Illinois

Acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Mahr and Deputy CFO Noor Shaikh left Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration as internal battles became public.

The budget timeline emerged as a flashpoint when the Chicago Board of Education held hearings last week in the run-up to a consequential vote Thursday.

Roycemore School defaulted this month on unrated revenue bonds issued through conduit Evanston, Illinois. The private school will close its doors in 2026-27.

Cook County, Illinois, will return to market next week with $119.5 million of Series 2026 fixed rate, tax-exempt sales tax revenue bonds.

Chicago will fund new infrastructure for The 78, the mixed-use development around the new Chicago Fire soccer stadium, after the City Council advanced the deal.

Private Milliken University in Illinois is sweetening its upcoming bond deal by adding a student apartment complex to increase investor protections. 

Fitch Ratings upgraded Cook County to AA-plus from AA on Monday, citing the county's moderating long-term liability burden and sustained resource base growth.

Financial markets have embraced prediction markets as a mainstream crowdsourced provider of real-time probability signals and risk-hedging tools.

Illinois-based Bernardi Securities released an Environmental Risk Index that gauges relative environmental risk within municipal bond portfolios.

Stonepeak Partners will pay $2.5 billion to buy the remainder of the lease of Chicago's parking meters. The 2008 lease runs through 2084.

The governors of two top Midwest destinations for data centers froze tax breaks for the projects as grassroots opposition groups begin building coalitions.

Illinois released its 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report last week, completing the report nearly eight months earlier than its 2024 ACFR.

After the latest cyberattack struck a K-12 school system, rating agencies and muni market participants warned of an evolving risk to school district issuers.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker proposed changes to address his state's underfunded pensions in his budget proposal. Two made it through the legislature.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza announced her candidacy for mayor of Chicago last week, pledging "to respect the taxpayer dollar and stretch its value."

Illinois lawmakers passed a $56 billion fiscal year 2027 budget as the legislative session wrapped up in the early hours of Monday morning.

Issuers using cash basis accounting pay a yield premium to sell bonds, according to a new paper, and their bonds are less likely to trade in the secondary.

A sweeping Illinois bill to loosen local government audit requirements is on pause, but its backers hope to push the legislation through next session.

A federal judge ruled Cook County, Illinois, is liable for contitutional violations of homeowners' rights by stripping them of equity in delinquent tax sales.

After Gov. JB Pritzker released his BUILD plan to lower housing costs, the Illinois Municipal League unveiled its proposal: the REAL Housing Act.