Chairwoman Gong Gershowitz, Spokesperson Ugaste, My name is Bryan Zarou, and I am the Vice President of Policy at the Better Government Association. The Better Government Association strongly supports ...

In a 2019 survey, municipal clerks in Maine were asked about the cost and administrative burden of running an RCV election; voter education efforts and voter competence with new rules; and how ranked ...

Salaries and bonuses for Chicago police officers represented by the Fraternal Order of Police in 2024 could exceed the budgeted position costs approved by City Council by $76.8 million or more, ...

Those honorary speeches can add unscheduled hours to a meeting – a BGA analysis found that on average, City Council spends one-third of its floor time discussing non-binding matters under suspension ...

The police department exceeded its judgments and settlements budget by $17.8 million in 2021, and the department is already over-budget for 2022 as of a set of settlements approved at the September ...

We looked at 2017 student population sizes at all 852 school districts in Illinois. On average, Illinois districts have 2,345 students. As many as 40 districts are made up of only one school with less ...

A series of new lobbying priorities announced by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a press conference last week included tweaks to revenues the city currently receives from the state government, but ...

Chicago’s City Council is off to a slow start in 2023: Only about 40% of its time in session so far this year – or about two of every five hours between the opening and closing gavels– has been spent ...

Appropriations The proposed 2025 city budget contains $18.7 billion in appropriations, up from 2024’s $18.3 billion. Overall Appropriations & Year-to-Year Growth The overall 2.2% increase represents a ...

Chicago’s City Council allows public comment at all of its meetings, including meetings of its committees. There are multiple ways to submit public comment, but each has a specific application process ...

Positions Overall The largest net reduction in positions was within the Police Officer position. 118 police officers positions were eliminated, with 64 new positions created for various police officer ...

Scheduled Salary Increases Johnson’s proposal includes a 5% salary bump for FOP-represented police in 2024 and 2025, up from the 2.5% and 2% raises for those years that were agreed upon in the ...