Illinois

West Northfield School District 31 is considerating more than $1 million in budgets cuts in the wake of voters’ rejection April 5 of a property tax referendum. Three teachers and an assistant principal who are retiring will not be replaced. Other cuts on the table include the elimination of transportation for before- and after-school student…

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Voters by a wide margin shot down a $174 million plan to renovate and add on to New Trier High School’s Winnetka campus. Sixty-three percent of voters said no the ballot initiative, with a final vote tally of 13,713 to 8,068. Read the story from Pioneer Press

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The Fair Map Amendment proposal touted by supporters as an anti-corruption tool is falling way short in its quest to get on the November ballot with a deadline fast approaching. The proposed citizen initiative has garnered more than 120,000 petition signatures to get it on the ballot, but that is less than 50 percent of…

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Some say changing the culture of corruption in Illinois will require changing the way the state draw legislative districts. Monday night a state Senate committee approved a constitutional amendment that would do that, but it’s not the change for which many reformers had hoped. A citizen group is hoping they’ve gathered enough signatures to put…

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Park Ridge voters could see questions on their November election ballot asking if they are willing to support funding for flood control and a fight against O’Hare Airport. On Monday night 3rd Ward Alderman Don Bach asked that in April the council continue discussion of possible referendum questions related to issuing bonds to complete flood-control…

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Quinn said he realized there may be “more to do” and underscored his long desire to put on the ballot an initiative that would let voters decide whether they could vote in ethical standards for officials in local and state governments throughout Illinois. “We have shown that when people work together, we can accomplish great…

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Gov. Pat Quinn is pressing his case for giving citizens the right to toughen local ethics laws by referendum. The Democratic governor and longtime fan of citizen initiatives put the issue on the legislature’s fall veto session agenda by using his authority to rewrite a bill lawmakers sent him. He has asked lawmakers to go…

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