Law firms certainly don’t go broke doing this business. Property tax lawyers go to the mat for private clients against Chicago City Hall and taxing bodies across the state.

In politics, desert has become a useful noun, while adjectives help tell the story.

Titled “2024 Illinois’ National Rankings,” the 70-page document compares our state to the rest of the country in 23 categories covering tax rates and revenues, government spending and employment trends.

These aren’t forfeitures of items used in alleged crimes – an issue with its own tangled past – which means state police aren’t informed. Lawyers and judges presume the deals are on the level.

It’s important for regular folks and elected officials to have a working knowledge in order to participate in meaningful discussions about solutions.

Ambiguity might decrease if lawmakers were more explicitly prescriptive when establishing policy, but that’s often politically unpleasant compared to taking credit for at least passing something and then waiting it out for years while jurists finalize checks and balances.

'For transit to be useful, it has to be within walking distance of the places people are actually going. And the destinations where people are actually going are not in the middle of the freeway.'

Rather than cover the expected funding gap, the RTA said doing things right actually would cost twice as much: $1.5 billion. Further, the report calls for "a strengthened RTA to oversee region-wide minimum service standards."

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