The CloutCast

Illinois has long been known for its dismal financial condition. But Comptroller Susana Mendoza is staking her reelection campaign on an argument that things are much better for the state and its taxpayers since she took over five years ago. Mendoza talked to The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin about her office’s progress shrinking the state’s bill backlog, debt the state still owes to the federal government and a bill she’s backing that could help shore up the state’s rainy day fund.

A hard-fought and long-delayed commission to oversee the Chicago Police Department. A bitter fight to redraw the boundaries of Chicago’s 50 wards. A scramble to figure out how to spend $1.9 billion from the federal government. On this special end-of-year episode of the CloutCast, The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin and Erin Hegarty look back at some of the biggest issues that consumed Chicago government in 2021 and how they’ll be shaping the city in the new year to come.

Chicago aldermen are in the middle of their once-a-decade task of redrawing the city’s 50 ward boundaries to match the city’s shifting populations. So far, three different map proposals have surfaced, and aldermen blew past a critical Dec. 1 deadline for voting on a map. The Daily Line's Erin Hegarty talks with former WLS reporter Bill Cameron, who retired this year after covering City Hall for half-a-century, about how this year's ward remap stacks up against those of the past.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi rode into office in 2018 on a platform of reforming a property tax assessment system widely assailed as arbitrary and inequitable. Three years later, he says he’s made strides toward that goal, but critics — including a formidable new political challenger — say he’s only brought chaos and confusion. As Kaegi revs up his reelection campaign, he sat down with Alex Nitkin to preview his pitch to voters: that his new assessment methodology is fairer and more accurate than his predecessor’s, and that most taxpayers will benefit from it — even as some businesses wince at eye-popping tax hikes.

Since the beginning of the year, Illinois lawmakers have undertaken the once-a-decade task of drawing new political boundaries for the legislature, state Supreme Court and congressional districts. The legislative maps are facing a legal challenge and the congressional districts are forcing candidates to consider their options ahead of next year’s filing deadline. On this episode of The CloutCast, reporter Joel Ebert discusses the year in redistricting with CHANGE Illinois executive director Madeleine Doubek and mapmaker Frank Calabrese, who reflect on the new political boundaries and the process that was used to get to them while looking ahead at the future of redistricting in Illinois.

Officials in the city of Chicago have plans for 100 miles of new and upgraded bike lanes in 2021 and 2022, plus plans for 12 miles of new protected bike lanes both this year and next. Additionally, the city continues to expand its Divvy bike share program. The Daily Line’s Erin Hegarty spoke with Daniel Comeaux from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and Jim Merrell from Active Transportation Alliance about building a robust and safe network of bike lanes and infrastructure in Chicago and the surrounding area.

Joe Ferguson stepped down on Friday after 12 years overseeing Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General, the office charged with investigating and exposing waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement and corruption in Chicago’s government. Ferguson sat down for an extensive exit interview with The Daily Line’s Alex Nitkin to catalog a litany of issues he said are still undermining the public’s trust in city government, from lax oversight by the City Council to structural shortcomings in the Chicago Police Department and broken promises by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot pitched her $16.7 billion budget plan for the 2022 Fiscal Year as an “investment in the success of generations to come.” But can the plan really help climb Chicago out of the financial hole it has been digging for decades? And will it position the city for financial stability after its $1.9 billion share of American Rescue Plan funding dries up? The Daily Line editor Alex Nitkin spoke to Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Bennett, Budget Director Susie Park and Comptroller Reshma Soni about how they tried to build the mayor’s budget to stand the test of time. And Amanda Kass, associate director of the Government Finance Research Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, shared her reactions to the mayor’s budget plan and delved into the history of how Chicago got stuck with its infamous pension crisis.

After months of discussions, negotiations and delays, the Illinois General Assembly has finally approved a new omnibus energy bill aimed at moving the state from using traditional fossil fuels to be more climate friendly. The proposal, known as The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, was signed into law last week by Gov. JB Pritzker. To break down the various components of the new law, The Daily Line’s Joel Ebert talks with Sen. Michael Hastings, the Tinley Park Democrat who helped shepherd the measure through the Senate. For additional analysis of the new law, Ebert also talks to Colleen Smith of the Illinois Environmental Council about how the energy law compares to others states and Abe Scarr from the Illinois Public Interest Research Group about a provision that he says will continue to provide guaranteed profits for Commonwealth Edison.

The Chicago Police Department is the most expensive, and arguably most controversial, piece of Chicago’s nearly $12 billion budget. And as the City Council gets ready to pass a new spending plan for 2022 with the help of a $1.9 billion boost from the federal government, a battle is underway over how much funding should go toward police. Chicago Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20) and Emma Tai, executive director of United Working Families, talked to Alex Nitkin about what the “defund the police” movement means to them, and how they plan to advance its principles in the city’s budget when Mayor Lori Lightfoot and most of the City Council supports maintaining or growing funding for police.