Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle presides over a meeting of the Board of Commissioners on Thursday. [The Daily Line/Alex Nitkin]

Thousands of local governments across Cook County will likely have to bear the financial headache of waiting until 2023 to reap all the property taxes they’re owed this year, county Board President Toni Preckwinkle acknowledged on Thursday.

She made the pronouncement hours after the county’s Board of Commissioners pushed forward the county’s marathon slog to modernize its tax collection technology, and one day after a fired senior official at the county’s Board of Review threw new fuel into the frenzied debate over who is to blame for the delay.

An ordinance to allow the booting of cars all over the city stalled on Thursday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection delayed two votes that had been scheduled for Thursday, including one on a controversial proposal to legalize car booting citywide.

The Shedd Aquarium plans a new entrance and outdoor pavilion as part of a larger renovation. [Chicago Department of Planning and Development]

The Chicago Plan Commission granted key approvals to a Shedd Aquarium renovation and a South Side affordable housing developmentvThursday.

The board also signed off on the sale of the former West Ridge library building to a local refugee group after neighbors blasted an earlier attempt to sell it to an organization that planned to lease part of the space to a group co-founded by Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th).

Here’s more on the projects. They still require City Council approval.

A rendering of the Laramie State Bank redevelopment including a museum, housing, cafe, business incubator, community plaza on Chicago Avenue. [City of Chicago]

A plan to redevelop the long-vacant Laramie State Bank is moving forward.

The Chicago Plan Commission voted Thursday to approve a sweeping proposal to transform the historic bank building, 5200 W. Chicago Ave. into a museum, mixed-income housing, community plaza, business incubator and café. The proposal now will go to the City Council’s Committee on Zoning before a final vote from all 50 alderpeople.

Department of Family and Support Services Comm. Brandie Knazze presented details on the guaranteed income pilot program during a committee meeting Wednesday.

City officials expect to send out the first $500 checks for Chicago’s guaranteed income pilot program at the end of the month, they told aldermen during a Wednesday City Council committee hearing.

From left: Matt Podgorski, Frank Coconate and Mark Hosty are competing in the Republican primary to succeed retiring Comm. Peter Silvestri (R-9) on the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Cook County Comm. Peter Silvestri (R-9) shocked the Chicago political world in January when he announced he would not run for an eighth term on the county’s Board of Commissioners, where his unique brand of centrism earned him deep popularity among his constituents and colleagues.

His announcement also sent a stampede of candidates into the open race for one of the only remaining Republican-controlled seats in Cook County government.

Amber Ritter of the Chicago Department of Aviation shows plans for the demolition of a telecommunications building that will be replaced with a new passenger concourse.

A key step in the $8.5 billion O’Hare 21 airport expansion plan was passed through a City Council committee on Wednesday. 

The City Council Committee on Aviation convened virtually to take up an ordinance that would advance one part of the airport redevelopment initiative. The ordinance (O2022-1703), proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, would grant a limited ground lease to AT&T so the company can replace the airport's copper wiring with fiber while gradually moving their office site out of the airport.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is set to roll out a gush of new federally backed funding for anti-violence and other programming.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is set to roll out about $20.8 million in new federally backed funding for anti-violence intervention programs among a host of new American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) initiatives as the county faces mounting threats to public safety and economic stability.

Commissioners are scheduled to fast-track the approval of five separate new spending initiatives during Thursday’s 10 a.m. meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The board is also scheduled during the meeting to approve dozens of other measures, including the adoption of the county’s new flag design, the appointment of a new public health director and a half-dozen new commercial property tax breaks.

Spouses of first responders who die by suicide or drug overdose will be eligible for city death benefits under an ordinance set for a vote on Thursday.

A proposal to repeal a controversial speed camera crackdown is finally set to meet its fate on Thursday, potentially burying the protest ordinance for good after months of delays.

Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) ordinance (O2021-1227) to repeal the city’s 2021 rule allowing speed cameras to fine drivers who exceed the speed limit by 6 mph near schools and parks is one of more than a dozen items set to come before a 10 a.m. meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance on Thursday. The committee is also scheduled to take up an alderman’s proposal to expand death benefits for the spouses of fallen police officers, create the city’s first new tax-increment financing (TIF) district of the Mayor Lori Lightfoot era, approve nearly $40 million in new TIF funding for CTA infrastructure projects and more.

The Chicago Plan Commission is set to consider plans for the old Laramie Bank building.

The Chicago Plan Commission is set to hear plans for the restoration of the Austin Laramie Bank building and construction of an adjacent 78-unit apartment building as part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West program.

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2), left, and Department of Planning and Development Deputy Comm. Tim Jeffries speak during a committee meeting on Tuesday.

Aldermen unanimously and without much hesitation approved a proposed property tax incentive for the owner of a Bucktown building near Lincoln Yards despite word from a city department official that Mayor Lori Lightfoot opposed the incentive.

Ald. Derrick Curtis (18) advertised a campaign kickoff event he hosted for Mayor Lori Lightfoot in his June 2 ward newsletter. [18th Ward]

Ald. Derrick Curtis (18) could be on the hook for at least a $5,000 fine over an apparent violation of city ethics rules surrounding a campaign kickoff event he hosted for Mayor Lori Lightfoot last week, the Chicago Board of Ethics ruled on Monday.

The ethics board also opted to give Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) a chance to escape a similar fine for mixing political and government messaging. And board leaders called on the mayor and City Council to put the gas on a proposed amendment to the city’s ethics ordinance that has been stuck in legislative purgatory since April.

Activist Ja’Mal Green became the seventh person to officially announce a run for mayor in 2023. A key City Council committee is set on Wednesday to consider a $5 million grant transfer and hold a hearing on American Rescue Plan spending. Another council committee will take up a ground lease agreement designed to smooth the path for telecommunications upgrades at O’Hare Airport. And Cook County leaders revealed their long-awaited redesign of the county’s flag.

Aldermen gave an initial OK to measures that will allow former 24th Ward Ald. Michael Scott, Jr. and his wife Natashee Scott to pay $8,000 for two vacant city-owned parcels next to their home in North Lawndale. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line; Byrnes & Walsh LLC]

Members of a key City Council committee unanimously approved proposals that will allow former 24th Ward Ald. Michael Scott and his wife Natashee Scott to use a city-backed land deal to buy two vacant lots adjoining their North Lawndale home.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference on Monday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials on Monday announced a $3.1 million expansion of city-funded mental health services through the city's network of Trauma-Informed Centers of Care.