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5/21/2013
According to a 2009 study conducted by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 42 percent of Michigan’s charter schools outperformed traditional public schools in math and 35 percent outperformed them in reading.
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5/21/2013
Medicaid patients are more likely than the uninsured to use emergency rooms, especially for preventable conditions.
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5/20/2013
Illinois continues to have the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ April labor report.
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5/20/2013
Residents of Oak Lawn may soon get a much-needed dose of government transparency.
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5/19/2013
The union and the district both deserve credit for releasing their contract to the media just two days after reaching a tentative agreement – giving teachers and the public plenty of time to look the thing over before it is ratified and signed.
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5/19/2013
Durbin singled out Crossroads GPS and other 501(c)(4)s for extra IRS scrutiny just a few weeks before the 2010 election for President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.
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5/18/2013
Americans for Prosperity compiled a list of tax increases associated with Obamacare, and union workers in particular are staring at a whopper in a few years – a hefty tax on premium health insurance plans that could easily cost them $1,000 per year.
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5/17/2013
Starting next year, the mayor will begin a three-year phase out of the coverage, at which time affected retired workers will have to pay for their own health insurance or seek ObamaCare subsidies from the ObamaCare exchange.
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5/17/2013
According to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times, a new DePaul basketball arena would be largely funded by taxpayers.
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5/17/2013
The union said Lewis received an "overwhelming 80 percent of the votes" cast, according to a preliminary tally of the votes.
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5/16/2013
This initiative, Senate Bill 1670, has its roots a 2011 study from the Illinois Policy Institute, which focused on pay disparities between government and private sector workers.
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5/16/2013
The Chicago Teachers Union has announced plans to file a lawsuit to prevent the closure of about 50 Chicago Public Schools buildings.
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5/15/2013
In Cleveland, school district and teachers union officials just agreed to what might be a groundbreaking contract that promotes performance in the classroom.
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5/15/2013
When Chicago Public Schools first announced that it was closing schools, the primary justification it gave was to save money – upward of $500,000 to $800,000 per school. It needed the money to address the looming pension cliff the city is facing next year
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5/15/2013
Every once in a while, government in Illinois actually gets smaller.
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5/15/2013
Illinois has the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate.
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5/14/2013
With more Illinoisans still looking for work or dropping out of the labor force altogether, the number of people dependent on food stamps keeps rising.
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5/13/2013
What revenue problem? Illinois’ revenue at all time high
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5/13/2013
IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications.
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5/10/2013
Emanuel, on the other hand, remains at loggerheads with the AFT-affiliated Chicago Teachers Union.
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5/10/2013
Illinois has the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate. At 9.5 percent, it’s two percentage points higher than the national average of 7.5 percent.
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5/10/2013
Illinois Retired Teachers Association says it will sue even if the most wimpy pension reform bill – backed by the government worker unions – becomes law.
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5/9/2013
In Illinois and many other states, government workers are often forced to pay union dues in order to hold on to their jobs. But a lawsuit filed on behalf of teachers in California may bring this practice to an end.
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5/9/2013
Illinois’ income tax revenue for 2013 will exceed previous forecasts by $1.3B. But revenue isn’t higher because Illinois’ economy is booming; the revenue is higher than expected as a result of businesses and individuals avoiding higher federal taxes
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5/8/2013
ChiefExecutive.net’s 2013 Best and Worst States for Business, which surveys CEOs across the nation, found Illinois in the basement, at 48th.
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5/7/2013
The city of Chicago is currently considering bids to select a private management company for the operation of Midway Airport for the next 40 years.
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5/6/2013
Illinois is notorious for not paying its bills on time. The state’s total backlog of unpaid bills exceeds $9 billion. And the state comptroller is sitting on more than 89,000 unpaid bills.
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5/6/2013
We should care because Perry may succeed in rustling up some jobs and driving them south to the land of tumbleweeds, armadillos and rattlesnakes.
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5/3/2013
There are plenty of reasons to oppose trapping more Illinoisans in a broken Medicaid program, but Moody's has given the state one more: expanding Medicaid will lead to credit downgrades. Illinois already has the worst credit rating in the nation.
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5/3/2013
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the national unemployment rate declined to 7.5 percent in April from 7.6 percent in March. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April, up from a revised 138,000 payroll jobs in March.
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5/2/2013
Illinois Speaker Michael Madigan’s pension proposal (House Amendment #1 to Senate Bill 1) perpetuates Illinois’ crisis.
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5/1/2013
Gov. Pat Quinn just hiked my property taxes. And, if you're younger than 65 years old, he just hiked your property taxes too.
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4/30/2013
The blame for Illinois’ pension crisis is often laid at the feet of state politicians who supposedly “skipped” payments and caused the state’s five pension systems to be underfunded.
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4/29/2013
States that don’t have an income tax manage to stay out of the red, and many are even operating with budget surpluses. Texas, for example, currently foresees and $8.8 billion surplus over its current two-year budget cycle.
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4/29/2013
A study from professors at the University of Chicago and Lake Forest College showed that Illinois communities with TIF districts “grew substantially slower than non-adopters.”
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4/29/2013
The new owners of Hostess Brands are preparing to restart the production of Twinkies, Ho Hos and all those other sugary treats. Among the plants they plan to reopen is the one in the Chicago suburb of Schiller Park.
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4/27/2013
Sunshine State offers Illinois businesses a brighter future
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4/27/2013
The Senate Executive Committee voted Wednesday in favor of a bill some have described as a “puppy lemon law.”
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4/26/2013
McDonough County Judge Rodney Clark said it is "not logical to have a person receive more than 50 percent of the vote but yet, not be the winner. This is not how America decides who should be elected."
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4/26/2013
The average unemployment rate for states without an income tax is 6.6 percent. Illinois has the nation’s second-highest unemployment rate – ringing in at 9.5 percent, or nearly three full percentage points higher than states that don’t tax income.
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4/25/2013
The Illinois House took another step in the wrong direction last week by passing an amendment to House Bill 494, which institutes a one-year moratorium on new charter schools with virtual learning components located outside of Chicago.
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4/25/2013
Sally Jo Widmer, who had been the long-time president of the Auburn Teachers Association, was found to have siphoned off $800,000 from the union.
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4/24/2013
April 25 marks Illinois’ Tax Freedom Day. This day commemorates the point in 2013 when Illinoisans have worked enough to cover the rising cost of federal, state and local government.
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4/22/2013
A growing percentage of taxpayers owe nothing in income taxes after accounting for credits and deductions.
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4/22/2013
The city of Dixon made international news last year after a public corruption scandal broke, revealing the city’s comptroller stole more than $53 million from local taxpayers.
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4/22/2013
With union organizers actively pursuing the unionization of United Neighborhood Organization, or UNO, charter schools, it is extremely important that teachers understand how the process works. You have the right to support a union; and you have the right
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4/19/2013
The progressive tax, medical marijuana and multidistrict virtual charter schools
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4/19/2013
Under the agreement, union organizers would be allowed to make their pitch for unionizing to teachers on school property, and would even be given personal information for teachers.
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4/19/2013
After tax credits and deductions are taken into account, the effective tax rate for top earners is more than twice the national average – further proof that the tax burden is most definitely progressive.
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4/18/2013
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced a proposal on Wednesday to spend $12.62 billion over the next six years on transportation projects.
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4/18/2013
Federal authorities have raided Sacred Heart Hospital on Chicago’s West Side after alleged crimes of medically unnecessary sedation, intubation and tracheotomy procedures on patients in an attempt to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.
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4/18/2013
Moody’s is set to require states and local governments to use more transparent and realistic accounting rules when they report their true pension obligations. And that means Illinois’ debt and underfunding numbers will skyrocket.
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4/18/2013
The Illinois Department of Employment Security announced today that the Illinois unemployment rate remained at 9.5 percent in March. Three months ago it was 8.6 percent.
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4/18/2013
Illinois’ current state excise taxes per gallon of beer ($0.23), wine ($1.39) and spirits ($8.55) are higher than most neighboring states.
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4/17/2013
After several hours of debate, the city council voted 6-3 to raise the sales tax from 8 percent to 8.5 percent to repay an $86.6 million, 15-year bond issue to finance the three-year infrastructure program.
