In a blow to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and to his hopes of injecting billions of dollars more revenue into the state budget, Illinois voters on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment to overhaul how the state taxes income.

The property tax bill for retail space at Trump Tower has doubled to a million dollars. Crain’s Chicago Business reporter Danny Ecker joins us with that story and more.

Aldermen urged city transportation officials on Friday to help them repave more Chicago streets, spotlighting a perennial gripe about potholes and rough rides during a budget season like no other.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $12.76 billion spending plan for 2021 fails to craft a “compassionate, bold” solution to the long-standing inequities that plague Chicago, according to the City Council’s Progressive Caucus.

A second Wall Street ratings agency sounded the alarm over Chicago’s budget on Wednesday as aldermen continued weighing Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $12.76 billion spending plan for 2021.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $1.2 billion budget gap by hiking property taxes and laying off employees got a cool reception Monday from aldermen, who pleaded for other options amid a raging pandemic.

As Chicago grapples with a second wave of the pandemic, a Wall Street ratings agency fired a shot across the bow as aldermen prepared to start a month of hearings on Mayor Lightfoot’s spending plan.

Chicagoans are casting their votes for political candidates and making their voices heard on political ideas. A group of journalists walks us through the referenda on the ballot.

“There are points in time when scoop and toss is appropriate” and that is now the case since Chicago is facing a $1.2 billion budget gap, Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett said.

The mayor’s budget plan, the next coronavirus wave and the final presidential debate. Our politics team takes on those stories and more in this week’s roundtable. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $1.2 billion budget gap in 2021 would hike sales and property taxes by $76.4 million, eliminate 1,921 city jobs and dip into the city’s rainy-day fund.

How to educate students during a pandemic is far from the only issue elected officials — and Illinois residents — have to grapple with. And it seems unlikely the federal government will agree to another stimulus package before the election.

The economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic presented an “extraordinarily challenging” set of circumstances to the county’s finance team, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said a day before unveiling her $6.9 billion spending plan.

Billionaire Pritzker cousins are hurling cash at opposing sides of the “fair tax” amendment. Our politics team tackles that story and more — including the battle over the Supreme Court — in this week’s roundtable.

In a typical year, approximately 3% of property owners do not pay their taxes, according to Chicago officials. But in 2021, a projected 10% of property owners won’t pay their tax bills, which would cost the city $65.2 million.

Perhaps the most hotly contested race on Illinois ballots this year isn’t between two candidates. It’s a fight over income tax rates. We hear from both sides of the hotly contested measure.