Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 board members are preparing to abandon the district’s 14-year-old debt-free status, but with a plan to reclaim it in four years. CTBA’s Ralph Martire spoke told the DH’s Eric Peterson the fact that District 54 is planning to borrow specifically for its capital improvement costs for 2025-2027 makes it a rational decision.
Ralph Martire’s column explains Governor Pritzker’s Executive Order was compelled by President Trump’s “disastrous economic policies,” as well as costs that Trump’s seminal legislation, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” imposed on Illinois
The Chicago Reporter spoke to fiscal, education and policy experts, including CTBA’s executive director Ralph Martire, to understand options that go from creating new revenue sources from scratch to reforming existing ones
Ralph Martire comments on Governor JB Pritzker executive order directing Illinois state agencies to reserve up to 4% of their budgets for Fiscal Year 2026 to mitigate the economic impact of Trump administration policies.
Guest Columnist Ralph Martire writes about President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and the long-term harm for millions of low- and middle-income Americans — as well as seniors.
The Illinois State Board of Education’s evidence-based funding program will distribute $8.9 billion to school districts statewide this school year. Martire expressed concerns that other levels of state education funding are decreasing at a higher rate than the state is increasing EBF revenue to the districts.
Chicago has pension problems, and Illinois House Bill 3657 might exacerbate the issue. Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed the bill into law. Ralph Martire, CTBA executive director and Austin Berg, executive director of the Chicago Policy Center, join Brandis Friedman on Chicago Tonight discuss the bill.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is warning that Chicago has reached an economic "point of no return" with multiple agencies facing yawning deficits, and a $1.1 billion gap in next year's budget forecast. Charging a professional services tax on things like haircuts, lawn care and car repair could yield an estimated $305 million for the city.
As CPS grapples with a massive budget deficit, new state figures show the gap between what CPS has and what it needs is growing. Pavlyn Jankov, research director with the Chicago Teachers Union, said the steep drop in revenue this year from the state Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax and cites to CTBA’s report.
Chicago must vote to retain the grocery tax by Oct. 1 or face loss of $80 million in revenue when the new year begins.