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4/17/2013
Texas Gov. Rick Perry wrote a letter to businesses in Illinois, offering them a way to escape the state’s dire fiscal mess and punishing business climate – move to Texas.
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4/16/2013
Early last week, members of the Illinois House Education Committee voted to allow an amendment to House Bill 494, which aims to establish a three-year moratorium on virtual schools in Illinois, to go to the House floor.
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4/16/2013
Forty-four years ago this week, Illinois began collecting a state income tax.
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4/15/2013
The 67 percent tax hike on individuals and the 46 percent tax hike on corporations were supposed to pay down the state’s unpaid bills, but instead 80 cents out of every tax hike dollar went to fund state worker pensions in 2012.
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4/15/2013
The good news: today state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, introduced a measure that opposes efforts to pass the next multibillion dollar tax hike in Illinois – a progressive income tax.
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4/13/2013
If there was any confusion over whether the income tax burden is progressive or regressive in the United States, a recent report by the Tax Foundation, “Putting a Face on American’s Tax Returns,” clears things up.
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4/12/2013
There is precedent for fratricide between unions and their progressive allies, and the aftermath of a labor-versus-the-left donnybrook could very well create an opportunity for a free market oriented reformer.
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4/12/2013
Lawmakers have not earned the right to borrow billions more. They were unable to pay down the state’s massive backlog of bills with a $7 billion tax hike – how does anyone think they’ll be able to do it with $2.5 billion in borrowing?
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4/12/2013
Institute works with Metra to improve government transparency as a way to increase accountability and to deter public corruption.
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4/12/2013
Counties across Illinois reject school facility sales tax hikes.
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4/12/2013
Making sure we identify poor teachers and have them exit the teaching profession should be of the utmost importance. This is because teachers, by far, have the single biggest impact on student success.
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4/11/2013
Corruption charges have rocked the city of Dixon once in the last year, but now a second scandal caused by a lack of online transparency has reared its ugly head.
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4/11/2013
Politicians on this side of the Atlantic, especially in Illinois, would do well to consider Margaret Thatcher’s example.
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4/10/2013
The price of Illinois’ bad behavior continues to go up.
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4/10/2013
The study, drawing upon data from more than 7,000 small business owners, provides new insights into state and local business environments across the nation.
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4/10/2013
For governments like the ones in Stockton and Illinois, government worker pension plans need ambitious investment returns of nearly 8 percent year in and year out to fund the overly generous benefits officials have handed out
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4/9/2013
Voters in Macomb might feel a little bit of déjà vu when they look at their ballots on Tuesday and see Kay Hill and Steven Wailand vying for the second district alderman seat.
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4/9/2013
Late last year Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that his 2013 budget wouldn’t rely on new tax, fines or fees.
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4/9/2013
A recent amendment to House Bill 494 is aiming to establish a three-year moratorium on virtual schools in Illinois. The amendment was introduced by state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, who represents one of the districts that would under the charter.
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4/9/2013
Caterpillar Inc., one of the dozens of companies to receive special tax breaks after Illinois’ record 2011 income tax hike, recently announced plans to lay off more than 460 employees this June at its plant in Decatur.
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4/8/2013
I want to speak to you today about the rebirth of a nation: our nation.
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4/6/2013
Too bad Puerto Rico isn’t a state. If it were, Puerto Rico, and not Illinois, would have the nation’s worst-funded pension system and the country’s worst credit rating.
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4/6/2013
Back in February, Illinois Senate Democrats pushed through Senate Bill 26, which would impose ObamaCare’s massive expansion of Medicaid on Illinois.
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4/5/2013
The Illinois Education Association, or IEA, is training its members to advocate for a plan that, ironically, increases taxes on teachers.
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4/5/2013
Illinoisans should keep an eye on Michigan, where a new Right-to-Work law has now gone into effect.
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4/5/2013
The US economy created only 88,000 jobs in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The market was expecting approximately 200,000 new payroll jobs.
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4/5/2013
Check any dictionary and the definition of “majority” seems pretty self-explanatory: it is simply a greater quantity or share.
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4/5/2013
In January 2012, the Illinois Auditor General’s office set up a fraud hotline to provide Illinoisans a way to sound the alarm on corruption. After all, Illinois is the third-most corrupt state in America.
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4/4/2013
To tax-hungry politicians, the Internet is like California in 1849 — a vast expanse of untapped wealth.
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4/4/2013
the overall trend indicates that The Illinois public university system is getting worse in complying with state and federal laws, leaving the system vulnerable to future cases of public corruption.
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4/3/2013
The Mercatus Center, which conducts market-oriented research at George Mason University, released a study ranking the 50 states based on whether or not government polices promote fiscal and personal freedoms.
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4/3/2013
With nearly 300,000 residents, Stockton is the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy. It is also one of several California cities to file for bankruptcy due to the recession and skyrocketing government worker pension costs.
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4/3/2013
WBEZ in Chicago has published one of the more incomplete stories on charter schools I’ve read in a long time. It asserts: Charter advocates and even the Chicago Tribune editorial board say 19,000 kids are on charter school waiting lists in the city.
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4/2/2013
For union officials, self-preservation and the desire to avoid accountability to workers trumps their desire to maintain defined benefit pensions; they were willing to dump those pensions to continue mandatory dues.
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4/2/2013
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia announced that Illinois is one of two states that experienced economic decline during the past three months
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4/2/2013
When Jeremy Segal attempted to approach CTU President Karen Lewis and activist Jesse Jackson to ask about radical groups that were present at the rally, union members and officials blocked the correspondent off and forced him away.
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4/1/2013
Labor unions have a virtual lock on Illinois politics. Unionized government delivers services ever-less efficiently in rough proportion to its ever-increasing size.
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3/31/2013
Another 35,000 added to unemployment in February
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3/30/2013
After Chicago Public Schools officials gave notice that the district would be closing 54 schools and a total of 61 buildings, Chicago Teachers Union leaders were quick to decry the move, citing concern for students and fear of ruining neighborhoods.
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3/30/2013
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, is a freshman state legislator from the home of the infamous Rita Crundwell, the former Dixon Comptroller.
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3/29/2013
Karen Lewis basically accused the CPS board and Mayor Rahm Emanuel of racism.
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3/29/2013
It’s about time we let those we elect know that we can take care of ourselves.
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3/28/2013
Illinois once was a great state. Home to a vibrant economy, the country’s top businesses and a thriving metropolis. It was a magnate for entrepreneurs and immigrants alike.
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3/28/2013
Chicagoans are ready for education reform.
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3/27/2013
When it comes to taxes, politicians like to be sneaky.
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3/27/2013
By now you’ve probably heard that Chicago Public Schools will be closing 54 schools – and 61 buildings total.
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3/27/2013
“Chicago Public Schools on Thursday announced the largest school shakeup in the nation: closing 54 schools and 61 buildings, jostling 30,000 kids and leaving the future of more than 1,000 teachers unclear
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3/27/2013
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, or BEA, announced today that Illinois ranked 42nd in personal income growth in 2012.
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3/25/2013
Late last year California passed a bill that implemented what some would like to call “sweeping government worker pension reforms.”
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3/25/2013
With the downturn in the economy, you’ll occasionally hear stories about thieves who steal public property – such as manhole covers – and sell the materials to scrap yards.
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3/23/2013
Three years after the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA, we are beginning to suffer its painful consequences.
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3/22/2013
In the game of state competitiveness, Illinois lags the nation. Poor policy decisions continue to sap economic activity and ruin opportunities for businesses operating in Illinois.
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3/22/2013
After all, there is a basic democratic principle in play: An informed citizenry can hold its government in check. But how can we hold Quinn accountable if the information we receive is only what he chooses to share?
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3/21/2013
More than 10,000 students across Idaho will be using Khan Academy, the successful Internet education organization, in their classroom this coming school year.
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3/21/2013
137 chances to vote against tax increases on April 9
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3/21/2013
March Madness is upon us and Illinois should be disappointed in its seed. Illinois has tremendous talent and resources, yet still loses to the likes of Indiana and Wisconsin.
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3/21/2013
Job growth is also anemic in the state. Illinois added 12,400 jobs last month. That’s a growth rate of only 0.2 percent from the previous month.
