The Trust for Public Land (TPL) recently released ParkScore , a tool that measures how well cities are meeting the need for parks. It also includes an on-line mapping function that allows users to zoom down to their neighborhoods and examine specific areas that are underserved. Chicago is among the 40 U.S. cities included in TPL’s ParkScore analysis. Previous analyses of the need for... Read More

The General Assembly adjourned last evening after passing the State budget, however they failed to pass any pension reforms. Following adjournment, the Governor announced that he would be meeting with the legislative leaders to agree on a pension reform bill prior to calling the House and Senate back later this summer. We were closely following the budget bills that contained funding... Read More

UPDATE:    Since first posting this Policy Update, the IDNR Budget Sustainability bill SB 1566 did not receive the required 3/5 vote needed to pass since the bill was called after May 31, 2012. The work of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)  has been severely hampered in recent years due to major budget cuts and loss of staff.  Over the past... Read More

A Policy Update last month described how the State of Illinois policy of disbursing a portion of sales tax revenues to municipalities based on the location of sales may encourage municipalities to offer sales tax rebates to retail and other “order of acceptance” businesses that locate in their borders. A recent lawsuit by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) and several other taxing... Read More

The General Assembly is nearing its scheduled adjournment on May 31, 2012, but has yet to agree on a budget for the state’s General Revenue Fund (GRF).  In February, Governor Quinn released his proposed budget for the state’s fiscal year 2013.  Leaders in both chambers have introduced budget bills, but much of the discussion about the state budget until this point has centered on... Read More