Update on Sunshine
Unfortunately, Illinois took two steps back in the transparency movement last week during veto session. The first occurred in a move to deny Illinois citizens the right to ask for government employee performance evaluations through a Freedom of Information (FOIA) …
Work on Industrial Arts Glass Studio Costs Illinois Taxpayers $71,000
According to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Grant Tracker website, the Little Black Pearl Workshop received a $71,000 grant to help complete the industrial arts glass studio, located at 1060 East 47th Street in Chicago. Specifically the …
Sunshine Standard
All interested in government transparency, check out this new site, sunshinestandard.org, created by Sunshine Review.
The website aims to provide citizens and elected officials with model legislation and tools to launch reforms and expand the amount of information available …
New TIF in the Loop
The city of Chicago has just approved 6 million dollars in tax increment financing (TIF) for Accretive Health Inc. “to pay for job training and the build-out costs” of a new facility, which will be located at 231 South LaSalle …
Grant for Costumed Actors Costs Taxpayers $79K
In 2009, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity awarded a $79,000 to the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition (search “Looking for Lincoln” - Grant #09337008). The Grant was awarded to “cover costs associated with hosting a Living History Program” …
School Vendor Data Available on IllinoisOpenGov!
What is your school district spending money on?
Check out some new spending data available on our spending transparency website, IllinoisOpenGov.org.
We have included school vendor information for you to check out! We’ll also be updating current information …
Chicago Horticultural Society receives $250k for its Plant Conservation Science Center
In 2009 the Chicago Horticultural Society received a $250,000 grant from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity “to assist in the development of the visitor interpretive features in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center.” …
Spotlight on Spending
Check out the newest spotlight on spending covering traffic control aides in Chicago. Necessary? Some taxpayers don’t think so.…
Check Out a New Paper on TIF Transparency!
Although tax increment financing (TIF) has been around for over thirty years, many people do not understand how it works, how it affects their communities or their pocketbooks. Most people have no idea a significant portion of their property taxes …
Taxpayers Paying for New Model of Chicago
In 2008, the Chicago Architecture Foundation was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to “assist in the development of the 2008-2009 Special Exhibitions.” According to the DCEO Grant Tracker (Under “Search Grants by Organization” …