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3/21/2013
In case you missed it, a couple of days ago journalist Dave McKinney of the Chicago Sun-Times put together an interesting history lesson on how the state of Illinois wound up committing securities fraud.
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3/20/2013
A new multidistrict virtual school could be coming to the Fox River Valley. K12, one of the largest online learning companies in the country, is currently traveling across Illinois in the hope of getting 18 school districts to approve its charter.
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3/20/2013
Call representatives and ask them to vote for real reform – ask them to vote for HB 3303.
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3/20/2013
The law doesn’t require these negotiations to be closed; instead, government officials are deliberately choosing to close them.
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3/19/2013
Sangamon County Circuit Court Associate Judge Stephen Nardulli dealt a blow today to government employee unions who have long contended that retiree health benefits are protected by the Illinois Constitution.
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3/18/2013
Under the Edgar ramp, Illinois' fiscal year 2014 pension contribution was projected to be $3.7 billion. The actual contribution for fiscal year 2014 will be $6.8 billion — nearly twice as much as what was predicted.
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3/18/2013
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms Illinois’ unemployment rate continues to slide.
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3/18/2013
Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, announced recently that it will make a shift next fiscal year to a funding system that gives schools a certain amount of money per student instead of per position as it currently does.
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3/17/2013
Illinois already has the fourth-highest minimum wage in the nation and is one of 19 states with a minimum wage higher than the federal rate of $7.25 per hour.
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3/16/2013
Illinois loses one resident every 10 minutes to net out-migration.
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3/15/2013
Illinois failed to inform investors about the impact of problems with its pension funding schedule as the state offered and sold more than $2.2 billion worth of municipal bonds from 2005 to early 2009
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3/15/2013
When McFadden started her business eight years ago, all she had was $37 and a thirst for competition and success.
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3/15/2013
Illinois has a serious corruption problem. Illinois is ranked as the third-most corrupt state in the country.
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3/15/2013
March 15, the ides of March, is the one-year anniversary of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich heading to prison.
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3/14/2013
Illinois Senate Republicans released a new report Tuesday outlining the disproportionate share of education funding Chicago receives.
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3/13/2013
Now, the Health and Human Services Department has released a draft application for individuals interested in signing up for ObamaCare coverage – and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture of things to come.
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3/13/2013
The more you know about the recent contract between the state and Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the less there is to like.
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3/12/2013
Illinoisans look on Jim Edgar with fondness – probably because he is part of that minority of living Illinois governors who didn’t end up in prison.
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3/12/2013
State Rep. Michael Connelly, R-Wheaton, has introduced a parallel bill in the Illinois General Assembly. It provides a tax credit to corporations in a similar manner to Rubio’s Education Opportunities Act.
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3/9/2013
Alderman Ed Burke and his colleagues are here – with a proposed ordinance that would institute a citywide ban on energy drinks.
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3/8/2013
As today's labor release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows, Illinois' unemployment rate jumped to 9 percent.
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3/8/2013
Some of the tone of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s rhetoric was a move in the right direction during his budget address; but his strategy and plan for execution didn’t match.
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3/7/2013
Because Illinois has no more pressing problem than the consumption of lion meat.
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3/6/2013
With this year’s budget speech just a day away, details of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s plans to deal with the state’s financial problems are slowly leaking to the press.
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3/6/2013
Dedicated educators who have spent their careers teaching our children now find themselves caught in a failing pension system.
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3/6/2013
As Gov. Pat Quinn delivers his fifth annual budget proposal today, it’s important to review the governor’s track record and what his policies have meant for Illinois.
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3/6/2013
Even though Gov. Quinn's proposed $35.6 billion fiscal year 2014 budget would spend more than ever before, he was very keen to note that discretionary spending is "less than it was in 2008, before I took office."
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3/5/2013
Imagine a football game where the referees threw flags and called out penalties, but never actually marked off the yardage.
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3/5/2013
The convoluted process of figuring out a unionized state government employee’s wages is a prime example of why the collective bargaining process needs more sunshine.
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3/4/2013
Senate Democrats pushed through Senate Bill 26, which would impose ObamaCare’s massive expansion of Medicaid on Illinois, on Feb. 28. The bill passed on a party-line vote.
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3/4/2013
The 2013 legislative session is in full swing and there are a number of good government reform bills that have been introduced by legislators of both parties.
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3/4/2013
Budget Solutions 2014 is the fifth annual alternative state budget plan introduced by the Illinois Policy Institute. The Institute’s Government Affairs team has been working hard to garner support for our reforms among state legislators.
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3/1/2013
Higher taxes won’t fix Illinois’ dire economic situation. That’s because Illinois doesn’t have a revenue problem - it has a spending problem.
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3/1/2013
Health nuts and anti-tobacco fanatics, get out your streamers and champagne: Cook County’s new $1 per pack cigarette tax hike goes into effect today.
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3/1/2013
“Illinois will lose approximately $33.4 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 460 teacher and aide jobs at risk.”
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3/1/2013
Gov. Pat Quinn managed to avoid a government worker strike, but that doesn’t spell success.
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2/28/2013
Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced a few minutes ago that they have reached a tentative agreement with the state of Illinois.
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2/27/2013
School choice should be the foundation of any successful school system. This includes learning options of all kinds, including online learning, private schools, charter schools, homeschooling and more.
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2/25/2013
The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, or CTPF, lost money last year.
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2/25/2013
Illinois state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, has proposed legislation to try to address the state’s pension crisis by permanently locking in the "temporary" 2011 67% income tax increase.
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2/22/2013
$0.80 of every tax-hike dollar went to pay government worker pensions in 2012.
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2/22/2013
Despite revenues to state government being the highest in the Illinois’ 195-year history, the state has $9.3 billion in unpaid bills.
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2/20/2013
Though most of the attention Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, has received since he delivered the Republican response to the president’s State of the Union speech has been about his bad timing when taking a drink of water.
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2/20/2013
The Herald and Review has managed to get ahold of a new bulletin from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, to its members.
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2/18/2013
All too often here in the Land of Lincoln, our political leaders fail to lead by example.
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2/16/2013
Statistics show Illinois is a high-tax state. Ironically, advocates of tax hikes across the state often argue that Illinois is a low-tax state. The people have a right to know the truth about Illinois’ tax environment.
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2/15/2013
When destitute people die in Illinois, the state often pays for their funeral and burial expenses.
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2/15/2013
Both Gov. Pat Quinn and President Barack Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage when they made their respective State of the State and State of the Union speeches.
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2/15/2013
Officials are hot on the tracks of another menace threatening the well-being of Illinoisans: sugary drinks.
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2/14/2013
Today, former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell was sentenced to 235 months – more than 19.5 years in prison.
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2/13/2013
The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, Council 31 sent a message to its employees last week urging them to prepare for a walkout.
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2/13/2013
In a joint press conference today in Chicago, Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced the federal government’s approval of a federal-state partnership ObamaCare insurance exchange in Illinois, in accordan
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2/12/2013
Sometimes it seems Gov. Pat Quinn vacillates more than a pendulum on a grandfather clock.
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2/11/2013
Recent calculations have put the total level of states’ unfunded pension debt at more than $2.5 trillion.
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2/8/2013
Although Illinois law currently prohibits the ObamaCare expansion until at least 2015, SB 26 would change the law in order to expand the failed Medicaid program.
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2/8/2013
Would taking economics courses help politicians make better fiscal decisions?
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2/8/2013
Faced with the prospect of lean financial times, the West Chicago Elementary District 33 school board decided it would be prudent to reduce automatic annual pay increases and lengthen the amount of time it takes for teachers to reach the top of pay scale
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2/8/2013
If you owed more than $30,000 on your credit cards and were strapped for cash, would you spend $1,500 on a new home entertainment system?
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2/8/2013
The state’s largest employee union is urging its members to be prepared for the possibility of a strike.
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2/7/2013
In Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State address, he said, “In our Illinois, small business means big business. Driving economic growth for small businesses requires doing all we can to make sure government is not in the way.”
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2/7/2013
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel may finally do what he and other politicians should have done a long time ago: end costly health insurance benefits paid to city retirees.
