Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for an average $93.6 million a year for legal judgments and settlements against the city. A Better Government Association policy team analysis found that after years ...

Understanding the structure of the courts is important because all courts ultimately need to answer to the Supreme Court who has “ [g]eneral administrative and supervisory authority over all courts ”.

For first-time watchers, Chicago’s City Council can seem incomprehensible. Most of the business is done in a routine, rapid-fire succession of votes and gavel raps, punctuated by repetitions of the ...

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, ...

With 852 separate districts, Illinois has the third most school districts in the nation, bested only by Texas and California, whose populations are more than double ours.

The BGA’s policy agenda for the City of Chicago pursues structural reforms of the City Council, further empowerment of the Office of Inspector General, and measures to strengthen the city’s ...

This explainer gives instructions on how to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in Chicago and Illinois.

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 ...

The BGA is a non-partisan, non-profit news organization and civic advocate working for transparency, efficiency and accountability in government in Chicago and across Illinois.

BGA Policy finds that juvenile detention centers in IL lack protections for the youth they house, while also overly relying on room confinement.

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 ...

Chicago City Council is spending only two-fifths of its time on legislative work, with the other two-thirds devoted to honorary resolutions.