Articles filed under Griffin, Jake
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Tax woes for Harvest Bible Chapel properties
Mar 9, 2020 10:56 AM - The owners of one Harvest Bible Chapel church in Lake County owe more than $500,000 in property taxes and the tax exempt status of an Aurora campus of the megachurch is being called into question.
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Is your park district also a landlord? And what rent does it charge?
Feb 22, 2020 8:39 PM - Fourteen suburban park districts own homes that in most cases are rented to employees or the public, but some question why the park districts are acting as landlords at all.
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Why some schools get state grants to cut property taxes
Feb 3, 2020 10:47 AM - Some suburban property owners could see their tax bills temporarily cut as a result of a state grant program, but only if they live in one of five local school districts.
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Towns spending 33% of property taxes on pensions
Jan 26, 2020 5:30 AM - On average, suburbs are spending the equivalent of a third of the property taxes collected each year on pension costs. Municipal leaders say it's only going to grow because pension debt is growing as well.
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Mendoza: State won't collect red light camera fines. Suburbs: We'll get someone else to do it
Jan 11, 2020 4:59 PM - Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza's decision to stop garnishing money owed by red light scofflaws jeopardizes almost $2 million for 21 suburbs annually. She says the fines disproportionally hit poor people and cites corruption within the red light camera industry, but some surburbs say they'll just find someone else to handle collections.
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Why administrative costs add millions to public safety pensions
Dec 21, 2019 7:50 PM - The nearly 650 suburban and downstate fire and police pension funds spend almost five times more per person on administrative costs than the statewide pension plans do, and most of those costs won't go down when the pension funds' investments are merged. Here's why.
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Illinois spent $8.5 billion to cut its pension debt. It wasn't enough.
Dec 7, 2019 4:28 PM - Illinois' pension debt has risen to $137 billion, the largest ever and about half a billion dollars more than a state commission predicted in April.
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A drop in people, a $1 billion rise in property taxes
Dec 2, 2019 6:40 AM - Property tax collections by local governments in Illinois increased nearly $1 billion between 2017 and 2018 even as the state lost thousands of residents over that year.
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Public safety pension investment returns are missing targets -- by nearly $1 billion
Nov 9, 2019 5:45 PM - Over the past five years, 642 public safety pension funds in the suburbs and downstate have received more than $3.2 billion in investment returns. However, those funds were expected to generate at least $4.1 billion from investments, a nearly $1 billion miss.
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Can a state senator who's not under federal probe sponsor this fire pension bill?
Oct 19, 2019 4:06 PM - The fate of a bill that would limit firefighters to a single pension is in the hands of a state senator under federal investigation, but there's a way the House sponsor can wrest it from that senator's control.
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