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2/5/2013
Facts you won't hear during Gov. Quinn's State of the State 2013 address
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2/4/2013
With the Chicago Teachers Union waging a largely successful strike against the Chicago Public Schools, it is entirely predictable that other public school unions, and maybe other government employee unions, will want to follow their example.
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2/4/2013
Have you ever wondered what
investments politicians have made
using teachers’ retirement savings?
If you haven’t, you should be
interested.
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2/2/2013
Become an expert at rating Super Bowl commercials. Download the "Laugh, think, do" index template here.
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2/1/2013
Remember this testy exchange from March 2012, when a rep from the governor’s office insisted to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney that Illinois was getting an “an unheard of interest rate” when it came to borrowing?
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2/1/2013
Charter schools are at the forefront of evaluating teacher effectiveness.
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2/1/2013
State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, recently proposed to implement another income tax hike in Illinois is gaining interest across the state. A progressive income tax increases taxes on individuals more as they make more money.
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2/1/2013
In January, Standard and Poor’s upgraded California’s credit rating to A from A-, an action the rating agency said resulted from the state’s “improved fiscal condition.”
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2/1/2013
A city ordinance that allows only food trucks run by “licensed food establishments,” such as brick-and-mortar restaurants, to operate there. Jim and Gabriel do not own a restaurant in Evanston, so they cannot qualify for a license.
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2/1/2013
In 2010, the Illinois Legislature passed a pension bill that cut retirement benefits for new teachers. Both of the state’s major public school teachers unions said at the time that it would make it harder for Illinois schools to recruit educators.
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1/31/2013
YCCS, one of the 22 campus sites, prides itself on accommodating students’ individual needs by matching their educational level upon matriculation with a uniquely tailored, innovative learning environment.
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1/31/2013
According to union financial reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, there are more than 120 employees of the Illinois Education Association, or IEA, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, or IFT, earning more than $100,000.
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1/30/2013
This morning Illinois was forced to delay a $500 million bond sale – essentially, borrowing $500 million to finance state government operations. The delay was due to a drop in lender confidence in Illinois’ credit worthiness.
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1/30/2013
Economy shrinks for first time since recession ends
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1/30/2013
Organizations such as School of One – which operates a math program at three New York City public middle schools – are proving that innovation can occur in a public education system that is resistant to change.
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1/29/2013
Over the weekend, the Peoria Journal Star published a letter to the editor from an elementary school principal in downstate Illinois.
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1/29/2013
Choice means giving parents the right to decide which educational option is best for their children, whether it be public schools, charter schools, private schools, online learning or homeschooling.
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1/29/2013
Standard and Poor’s Rating Services just dropped Illinois’ credit rating to A- from A. There is not another state in the union with credit as lousy as ours. We are worse off than California.
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1/28/2013
The time for passing a “Truth-in-Collective Bargaining Act” is long overdue.
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1/28/2013
On Jan. 25, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded Illinois' credit to A- from A.
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1/25/2013
What would happen if state officials had their paychecks suspended until the state paid all of its past due bills? State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, thinks it would help the Illinois Legislature find a solution to the state's budget problems.
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1/25/2013
State law doesn’t allow for the lawmaker, who entered the upper chamber in 2008, to drop out of the system.
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1/24/2013
Illinois has a spending problem. Spending per capita has grown nearly three times faster than it would have under a responsible spending limit – one tied to the growth of inflation and population.
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1/23/2013
In the aftermath of this month’s scramble to pass something – anything – that politicians could call pension reform, here’s the most important reason why taxpayers should be grateful the Nekritz-Biss plan was shelved: the “funding guarantee.”
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1/23/2013
“Grayslake” sounds like a great place for a mystery. It could be the name of a mansion overlooking a foggy moor upon which a wealthy young heiress was found dead of arsenic poisoning among half a dozen acquaintances, all with serious grudges.
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1/21/2013
Is your wallet a little thinner these days?
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1/18/2013
Illinois’ pension systems are one year closer to complete insolvency.
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1/18/2013
An open records request to the governor's office revealed the only new cost for the entire website was a $23 purchase to reserve domain names at GoDaddy.com.
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1/18/2013
Aside from crime, spending and transportation, Chicago leaders are looking to take a hard line – on energy drinks
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1/17/2013
Illinois’ education financing system is rife with poorly designed policies.
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1/17/2013
Gov. Pat Quinn’s Office of Management and Budget recently released its three-year budget projections for Illinois’ General Fund. According to the report, Illinois will end fiscal year 2013 with a $242 million budget surplus.
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1/17/2013
The holidays are over and kids have been back in school for weeks. But students in Grayslake District 46 are back at home now that teachers are on strike.
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1/16/2013
Yesterday, the Institute presented a certificate of achievement to the Hanover Township board of trustees in recognition of their efforts on website transparency.
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1/15/2013
How confident do you feel that Illinois will be able to pay its bills in 2013 and beyond?
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1/15/2013
We keep looking for leadership – and we keep ending up with politics.
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1/14/2013
This was the running theme during Illinois' recent lame duck session: Pass anything.
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1/14/2013
Although the pension fund for state employees predicted it would earn $850 million in fiscal year 2012, it actually earned less than $6 million. The fund posted an investment return of just 0.05 percent, far below the 7.75 percent it expected.
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1/14/2013
Learn more about the disadvantages of a progressive income tax.
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1/11/2013
With the last procedural hurdles cleared, Senate Bill 1556, also known as the "management" bill, will be presented to Gov. Pat Quinn and is expected to receive his signature.
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1/11/2013
Illinois’ credit rating received a warning today from Fitch Ratings. What Fitch cited as the “ongoing inability of the state to address its large and growing unfunded pension liability” means a rating downgrade is likely unless reforms are passed within s
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1/11/2013
Two years ago, the average family started forking over an additional $1,500 from their annual pay due to higher taxes.
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1/10/2013
During a lame duck session two years ago, the Illinois General Assembly passed a 67 percent income tax increase on all Illinois families. When the bill was filed in early 2011, almost no one knew of its existence.
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1/9/2013
The Illinois Policy Institute has long warned that Illinois’ high-tax environment hurts the state’s economy. Prior to the 2011 income tax hike, we sounded the alarm that higher taxes would cause people and businesses to leave the state.
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1/9/2013
We often hear stories from Illinoisans who find comfort in knowing others are working to advance liberty in our state — some are shocked to learn such a community exists and that it is ranked #1 among State Policy Network organizations.
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1/8/2013
None of the plans Illinois lawmakers are considering will go anywhere near solving the state’s long-term pension crisis.
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1/8/2013
For years annual pension costs have been crowding out spending on education, health care and public safety. Now, Illinois legislators are looking to lock that in.
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1/7/2013
Earlier today, the House Appropriations-Human Services Committee heard House Bill 6253. This bill would impose ObamaCare's massive expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Illinois.
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1/7/2013
The newest education fight in Chicago is over school closings.
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1/6/2013
Sometimes it seems politicians and lobbyists pack in more flip-flops than a busload of college kids heading off on spring break.
Principles are shorn. Taxpayers are fleeced.
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1/6/2013
On Friday, state Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, a Republican from Park Ridge, signed onto ObamaCare's expansion. She, too, voted for the moratorium on expanding the program earlier this year.
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1/6/2013
A major component of the Nekritz-Biss pension proposal is a funding guarantee for pension payments. The proposal says:
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1/4/2013
Not only is it optional for states to establish an exchange, but states that defer to a federal exchange will also save upward of $100 million annually in exchange costs.
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1/4/2013
Legislation to temporarily avoid the fiscal cliff was supposed to be a move toward comprehensive tax reform. It was the opposite. The deal included dozens of corporate tax breaks that will cost taxpayers billions.
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1/3/2013
Members of the Illinois General Assembly are among the highest-paid state legislators in the country.
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1/3/2013
Members of the Illinois General Assembly are among the highest-paid state legislators in the country.
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1/2/2013
After four years in office, you have yet to provide a detailed proposal for how to reform the pension system. Oh, sure, there have been press releases and bullet-point presentations but nothing detailed enough to present to the Legislature as your solutio
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1/2/2013
Illinois' five public pension systems are broke. The systems are expected to pay out more than $600 billion between now and 2045, but have just $62 billion in the bank.
