes on Chicago’s March 19 referendum will count, according to an Illinois Appellate Court ruling. Now voters must weigh the merits of the real estate transfer tax hike.
Illinoisans pay the nation’s second-highest gas taxes behind only Californians, thanks to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s automatic gas tax hikes. The next gas tax hike is scheduled for July 1.
Chicago’s tight rental market is raising rents and eating larger chunks of residents’ income. But the city can fix that by following Minneapolis’ lead.
Fears of what it would do to Chicago’s housing market and economy led a group of Chicago trade unions to refuse to endorse Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to increase a city tax on real estate sales.
Chicago's rampant crime is not getting attention from city leaders. It is getting worse thanks to the SAFE-T Act. To fix that, city leaders need their own public safety act. And soon.
Illinois’ institutions of higher education will get nearly $530 million less from lawmakers to run this year than they did in fiscal year 2009, adjusted for inflation. Coupled with rapidly rising pensions, students and their families can expect ever-higher tuition costs.