Alex Nitkin is The Daily Line’s reporter covering Cook County and Chicago land use policy. He came to TDL from The Real Deal Chicago, where he covered Chicago real estate news. He previously worked at DNAinfo, first as a breaking news reporter, and then as a neighborhood reporter covering the city's Northwest Side. Nitkin graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a bachelor’s degree.
Bio
Solutions reporter, @IllinoisAnswers/@BetterGov. Formerly of @thedailylinechi, @trdchicago & @DNAinfoChi. Amateur baker. Tips: [email protected]An ordinance set for consideration on Thursday would attempt to salvage the county’s Firearms Tax, but it still may not pass legal muster. [ripster8 on Unsplash]
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is proposing to reshuffle the county’s tax on guns and ammunition in an attempt to save the revenue stream after it was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court last month. But the patch would still leave the tax unconstitutional, according to at least one court justice.
Preckwinkle looks to salvage county tax on guns and ammo by refocusing revenues
Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez answer questions during a Facebook Live Q&A on Tuesday. [Facebook/Chicago Department of Public Health]
Cook County health officials are planning to roll out vaccinations for children as young as 5 starting on Monday, and Chicago vaccinations could get underway by the end of this week, officials said on Tuesday.
Chicago, Cook County health officials gearing up to vaccinate kids within days: ‘it’s not going to be the hunger games’
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that the Fraternal Order of Police is not “serious about getting a deal done” to get their members vaccinated.
A Cook County judge hit pause Monday on a requirement for Chicago’s police officers and supervisors to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, staking a partial but powerful legal victory for the Fraternal Order of Police in its challenge of the city’s vaccination rules.
‘The mandate continues,’ Lightfoot vows as FOP scores partial court victory in vaccine challenge
Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26) was one of 25 aldermen who spoke up on the city’s vaccination rules during a special City Council meeting on Friday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
The City Council voted overwhelmingly on Friday to reject an insurgent push to revoke Chicago’s vaccination mandate and tighten the council’s control of city human resources policy after more than two hours of impassioned debate over the measure’s legal, practical and moral implications.
Lightfoot swats down City Council rebellion on vaccination mandate: ‘This is…ultimately about control’
Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki and Toni Preckwinkle chief of staff Lanetta Haynes Turner speak during a county budget hearing on Thursday.
Cook County leaders are leaning on an “executive leadership council” made up of department heads and consultants to iron out the details of how the county will spend its $1 billion windfall from the American Rescue Plan. But the ideas won’t be presented for public approvals until December — and even then, only “near-term initiatives” will be ready for consideration, county finance officials told commissioners Thursday.
Cook County won’t iron out details of ARPA spending until December, officials say
Cook County Forest Preserve District Supt. Arnold Randall speaks during a Forest Preserve District board meeting on Oct. 5
The $136.6 million proposed budget for the Cook County Forest Preserve District will allow county officials to rebuild forest trails, repair picnic shelters and restore thousands of acres of natural habitat. But financial storm clouds will keep gathering on the district’s horizon while leaders wait to hear if voters throw it a financial lifeline next year, district Supt. Arnold Randall told county commissioners on Thursday.
Forest Preserves budget is built on ‘unsustainable fiscal model’ with property tax hike in flux, district chief says
Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson (D-1) questions Sheriff Tom Dart during a budget hearing on Wednesday
Police districts are stretched thin across Cook County, and the county Sheriff’s office is straining to keep them covered, Sheriff Tom Dart told county commissioners during an hours-long budget hearing on Wednesday.
County leaders spar over roots of crime surge, enlist court offices in anti-crime ‘task force’
County leaders are hoping the 2022 budget for the Cook County Forest Preserve District is the last annual appropriation before voters approve a tax hike to shore up the district’s finances. [Facebook/Cook County Forest Preserve District]
Cook County commissioners will get a long-awaited chance on Thursday to grill county finance officials on their still-developing plans to spend the $1 billion on tap from the American Rescue Plan as the county’s annual budget hearings wrap up on Thursday.
County ARPA spending, Forest Preserve to come under microscope in final budget hearings
Clockwise from top left: Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha, Comm. Donna Miller (D-6), Cook County Health Chief Strategy Officer Andrea Gibson and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Shannon Andrews speak during a virtual budget hearing on Tuesday.
The Cook County Health system is set to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic on solid financial footing and will even grow its offerings after years of cutbacks and financial uncertainty, officials told county commissioners during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
Cook County Health leaders tout improved finances; Mitchell, Martinez prep hiring surges
Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt aired objections to the board’s proposed budget during a Tuesday hearing.