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12/30/2012
Key issues that we expect to be brought up during January’s special session
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12/29/2012
Despite higher taxes, union strikes and apocalyptic predictions, we’ve survived 2012 – though our bank accounts are worse for the wear.
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12/29/2012
It is a fairly standard piece of Alinskyite strategy: make the argument about personalities rather than principles or results. Find an enemy and make the whole fight about him or her or it.
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12/27/2012
Wouldn't it be nice to earn 7 to 8 percent interest on money you don't have in the bank?
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12/27/2012
Imagine an Illinois economy so vibrant that companies felt they had to be in Illinois to reach their fullest potential.
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12/26/2012
A number of the new municipal laws going into effect for 2013 are related to increasing government transparency. These new laws include:
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12/26/2012
Another one of the state’s five pension systems has posted negative investment returns for 2012, highlighting yet again the problems caused by Illinois’ politician-controlled defined-benefit plans using taxpayers as a backstop.
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12/23/2012
Illinois state government has 230 programs that provide state funds to nearly 7,000 units of local government in Illinois. The largest 11 programs alone provide more than $13 billion to local governments.
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12/23/2012
Our team compiled a list of our favorite Christmas movies.
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12/21/2012
Illinois’ unemployment fell to 8.7 percent in November from 8.8 percent in October, adding 16,400 new payroll jobs.
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12/20/2012
The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book highlights nearly 200 examples of wasteful government spending totaling more than $354 million.
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12/20/2012
The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book highlights nearly 200 examples of wasteful government spending totaling more than $354 million.
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12/19/2012
In the mid-1990s, Illinois lawmakers were facing a serious problem: the unfunded liability of the state’s five public pension systems. By 1996, the state’s unfunded pension liability stood at $20 billion.
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12/18/2012
State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, state Rep. Daniel Biss and several of their rank-and-file colleagues recently unveiled a new pension reform proposal.
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12/18/2012
It is a basic axiom of government collective bargaining: If you have to bargain with a union about anything, you are liable to have to bargain with them about everything, and that includes things that you aren’t supposed to bargain about at all.
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12/15/2012
In the last two years, our Midwest neighbors in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan have curtailed the power of labor unions.
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12/15/2012
Yes, Quinn’s latest pension video is rather amateurish.
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12/14/2012
As the pension debacle threatens to engulf Illinois, legislators continue to fiddle.
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12/13/2012
Not many people have part-time jobs that offer pension benefits, and fewer still receive ones as generous as those Illinois lawmakers have provided themselves.
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12/13/2012
In my third Right-to-Work post, I’ll explain why unions are so unhappy with what’s happening in Michigan and why workers stand to benefit.
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12/12/2012
Is the IRS barking up the wrong tree?
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12/12/2012
If you’ve ever heard Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis give a speech, you know she has a thing for Finland.
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12/12/2012
Michigan is now the 24th state to give individuals the right not to join a union through Right-to-Work legislation.
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12/12/2012
Things still aren't looking up for the Teachers' Retirement System, or TRS. You'll remember that it earned a dismal 0.76 percent return on its investments in fiscal year 2012, after predicting 8.5 percent returns.
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12/11/2012
Union support is strongly tilted toward the Democratic Party, with GOP elected officials receiving only $0.25 for every dollar going to Democratic elected officials
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12/11/2012
Providing entertainment may seem like a far cry from an essential government service, but not in Illinois.
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12/10/2012
Quinn has already wasted nearly $200 million by refusing to exercise his responsibility under the law. Every day that he fails to act, he wastes another $1.2 million.
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12/10/2012
Michigan is poised to pass a Right-to-Work law in the next couple of days. Union protesters are staked out at the Capitol building making their anti-Right-to-Work opinions known.
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12/9/2012
Springfield has a mother-may-I culture in which major legislative initiatives are not launched without the blessing of one of the caucus leaders.
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12/7/2012
The national unemployment rate may have dropped to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October, but the nation is making little progress on the road to a full economic recovery.
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12/7/2012
In this shell game of government spending, much of the waste and abuse goes unnoticed. Rock Island County, for example, paid $20,489 to Swine-time Pig Racing, a company that specializes in pig racing.
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12/6/2012
There was very little legislative activity during the past two weeks of veto session in Springfield.
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12/6/2012
Illinoisans aren’t getting enough bang for their buck in the Statehouse
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12/5/2012
School districts want to make it more difficult for the public to hold them accountable – or even know what they are up to.
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12/5/2012
At the end of today’s blog post you should be thinking a bit more like a lawyer, though you might prefer the skull full of mush you had beforehand.
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12/5/2012
A member of our community sent the following email to Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-Crystal Lake) and Gov. Pat Quinn.
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12/5/2012
Saying no just may be one of our last best hopes to save our country from ObamaCare.
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12/4/2012
LEAD 300, the Illinois Education Association affiliate that represents public school teachers in Carpentersville Community Unit School District 300 schools, has called a strike this morning, and the district has announced that classes are cancelled.
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12/3/2012
For the second year in a row, the state’s annual pension payment will increase by nearly $1 billion. The combined payment for all five state pension systems will increase to $6.8 billion next year, up from $5.9 billion this year.
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12/3/2012
Not content with hiking our income taxes, some state legislators want to hike TV taxes in Illinois. Yes, TV taxes. There truly is no end to Springfield’s madness.
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12/3/2012
Faint praise for a fainthearted resolution
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12/3/2012
Last week in Springfield, there was very little legislative activity during the first week of veto session.
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12/2/2012
Soon it may cost more than $100 to renew your license plate in Illinois.
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11/30/2012
Lawmakers want the state to borrow $4 billion from the bond market to pay down a portion of the $9 billion stack of unpaid bills.
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11/30/2012
According to Public Policy Polling, Gov. Quinn is the most unpopular governor in the nation.
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11/30/2012
The Illinois Policy Institute opposed eight bills and appeared in several committee meetings during the first week of veto session.
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11/30/2012
In his recent op-ed, “How to rebuild America,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel boasts that Chicago’s “investments” in public schools, community colleges and infrastructure improvements have put Chicagoans back to work.
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11/29/2012
An attempt in the Illinois Senate to override Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of a plastic bag regulation bill failed 24-23-2, essentially killing the measure.
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11/29/2012
Business creators look at indicators like corporate tax rates and the health of a state’s finances when determining the best location in which to take root.
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11/28/2012
It was déjà vu in Springfield as proponents of more debt pushed Illinois to borrow another $4 billion from the bond market. Their promise? That the state’s backlog of bills would finally get paid down.
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11/28/2012
Veto session commenced yesterday morning in Springfield. Typically, we would expect to see movement on controversial bills during this time because of the lame duck legislators who have been voted out of office but still retain voting power.
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11/28/2012
The Illinois House Clerk is making committee roll call votes available soon to folks who visit the Illinois General Assembly’s website.
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11/28/2012
In the 25 years I’ve been in the news business, I’ve never experienced a news conference quite like the one I was at Tuesday in the Illinois Statehouse.
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11/27/2012
If you want to begin to understand what’s wrong with our current public school system, look no further than teachers’ salary schedules.
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11/27/2012
Like the school calendar, teachers’ salary schedules are a relic of the past.
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11/26/2012
The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book exposes some of the most outrageous ways in which the DCEO uses taxpayer dollars. Shawnee Bluffs Canopy Tour Inc., for example, received $200,000 for the development of “eco-friendly customized zip lines.”
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11/26/2012
Buttressed by an $18 million federal grant, the city of Chicago will implement a bike-sharing program sometime in 2013 at an extraordinary cost to taxpayers.
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11/26/2012
In July 2012, the Illinois Policy Institute revealed research detailing the great lengths Illinoisans would have to take to find out how an elected official voted during committee.
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11/24/2012
It’s pretty hard to come up with solutions when you don’t know the problem.
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11/24/2012
As you no doubt know by now, Gov. Pat Quinn has inaugurated Squeezy the Python as the mascot for the state’s ongoing pension crisis.
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11/24/2012
The theme of the movie is President Abraham Lincoln pushing a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery through a lame duck congress by doling out patronage jobs to defeated congressmen who otherwise would oppose abolition.
