Illinois

The Harris School of Public Policy is launching a new course, "Careers in Municipal Finance," designed to grow the public finance talent pipeline.

Yorkville, Illinois, defaulted on special district bonds for Kendall Marketplace, a shopping center that never evolved into the expected retail powerhouse.

Chicago had a $161 million deficit in fiscal year 2024, according to the annual comprehensive financial report the city released on Monday.

Soon after it sold $687.3 million of bonds, Chicago returned to market with $82.55 million for housing and economic development in a deal set to close Monday.

Cook County faces a general fund budget gap of $102.6 million in 2026, and many grants are at risk under the new White House and Republican-controlled Congress.

The wait for finished audits dropped across municipal sectors from 2022 to 2023, a new report says, but the median time is still higher in the long run.

Chicago is facing myriad headwinds. But its GO bond sale last week was oversubscribed and city officials said that allowed them to lower yields in repricing.

The Illinois General Assembly sent Chicago transit agencies closer to the fiscal cliff, adjourning without sending a funding bill to Gov. JB Pritzker.

Chicago goes to market next week with $517.95 million of taxable and tax-exempt general obligation bonds following a downward outlook revision from Fitch.

When Chicago barred media from its investor conference, it told journalists the policy aligned with peer municipalities' practices. The facts are less clear.

Chicago is "diligently preparing" to sell debt, now that the bond market has mostly recovered from April's turmoil, Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski said.

The Chicago City Council passed Mayor Brandon Johnson's green affordable housing plan, to be seeded with $135 million from 2024's $1.25 billion bond ordinance.

The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency plans to sell $600 million of refunding bonds in July, amid questions about member contracts after the bonds' maturity.

The Democratic states sued a day after schools were required to certify the elimination of DEI programs or risk losing federal funding.

Baker Tilly is preparing a $7 billion merger with Moss Adams, another advisory firm. The deal will close in early June.

Four teams of University of Chicago public policy students presented their answer to the challenge: What can the city do to create a thriving downtown?

The Boston-based Nixon Peabody added seasoned municipal finance expert Michael Melzer as a partner, while Barclays lost three professionals.

The Chicago Public Schools budget hangs in the balance as Trump's Department of Education targets diversity, equity and inclusion programming.

KBRA revised the outlook to negative on the Chicago Transit Authority's AA-minus rated TIFIA bonds, backed with farebox and operations revenue.

Midwest market participants and researchers say the loss of the municipal bond tax exemption could cost the region's many smaller issuers market access.