Judges in Illinois have allowed the state government and Cook County avoid challenges to their spending power under the state constitution. But should they have?
A state appeals court will be asked to weigh in on the question of whether state courts can have any input at all on the question of whether Illinois’ state constitution puts any constraints at all on state lawmakers who want to rack up debt to cover state expenses.
A judge in Springfield has refused to permit a lawsuit to continue which asserted the state’s constitution never intended to allow the state government from using debt, issued under the state’s bonding authority, to pay for operating expenses. The plaintiff in the case has vowed to appeal, saying the judge reached a wrong and hasty conclusion on the questions at the heart of the dispute.
Plaintiffs suing to bar Illinois' government from treating borrowing like tax revenue are asking a state judge for the chance to make the case that two state bond issues are illegal and prohibited by the Illinois State Constitution.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “fair tax” plan falls far short of the revenue needed to pay for his spending promises – feeding fears of future tax hikes on middle-class families.
Lawmakers sold 21 new taxes and fees as necessary to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges and balance the budget. Instead, taxpayers will be funding dog parks, swimming pools, snowmobile paths, a vacant theater and pickleball courts.
The Illinois Supreme Court says the city of Chicago has the constitutional power to regulate where food trucks can park and how long they can stay in certain spots, as well as to track truck whereabouts with GPS devices.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced her office has brought in more than $14 billion in collections since she took office in 2003, including $864 million in 2017. But how much of the mission of the attorney general falls under collecting money for the state?
The Illinois Supreme Court has overruled lower court judges who had decided an Illinois state agency could wait until after a law is changed to use the change in the law to deny a public information request submitted before the law changed.
With Illinois' budget woes continuing, one Democratic candidate for governor has suggested taxing retirement income, But such a proposal could lead to a mass exodus of retirees from the state, as well as court challenges exempting the state's public worker retirees from paying any such tax, under the state constitution's pension protections.
IIllinois Democrats who spent the last two years chiding state Republicans and Gov. Bruce Rauner for attempting to link "nonbudget" reforms to negotiations over the state budget, also supported Democratic U.S. senators' attempt to shut down the federal government over nonbudget immigration reform proposals. Yet, that's just how the game is played, say observers.
The woman who briefly served as one of the heads of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's communications team is suing his office, demanding the release of emails relating to controversial abortion legislation and other politically-charged topics.
Illinois ended its two-year budget hiatus earlier this month, but the state's financial plan still lacks the essentials needed to sustain it over the long term, according to a University of Chicago professor.
As Illinois’ financial, political and legal troubles continue to mount, a new book, issued by one of the state’s leading voices for reform, suggests the questions facing the state can largely be answered by amending the state’s constitution.
This month, Illinois found itself surrounded by right-to-work (RTW) states when Missouri's new Republican governor completed the encirclement by signing into law legislation that riled the state’s unions.