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11/24/2012
If Gov. Pat Quinn is looking to moonlight during the holiday season, he ought to consider becoming a gift wrapper at Sears.
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11/21/2012
The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago has been sounding the alarm on the pension crisis for a long time.
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11/21/2012
Upward Mobility Program, available only to AFSCME members, pays 100% of tuition costs at public institutions and a portion of tuition costs at select private universities costing taxpayers $4.75 million.
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11/21/2012
When families in Illinois need to tighten their belts, cable TV is often one of the first expenses to go. A state nearing bankruptcy should do the same.
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11/21/2012
At the behest of a bankruptcy judge, Hostess Brands got a short reprieve from liquidation in the form of one final meeting between management and union officials.
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11/21/2012
Q&A with our director of labor policy.
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11/21/2012
Illinois’ unemployment rate remained at a stagnant 8.8 percent in October.
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11/20/2012
f Illinoisans want a glimpse of the state’s upcoming fiscal cliff, they should look no further than the failed negotiations between the maker of Twinkies and the unions that took them on.
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11/20/2012
For the third time in the last five years, the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) has posted a negative investment return.
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11/20/2012
The Community Unit School District 300 School Board has exchanged its "last best offers" with the local teachers union, LEAD 300, and those offers have been made available to the public. These actions move the school district one step closer to a strike.
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11/19/2012
The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book continues that focus but also places an emphasis on spending occurring at the local level in Illinois. This allows Illinoisans to see the waste that’s happening in their own communities.
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11/16/2012
Suggested reading for the week of November 12.
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11/16/2012
After 11 years in the Illinois Legislature, state Rep. Jim Watson, R-Jacksonville, is calling it quits. And, like most lawmakers, he will receive an over-sized pension.
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11/16/2012
When unions can’t work with employers in the private sector, companies go under. Hostess Brands Inc. is the most recent case in point, announcing that it will close its doors because of financial insolvency.
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11/16/2012
Chicago Public Schools cannot erase its $1 billion budget deficit alone – it’s going to need some help.
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11/14/2012
As Illinois moves closer and closer to the fiscal cliff, the next story to watch will be the outcome of three days of workplace protests planned by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Leadership Council 31.
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11/14/2012
Does the government have any business taxing foods it deems unhealthy?
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11/13/2012
By a vote of 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, Westmont became the first Illinois community to repeal a municipality’s home rule power in 29 years.
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11/13/2012
Taxes are about to go up again on many items for Cook County residents under the county’s 2013 budget. The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved a $2.95 billion budget for fiscal year 2013 by a landslide 16-1 vote last week.
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11/12/2012
Suggested reading for the week of November 5.
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11/9/2012
Neither Illinois Senate President John Cullerton nor House Speaker Mike Madigan will have a Republican boogeyman to point to when they speak to interest groups or members of their own caucuses.
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11/9/2012
Organized labor – government unions in particular – played a decisive role in helping Democrats gain supermajority status in both houses.
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11/9/2012
Proposed rules and regulations would prohibit Uber’s Black car service from operating in Chicago.
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11/9/2012
Uber – the maker of a popular smartphone application that allows you to summon a black car, taxi, or SUV with the push of a button – is under fire from regulators and the taxi lobby in Chicago.
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11/8/2012
Unlike four years ago, a vote for the re-election of President Barack Obama was not about change. It was about maintaining the status quo.
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11/8/2012
Gov. Pat Quinn and many groups in Illinois ares pushing for the state’s next multi-billion dollar tax increase – a progressive income tax.
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11/7/2012
Illinoisans should prepare for higher taxes. President Barack Obama’s re-election means new taxes under Obamacare and the likely expiration of the Bush tax cuts.
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11/7/2012
An interesting test for Illinois came in Michigan, where labor unions were largely defeated in a state that saw Democrats do well.
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11/7/2012
With a second term now secure for President Barack Obama, states will need to decide whether they should opt-in to ObamaCare’s massive expansion of Medicaid.
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11/7/2012
Last night, California Gov. Jerry Brown asked Californians to pay higher income taxes. Fifty-four percent of voters opted for the tax increase. A similar scenario is beginning to play out in Illinois.
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11/7/2012
Will state taxpayers be asked to pick up the employer share of Chicago teacher pensions?
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11/7/2012
In March of this year, state Rep. Derrick Smith was charged with accepting a bribe of $7,000 in exchange for supporting a grant for a fictional day care operator in an undercover FBI sting.
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11/7/2012
Last night, four Illinois counties had referendums asking voters if they wanted to create a new sales tax. All four referendums were defeated.
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11/7/2012
Voters across Illinois said no to Constitutional Amendment 49, the Illinois Legislature's sole remedy for the state’s pension crisis.
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11/7/2012
President Barack Obama has won a second term, giving him what he described earlier this year as “more flexibility” in his policy choices. Will one of those choices be bailing out state pensions?
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11/7/2012
Georgia parents spoke loudly last night. They want more school choice.
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11/7/2012
After yesterday’s election, Democrats will have a supermajority in both the Illinois House and Senate after inauguration on Jan. 8, 2012.
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11/3/2012
In 2011 the average household income in Illinois dropped 2.6 percent to $53,234.
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11/2/2012
If you leave a tax hike up to bunch of lame ducks, expect to be goosed.
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11/2/2012
Suggested reading for the week of October 29.
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11/2/2012
Only nine states would stand to lose more per return in higher taxes than Illinois.
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11/2/2012
Cook County’s Nov. 6 ballot contains a series of advisory questions to voters, the results of which are nonbinding but often used to test – if not justify – future legislative initiatives.
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11/2/2012
The nation’s unemployment rate increased to 7.9 percent in October from 7.8 percent in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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11/2/2012
Illinoisans should pay attention to what’s happening in California, where voters will soon decide on Proposition 30 – an effort to make the state’s income tax even more progressive.
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11/1/2012
A great myth is that bipartisanship is somehow a necessary ingredient to successful policy solutions. Not true. And who loves, loves, loves bipartisanship – the media and Democrats.
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11/1/2012
Wouldn’t it be great if every time we made a bad investment decision a fairy godmother waved her magic wand and made its consequences disappear?
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10/31/2012
Despite a struggling economy and a backlog of unpaid bills, per-pupil education spending in Illinois rose to an all-time high this year.
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10/31/2012
Like many school systems across the state, Geneva Community Unit School District 304 is likely to endure a teacher strike.
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10/30/2012
There are too many people working in America’s schools.
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10/29/2012
Suggested reading for the week of October 22.
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10/29/2012
With a track length of nearly 3.1 miles, taxpayers are looking at footing a cost of almost $110 million per mile.
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10/29/2012
For most Illinoisans, paid sick days count on a use it or lose it basis. But that’s not the case for the state’s public school teachers.
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10/29/2012
The horse has bolted the barn, the damage is done, there's no going back now, we've reached the point of no return. Pick your cliche, it all boils down to the same conclusion: Voters should say "no thanks"
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10/27/2012
“Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.” – President Barack Obama
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10/26/2012
Would you invest your money with someone who predicted an 8.5 percent return but instead gave you a measly 0.76 percent?
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10/26/2012
The Illinois Secretary of State is required to send out pamphlets giving the pros and cons whenever voters are asked to consider an amendment to the state constitution.
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10/25/2012
To help fill Cook County’s $267.5 million budget shortfall, Preckwinkle has proposed increasing the per-pack tax on cigarettes by $1. The tax hike is only expected to bring in about $25 million in new revenue.
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10/25/2012
The Teachers' Retirement System announced its annual investment returns for fiscal year 2012. You may recall that they were predicting 8.5 percent returns.
So what did they actually get? A meager 0.76 percent.
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10/25/2012
Three states form the base of Democratic political power in the United States: California, New York and Illinois.
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10/24/2012
Since the city of Chicago began Illinois’ first red light enforcement program in 2003, red light cameras have been a source of much controversy in the state.
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10/24/2012
Illinois’ unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent in September from 9.1 percent a month earlier, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report.
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10/24/2012
Cook County faces a projected $267.5 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2013. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has a solution: Fill the gap with higher taxes on cigarettes, guns, ammo, gambling and businesses.