Nearly a year of internal tensions at the Cook County Board of Review exploded into the open during a contentious budget hearing on Tuesday as accusations of nepotism and secrecy flew between the tax board’s elected commissioners, drawing a rebuke from the county leaders charged with voting to approve their budget.
Board of Review scolded by commissioners over budget, ethics squabbles: ‘This is outrageous’
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office is set to be allocated 179 new full-time employee positions next year, mostly accounting for new court bailiffs.
Leaders of Cook County’s two largest court offices will be on the hook Wednesday to explain how they plan to use new funding and extra employee positions to guide the county’s justice system into a post-pandemic era, all with lower staffing allocations than either agency had in 2020.
Sheriff, Chief Judge to remain below pre-pandemic staffing as courts brace for reopening
Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki [left] answered questions from Comm. John Daley (D-11) and others during budget hearings on Monday.
Cook County commissioners signaled plans on Monday to give a thorough vetting to the nearly 1,600 new positions that county board President Toni Preckwinkle is proposing to add to the county’s payroll next year — especially as the county leaders look to fill an untold backlog of vacant positions already on the books.
Federally backed hiring surge, lagging tech upgrades take spotlight as county budget hearings kick off
The stage is set for Tuesday’s budget hearing as a public forum for the intensifying dispute between Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) [right] and her counterparts, Comm. Larry Rogers (D-3) [center] and Comm. Michael Cabonargi (D-2).
Cook County commissioners are set on Tuesday to hear two competing budget proposals for the Cook County Board of Review in the latest sign of tension between the board’s veterans and its newest commissioner.
Wendt plans budget ‘rebuttal’ to ask for more staff in hearing for fractured Board of Review
The City Council Latino Caucus says its proposed map takes its cues from census data and federal law. But the chair of the Aldermanic Black Caucus says it would be illegal. [City Council Latino Caucus; Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
A new Chicago ward map filed by the City Council Latino Caucus would bring the city’s representation closer in line with its population and unify neighborhoods sliced up under the existing map, proponents say.
Latino Caucus remap plan heats up brawl over Black representation: ‘a move of desperation’
Cook County had banked on $1.7 million in tax revenues from guns and ammunition sales in 2022. The Illinois Supreme Court struck down the tax on Thursday. [ripster8 on Unsplash]
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to plunge into a full week of departmental budget hearings on Monday, days after the Illinois Supreme Court blew a nearly $2 million hole in board President Toni Preckwinkle’s budget proposal.
Gun tax court decision vaporizes a Cook County revenue source at the cusp of budget hearings
A plan by developer Trammell Crow to build two new towers at the corner of May Street and Carroll Avenue cleared the Chicago Plan Commission despite pushback from some members.
Plans for a two-tower development that would add a gush of new apartments and offices to the booming Fulton Market district cleared a key hurdle on Thursday despite myriad questions over whether the developer has done enough to satisfy the city’s shifting affordable housing policies.
Approved 2-tower office, apartment complex raise new questions about city’s Fulton Market affordability policy
One provision of the budget Management Ordinance set for approval on Friday would extend the authority of the Department of Water Management commissioner to replace the city's lead service lines. [Pexels]
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $16.7 billion budget plan is set to clear another major hurdle on Friday, as her administration’s more than 600-page budget appropriation ordinance (O2021-4238) comes up for a committee vote.
New contracting equity office, lead pipe replacement among grab-bag of budget changes up for committee vote
A trio of aldermen are pushing for the 2022 budget plan to include a “formalized” mechanism for oversight of how the city spends nearly $2 billion in American Rescue Plan funds. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
Aldermen are furiously negotiating with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration this week to finalize an array of tweaks they hope to insert into the city’s spending plan before it reaches a final vote next week.
Aldermen rush to finalize budget tweaks on spending oversight, ‘human infrastructure’ as critical vote nears
A rendering of Cabrera Capital Partners’ plan to rebuild the LeClaire Courts, which were torn down in 2011. [Department of Planning and Development]
A sweeping but overdue plan to rebuild a demolished Southwest Side public housing complex is set to clear a key city hurdle on Thursday, laying the groundwork for a new health center, grocery store and 725 homes in the Garfield Ridge area.
LeClaire Courts reconstruction, Fulton Market towers set for Plan Commission approval
A meeting of the Chicago Board of Ethics in 2019. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
Jay Doherty, the indicted former president of the City Club of Chicago, faces a $75,000 fine from the Chicago Board of Ethics for repeatedly breaking city lobbying rules.
Doherty fined $75K for unregistered lobbying; Sky owner pays $5K ethics fine
Bio
Solutions reporter, @IllinoisAnswers/@BetterGov. Formerly of @thedailylinechi, @trdchicago & @DNAinfoChi. Amateur baker. Tips: [email protected]
