MarySue Barrett, President of Metropolitan Planning Council (www.metroplanning.org). Excessive state taxes, spending by schools in Illinois and finding ways to make them balance buy creating better budget & spending plans while improving the services offered.

Cook County has a new Assessor who is working towards improvements in the office while maintaining the operation of the office and its responsibility to accurately and fairly asses property values and their associated tax responsibility. With a Chicago budget deficit hole projected to be over $838 million, Mayor Lori Lightfoot might be forced to increase taxes to help close the gap.

This Week the ‘Most Experienced Round Table in Chicago Media’ gathers to discuss news of the week. The budget hole leads the discussion as the media team offers a historic review of the situation and the possible solutions that might upset residents as services are reduced while taxes are increased. Public school teachers in Chicago have authorized a strike and while we’ve seen it before; Mayor Lightfoot needs to find a solution before the picket lines are setup at CPS locations. Nationally, the move to impeach President Trump seems to be licking up speed and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi feels that the whole thing can be wrapped up by Thanksgiving.

John Dempsey checks out Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s announcement of elimination of late fines and clearing debts of patrons for previous occurrences. With the announcement, Chicago becomes the largest city, and largest public library system in the U.S., to join the growing movement of eliminating overdue fines. Such fines have increasingly been found to be an ineffective tool in encouraging the return of library materials. Library patrons will still be responsible for returning books, and those who that do not return their books will still need to either replace, or pay for the value of, any materials not returned.