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10/24/2012
A couple of weeks ago I noted that a performance incentive program for teachers and staff was one of the bones of contention in the Evergreen Park teacher strike.
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10/23/2012
The Tax Foundation has reaffirmed Illinois’ status as a high-tax state in its newly released 2012 Annual State-Local Tax Burden Ranking.
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10/23/2012
Overall, paid leave cost the state – meaning taxpayers – $23 million during that period.
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10/22/2012
For government to take more of a dollar just because another dollar is earned is unfair, predatory and punitive.
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10/22/2012
Instead of telling voters that this amendment doesn't solve the problem, some opponents are making arguments that only serve to provide political cover to lawmakers who falsely claim they're fixing the pension crisis with Amendment 49.
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10/19/2012
Suggested reading for the week of October 19.
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10/19/2012
Proponents of high speed rail are hailing today's test-run as a major step forward, but the fact of the matter is that Illinois taxpayers are being taken for a ride.
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10/19/2012
Gov. Quinn is not getting great press these days. He may want to heed the warnings the financial markets continue to fire his way.
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10/18/2012
Two years ago, Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration was talking about selling Thomson Correctional Center so that he could spend more money on capital projects.
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10/18/2012
There is plenty of speculation about what idle lawmakers will do with their time.
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10/18/2012
The state’s second-largest teachers union recently demanded the resignation of Richard Ingram, the head of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System.
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10/18/2012
Obama’s service as an Illinois state senator is estimated to earn him a $15,270 annual pension upon retirement. His initial monthly benefit would be $1,272.
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10/18/2012
Household incomes have plunged by 8.2% across the nation since President Obama took office.
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10/17/2012
In an appearance on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, Sen. Dick Durbin responds to a question regarding a federal bailout of state pensions.
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10/16/2012
Suggested reading for the week of October 8.
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10/16/2012
One of the most common excuses they use to explain the lack of results – apart from claiming that low-income populations have too many issues to overcome, something the Institute showed is not true in its latest report – is that class sizes are too big.
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10/15/2012
The Physicians Foundation has completed one of the largest and most comprehensive physician surveys ever conducted in the United States. Here are a few highlights.
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10/13/2012
Sometimes it’s embarrassing to talk about government and politics in Illinois. This story exemplifies why.
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10/12/2012
Giving 15 bureaucrats the power to decide your fate? That is something to be truly scared about.
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10/12/2012
The Chicago Teacher’s Union (CTU) is a vigorous opponent of charter schools. Karen Lewis, CTU President, made this perfectly clear at the news conference announcing the strike that held the city hostage for over a week in September.
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10/12/2012
In last night's Vice Presidential debate, you might have heard Vice President Biden claim that ObamaCare "saved $716 billion [from Medicare] and put it back — applied it to Medicare."
The only problem with this claim? It's simply not true.
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10/11/2012
Earlier this year, Gov. Quinn signed into law Public Act 97-0695. Despite the fact that the bill was sent to the Governor more than four months ago, he has yet to exercise his new authority to set premiums.
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10/11/2012
According to a report in today’s Chicago Tribune, CPS officials have asked several charter operators if they would be willing to take over some of the 80 to 120 under-enrolled or poorly performing schools that the district is planning on closing next year
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10/10/2012
Gov. Quinn not only got a solid "F" in the 2012 Cato ranking of governors, he got the worst grade.
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10/10/2012
While the teachers strike in Evergreen Park – seven days long and counting – has not drawn the attention that the earlier Chicago strike did, the conflict in District 124 is quite revealing of the character of the teachers unions and the flaws in our labo
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10/10/2012
“Pension sweeteners” have become a ubiquitous part of how local government works in Illinois.
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10/10/2012
Illinois’ poor public policies continue to hammer the state’s business climate.
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10/9/2012
What does a state do when it has planned poorly, borrowed excessively and refused to make tough decisions?It looks for a federal bailout.
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10/9/2012
Highlights from the No Pension Bailout project
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10/9/2012
In Illinois, there are two types of annual, statutorily-obligated legislative sessions: regular and veto.
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10/8/2012
Chicago’s charter high schools are a welcome change to the typical Chicago Public School (CPS) story of schools struggling to meet minimal standards full of teachers complaining about intrusive administrators and lackluster pay.
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10/6/2012
Just how far is a union willing to go to avoid accountability for results?
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10/5/2012
Suggested reading for the week of October 5.
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10/5/2012
Today there are 5 million fewer people participating in the labor force than when President Obama took office in January 2009. That’s a 30-year low.
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10/5/2012
Campaign finance ruling to be appealed
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10/3/2012
After years of denying that the pension funds are in trouble, the head of the state's largest pension fund is finally acknowledging the crisis.
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10/3/2012
Will a few important swing states like Ohio and Colorado put pressure on the candidates to bail them out of their pension debt?
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10/3/2012
How has Illinois performed under President Obama?
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10/3/2012
Is the ballot question facing Illinois voters on November 6 the real deal or fake reform?
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10/2/2012
Last week, Citizens Against Government Waste, or CAGW, named Gov. Pat Quinn their September "Porker of the Month." This monthly "award" is given to politicians and public officials who have "shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers."
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10/2/2012
When political imperatives drive capital spending.
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10/2/2012
Last week, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit rating of Chicago Public Schools. Today, it's Fitch Ratings that's downgrading CPS.
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10/1/2012
There are questions that should be asked in the case of Rita Crundwell, the city’s former comptroller, who has been indicted on embezzling over $53 million from taxpayers of Dixon.
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9/28/2012
Suggested reading for the week of September 24.
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9/28/2012
On Thursday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit rating of Chicago Public Schools. The school district's credit rating now sits at A2 with a negative outlook, the same rating given to Illinois, which has the lowest rating of all 50 states.
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9/27/2012
Negotiations between the State of Illinois and District Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees are at a standstill.
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9/26/2012
Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), ranking Senate Republican on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), announced the release of a new JEC staff report, “The Pending State Pensions Crisis.”
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9/26/2012
A Chicago alderman wants to tack $5 onto monthly utility bills to hire more cops.
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9/26/2012
The state’s largest pension fund made headlines last week when it lowered its projected rate of return on investments by half a percentage point
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9/26/2012
A new report by the Joint Economic Committee, or JEC, provides even more evidence that the federal government should never bail out state pension debt. Here are just a few of their findings.
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9/25/2012
Last week the Illinois Policy Institute launched "NoPensionBailout.com," a national project aimed at preventing a federal bailout of state pension debt.
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9/25/2012
After nearly a year of collective bargaining and a seven day strike, you have reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union.
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9/24/2012
For the third straight month, Illinois' unemployment rate climbed. More than 9.1 percent of Illinoisans are now unemployed, a full percentage point higher than the national average of 8.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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9/21/2012
Suggested reading for the week of September 17.
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9/21/2012
The past few years have shown what happens when large institutions face big challenges: the federal government feels the need to swoop in and bail them out. And there's already movement afoot for the next big bailout.
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9/21/2012
Rahm Emanuel famously argued that “you never want a serious crisis to go wasted.”
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9/20/2012
A few parting observations, lessons to be learned, and things to watch in the future:
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9/20/2012
Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest and most-utilized independent evaluator of charities, has awarded the Illinois Policy Institute with its highest and most prestigious 4-star rating.
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9/18/2012
Compilation of the Institutes work on the CTU strike.
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9/18/2012
CPS released a side-by-side comparison of the 2003, 2007, 2012 contracts
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9/17/2012
Meet the team responsible for helping Kane County score a 100% on the Illinois Policy Institute's Local Transparency Project
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9/17/2012
Chicago Public Schools has posted the District's full Employee Position File—which lists the names, job, titles, departments and salaries of all full-time CPS employees.
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9/17/2012
The following is a synopsis of the contract terms, based on documents provided by the CTU.
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9/17/2012
A summary from the Chicago Teachers Union of what they believe they "won" and "wanted to win but didn't."
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9/16/2012
House of Delegates voted NOT to suspend the strike
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9/16/2012
I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union.
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9/15/2012
Rahm seeks preliminary injunction to send CTU strike.
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9/14/2012
Suggested reading for the week of September 10.
