Both the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were in session this week.  Four weeks remain in this legislative session, and bills need to have advanced to the other chamber or received an extension from leadership to advance through the legislative process.  Bills also must advance out of second chamber committees by Friday, May 10, 2013. The following Policy... Read More

On April 4, 2013, Cook County released an economic development agenda, Partnering for Prosperity . Eight of the nine agenda strategies directly align with GO TO 2040 recommendations.  The following Policy Update provides a brief overview of the agenda, which addresses the county’s role in the metropolitan Chicago economy, and describes the many areas in which Partnering for... Read More

The Illinois Senate convened this week for an abbreviated three-day session. The Illinois House of Representatives did not meet but will return to Springfield on Tuesday, April 30, 2013.  CMAP has been tracking over 350 bills this session, but very few bills remain active.  On Thursday, April 25, bills originating in the Senate needed to pass the third reading deadline. The... Read More

Innovations from companies across the state fuel economic growth, creating new goods and services that are faster, cheaper, and better than what came before. Capital and research investments are central to these efforts. The 2013 Quarter 1 edition of the Illinois Innovation Index provides the most recent data on four of these building blocks of innovation— academic research and... Read More

On April 17, 2013, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) released the FY 2014-19 Proposed Multimodal Transportation Improvement Program , its annual update of the five-year highway transportation program.  As a component of that program, IDOT plans for $9.5 billion in highway spending over the next five years.  According to IDOT, funding for the highway program will... Read More