logo
Peoria company receives money through Made in America Grant program

Peoria company receives money through Made in America Grant program

Yahooa day ago

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Gov. JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday that a local company will be receiving money through the Made in America Grant program.
The money was given to 29 small and mid-sized manufacturers throughout the state for a combined $1.35 million in capital grant funding, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
Locally, GEO. J. Rothan Company, a fine wood product manufacturer in Peoria, received funding in this round of grants.
The program provides matching grants up to $50,000 to help manufacturers invest in strategic projects and fuel innovation.
'Illinois is a globally-recognized manufacturing hub and the Made in Illinois Program is designed to support the small and mid-size manufacturers that make up a crucial part of our economy,' Pritzker said. 'This grant program helps companies access resources to become more competitive, enhance economic development, attract capital, and bring jobs to communities across the state. I look forward to seeing how these manufacturers utilize the program to advance innovation in their field.'
The program was started in 2024 and has so far provided more than $3 million in capital grants to 69 manufacturers.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Sangamon Co. board approves nearly $1M to help low-income residents with energy costs
Sangamon Co. board approves nearly $1M to help low-income residents with energy costs

Yahoo

time6 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Sangamon Co. board approves nearly $1M to help low-income residents with energy costs

SANGAMON COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) — Two grants worth more than $900,000 were approved in Tuesday night's Sangamon County Board meeting, which aim to help low-income families with energy costs. During the meeting, the resolutions were to approve grant applications for community resources from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the Weatherization Grant Program for the amounts of $628,554 and $365,951, respectively. In total, these grants are worth $994,505. Springfield School District invites chefs to submit recipes, create new menu options These resolutions were consolidated with two other resolutions, which were grant applications for the Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority to provide coordinated investigations into child abuse. The amounts of these two grants are $296,556.91 and $233,203, bringing the four consolidated grants total to more than $1.5 million. The board voted to adopt these resolutions and to waive the 10-day filing period. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Pension change boon to Chicago police officers, firefighters, but additional hit to taxpayers
Pension change boon to Chicago police officers, firefighters, but additional hit to taxpayers

Chicago Tribune

time18 hours ago

  • Chicago Tribune

Pension change boon to Chicago police officers, firefighters, but additional hit to taxpayers

Last-minute changes approved by Illinois lawmakers in the waning days of the session will cost Chicago taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in their first year and billions over time by giving some police officers and firefighters more lucrative pensions. Lead sponsor Sen. Robert Martwick, a Chicago Democrat, told the Tribune the tweaks were a negotiated fix agreed to by Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker that was promised to both bring parity between Chicago and downstate first responders and help bridge a shortfall in benefits for employees hired after 2010. Johnson's finance team estimated the initial cost would be $52 million in 2027. Budget watchdogs warned it will add billions to the city's pension liability, a figure that topped $37 billion by the end of 2023. 'It adds to the city's burdens at the worst possible moment, with no consideration of the city's actual capacity to meet those burdens,' said Joe Ferguson, the president of the Civic Federation. Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski's office is still 'conducting a comprehensive analysis' of the long-term cost of the legislation, her team said in an email, and would have updated figures in the coming weeks. 'Given the speed with which the amendment was introduced, any estimates at this stage would be preliminary and subject to change.' Downstate first responders received boosted benefits as part of the state's landmark consolidation of their pension investments in 2019. Chicago police officers and firefighters argued they deserved the same and were assured that lawmakers would make good later. Dave Sullivan, a lobbyist for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, wrote in the union's monthly newsletter that several years ago Pritzker called 'personally to assure me that he would make Tier 2 parity … a reality,' and he looked forward to the governor's signature. Pritzker's office didn't respond to a question about whether there was such an agreement and said the bill was under review. Martwick said Johnson 'understood a promise was made. I give him credit' for living up to it. 'He continues to show — unlike so many of his predecessors — a willingness to solve the problem and consistency in terms of living up to those steps' to do so. Mayor Lori Lightfoot more vocally opposed pension sweeteners during her term, including a last-ditch attempt to convince Pritzker to veto firefighter pension legislation that was projected to add between $18 million and $30 million to the city's annual bill. Johnson, however, supported a similar bill for police in 2023, adding an estimated $60 million to the city's immediate pension tab and $1 billion to the police fund's total liability. Jaworski did file an opposition slip to Martwick's amendment in the Senate, testifying the change would cost an estimated $52 million in its first year and characterizing the proposal as 'an unfunded mandate,' her office said. The Johnson administration has been aware of the police and fire effort since at least two years ago, when the General Assembly considered similar legislation and delayed it at the request of the city, the bill's sponsors said. Simmering behind the city change is the failure of both city and state officials to come up with a fix for a projected shortfall in Tier II retirement benefits. Despite concerns that benefits for public employees at some point won't be equal to what Social Security would provide — a violation of a federal 'safe harbor' law — the legislature did not pass a comprehensive Tier II overhaul this session. And Chicago officials who face the same problem haven't published the findings of a pension working group convened two years ago. Martwick, a member of the working group, said this legislation does help partially address their shortfall. Separately, the state budget passed this session includes a $75 million set-aside to help pay for the first year of expected adjustments for state Tier II employees. The Chicago pension legislation makes three key benefit boosts. First, it increases the final salary cap used to determine pension benefits for police and fire retirees from $127,283 to $141,408. It also changes the rate at which that salary cap for police officers and firefighters rises every year. The current rate is either half of the rate of inflation or 3%, whichever is lower. The bill switches that calculation to the full rate of inflation or 3%, whichever is lower. The third tweak changes the time frame to determine that final average salary figure. Right now, police officers' benefits are based on the average of the highest salary from eight of the last 10 years of their career. The bill allows for an alternate calculation based on four of the last five years, a boon for officers who received big raises at the very end of their careers. Officers would be paid the higher of the two. Firefighters already won that 'dual-method' calculation in 2023. Downstate police and fire pensioners won it as part of the consolidation effort. The change will definitely cost more, but how much will not be clear until the city or its pension funds perform an actuarial calculation. Ferguson said based on the federation's 'back of the envelope' math, the fix creates a rising annual cost that will top out at $750 million by the 2050s and add billions to the funds' long-term liabilities. 'It came late, mostly under cover of night, within the context of what was an utter whirlwind at the end of session,' Ferguson told the Tribune, noting the proposals were tucked in amid language to ensure children of deceased service members receive part of their parents' pension benefits. 'It's curious and it's troubling that something of this magnitude was able to fly by without there being more meaningful discussion of its near- and long-term impact,' Ferguson said, especially from Chicago legislators. Martwick filed the language as a gut-and-replace amendment in the last week of the spring legislative session. Lawmakers considered the legislation in a Senate committee a day later, and House lawmakers both discussed the matter in committee and passed the bill on the floor on the final day of the session. Moving massive bills in the final days of spring session is often the norm in Springfield, which also saw lawmakers publicly introduce and pass a $55 billion budget package within days of adjournment this year. 'It's important to underscore that the City was given very limited time to respond and was unable to conduct a fully validated, in-depth analysis before the hearing and the bill's passage — despite the fact that the legislation will have significant and lasting implications for the City,' a spokesperson for Jaworski said. Given the city knew the adjustment was a possibility years ago, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Kifowit said it was 'disingenuous' to suggest the bill came at the last minute. The Oswego lawmaker and bill sponsor pointed to video-gaming terminals as a potential funding source. State lawmakers repeatedly throughout the legislative session called for the city to use terminals to resolve its funding needs, but Chicago currently doesn't allow them. Critics fear terminals would cannibalize revenues at Bally's casino, which are already dedicated to public safety pensions. 'Their lack of movement on providing revenues for pensions is, to me, not compelling enough to disenfranchise the Chicago Police Department and the benefits that they rightly deserve,' Kifowit said of the city. State Sen. Li Arellano Jr., a Republican from Dixon and a former mayor of Dixon, was the lone 'no' vote when the bill went through the Senate Pensions Committee on May 28, a few days before the legislature adjourned. Given the low funding levels of Chicago's pensions, Arellano said he could not in good conscience 'say, yes, let's throw more debt onto Chicago taxpayers.' 'But since it was Chicago taxpayers footing this particular bill, there was a lot less resistance to it in the Senate,' he continued. No lawmaker, including Arellano, voted against the changes when they came up in the full Senate or full House. 'I think (what's challenging) for the Republican caucus is if none of the senators representing the city of Chicago itself had a problem with it, I think a lot in the Republican caucus said, 'Well, if this is what all of the voices representing Chicago want to do, who are we to disagree with them?''

Habitat for Humanity builds homes at old McKinley Elementary site
Habitat for Humanity builds homes at old McKinley Elementary site

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Habitat for Humanity builds homes at old McKinley Elementary site

PEORIA, Ill (WMBD) — There's still time for low-to-moderate income families to apply to live in houses that will be built on the site of the former McKinley Elementary School. The South Peoria school, long vacant, was torn down in 2023 and could soon be the location of three new homes, built by Habitat for Humanity Greater Peoria. And that's just the beginning. Within five years, there could several more homes on that lot. Habitat for Humanity received a Community Housing Development Organization grant totaling $445,000 and a $500,000 Community Project Funding grant 'We're excited for the families. We have a lot of applications and it's going to be tough to, you know, to make decisions on who's going to be our first homeowners. But we're just really encouraged that the amount of interest in our houses,' said Lea Anne Schmidgall, the group's executive director. To apply, go to the group's website. The rebirth of the site, located at 1201 W. Adrian G. Hinton Ave., could be a boon for South Peoria. McKinley shuttered years ago and has largely sat empty. Past plans to renovate it fell through and the buildings deteriorated to the point where they were deemed unsafe. Although, final details on construction are still being worked out. The homes are built by volunteers and take anywhere from 18 to 21 weeks to complete, she said. And for those who are worried, Schmidgall says Habitat goes out of its way to make home ownership a quality, hassle-free, affordable experience for families searching for a home. 'A Habitat for Humanity Home is brand new. Everything is warranted. We stand behind it. You know that you're getting a safe, affordable home that's top quality made,' she said. First district Peoria city councilperson Denise Jackson shared a text message to WMBD about what this development means for the south side. 'We are excited about home ownership returning to that area. It is just the beginning of the redevelopment process that we hope will bring decent, affordable housing into the South Side of Peoria,' Jackson said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store