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9/14/2012
Shortly after President Obama took his historic oath of office, a small group of people back in his home state of Illinois gathered to negotiate a key issue of school reform.
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9/14/2012
WI judge rules Gov. Walker's collective bargaining reforms violate state and U.S. Constitution
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9/14/2012
Judge Colas’ decision is likely to be reversed on appeal by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, meaning that the labor reform package should be reinstated.
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9/13/2012
If Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his negotiators at Chicago Public Schools really want to help the city’s children long term, they should propose a package that increases instructional hours and reduces teacher pay slightly while implementing a merit pay system
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9/13/2012
While we do not have a complete list of CTU employees, the union’s IRS Form 990 does allow us some idea of how well key CTU officials are compensated.
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9/13/2012
It is becoming more and more apparent that the big items of contention between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union were the rehiring of laid-off teachers and teacher evaluations.
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9/12/2012
Teachers unions are mainly the stronghold of what might be called the second percent: not fabulously wealthy but certainly well-off.
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9/12/2012
The number I find most disturbing is: 19.
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9/11/2012
Suggested reading for the Week of September 3.
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9/11/2012
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is on strike to get, among other things, more pay. They originally asked for a 30 percent pay raise. The current offer on the table is a 16 percent pay hike over four years.
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9/11/2012
Chicago teachers are striking. You may recall that they were demanding a 30 percent raise earlier this year, which would have spiked the average teacher's salary to nearly six figures.
But what would that do to their pensions?
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9/10/2012
CPS will be draining cash reserves this year just to stay afloat, and will be $1 billion in the red next school year. The 30 percent raise CTU originally asked for is out of the question.
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9/10/2012
As of tonight, teachers in the Chicago Public Schools are expected to go on strike, and regular classes will not be held Monday morning.
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9/10/2012
Over the last decade, CTU has made more than 1,500 campaign contributions totaling nearly $10 million.
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9/10/2012
CPS' contribution to the Chicago teachers' pension fund will more than triple next year. Money meant for the classroom will instead go to pay for the retirement benefits of former Chicago teachers.
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9/10/2012
39 percent of Chicago public school teachers send their own children to private schools
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9/10/2012
Believe it or not, late Friday afternoon the scuttlebutt was that the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union were close to agreeing on a contract.
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9/10/2012
Many facts are important to understanding the strike and the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union. Here are just two of them.
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9/10/2012
There's a big reason why the Chicago Teachers Union fears charter schools. Charters will expose truths the CTU hoped would never be revealed.
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9/7/2012
The ties between unions and the Democratic Party are numerous and strong.
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9/7/2012
Illinois' Medicaid program is on the verge of collapse.
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9/6/2012
On Labor Day, the Chicago Teachers Union held its protest in preparation for a strike that is set to begin on Sept. 10, unless negotiations with Chicago Public Schools result in a contract.
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9/5/2012
If Quinn wants to talk about the facts, then let’s talk about the facts.
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9/4/2012
Suggested reading for the week of August 28.
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9/4/2012
A letter to the editor from Illinois Policy Institute's Director of Government Reform, Brian Costin, on issue of local government transparency in Lee County.
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9/4/2012
The Treasury Department released a statement on Tuesday, confirming that the federal government has topped $16,000,000,000,000 in debt.
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9/4/2012
As thousands of families throughout Chicago watched anxiously, the process of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement turned melodramatic at a Chicago Teachers Union Labor Day rally.
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8/31/2012
Government fees and taxes are a pain in the gas
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8/30/2012
S&P’s latest downgrade should come as no surprise. It’s just another mark of shame for a leaderless state spiraling out of control.
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8/30/2012
Government employee unions have become a persistent obstacle to reforming government in Illinois. At every level, and on a wide range of issues, union officials work to prevent changes that are desperately needed.
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8/29/2012
With the news that the Chicago Teachers Union is about to file a ten-day notice for a possible strike, there will be a temptation among some to overreact.
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8/28/2012
New report details Illinois’ crushing state debt
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8/27/2012
There are a lot of numbers being thrown around in the fight over pension reform. But these are the two numbers that matter most: $632 billion and $65 billion.
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8/24/2012
Suggested reading for the week of August 20
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8/24/2012
Retired superintendent, Alex Boyd, is accused of, “fraudulently cashing out about $350,000 worth of sick and vacation time and racking up $57,000 in unauthorized credit card charges.”
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8/23/2012
The national food stamp program was originally designed to provide nutritional foods for folks who can’t afford to buy them on their own - fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, cheeses and similar products.
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8/21/2012
Illinois’ July unemployment rate hit 8.9 percent, up from 8.7 percent in June, the second consecutive monthly increase.
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8/21/2012
A coalition of progressive groups is beginning to coalesce around a proposal to create a progressive income tax in Illinois.
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8/20/2012
When politicians lose interest in reform, taxpayers “lose interest,” too.
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8/20/2012
In October, the federal government will implement ObamaCare's "readmissions adjustment factor" cuts to Medicare hospital payments. According to federal data, a whopping 88 percent of hospitals in Illinois will be hit with this year's rate cuts.
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8/18/2012
“Instead of focusing on issues important to the state of Illinois, the folks on both sides were focusing on getting re-elected rather than solving the issues,” Rep. Jack Franks
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8/17/2012
Suggested reading for the week of August 13
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8/17/2012
The union's role has now become entirely disruptive: they boo, they shout, they follow and chant slogans at politicians who have supported pension reform.
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8/17/2012
By a vote 100-6 State Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) has been expelled from the Illinois House of Representatives.
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8/17/2012
While they only managed to pass an amendment, the House provided some memorable quotes.
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8/16/2012
The spectacle of government union members booing the best friend they ever had off the stage Wednesday at the Illinois State Fair made for entertaining video.
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8/16/2012
There is only one way to prevent a collapse. Illinois must shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans.
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8/15/2012
How much the unions would be willing to kick in to replenish badly underfunded pensions they would not say.
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8/14/2012
How much debt will finally trigger action?
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8/14/2012
Chicago has the worst entrepreneurship rate among the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the country.
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8/13/2012
Suggested reading for the week of August 6
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8/12/2012
Illinois knows first-hand how well-intentioned Medicaid expansions bust budgets and worsen care for the very people Medicaid was meant to protect.
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8/11/2012
“Ever since the Village of Willowbrook’s participation in the Illinois Policy Institute’s Local Transparency Project, the Mayor and Board of Trustees have been interested in ways of furthering the Village’s transparency efforts.” - Garrett Hummel, Manage
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8/10/2012
In June, Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation which calls for requiring retired state employees, university workers, lawmakers and judges to begin paying premiums for state health insurance.
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8/10/2012
Want to promote breastfeeding? Get government out of the formula business.
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8/10/2012
Media coverage of our lawsuit on behalf of Beavers Donuts
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8/9/2012
Just over the past five years, 71 cents from every new dollar set aside by state government for Pk-12 education went to teacher retirement costs.
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8/8/2012
Chicago’s budget report calls attention to organized labor’s contribution to the city’s fiscal difficulties.
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8/8/2012
Is giving cash awards for the best flower arrangements, prettiest peck of potatoes or finest calf really a core government function?
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8/7/2012
“Take a risk! Be bold! Blaze your own trail!”
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8/7/2012
Lawmakers should be doing all they can to make opening a business easier. But in Evanston, Illinois, they are imposing needless restraints.
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8/7/2012
Read what the Institute has said in the past about Illinois' pension crisis.
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8/7/2012
On August 7, 2012, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a City of Evanston ordinance that exists only to protect established restaurant owners from the legitimate competition that food trucks would bring to the C
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8/7/2012
The rate of entrepreneurship in Illinois has been below the national average every year since 1996 except for 2001.
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8/3/2012
Suggested reading for the week of July 30.
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8/2/2012
Later this year the Illinois Policy Institute will publish the next edition of the wildly popular Piglet. This project highlights wasteful spending at the state and local level in Illinois.
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7/27/2012
Suggested reading for the week of July 23
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7/26/2012
In 2012, the typical Illinoisan has worked 208 days to earn enough money to pay for the spending and regulatory burdens imposed by governments at all levels – 11 days longer than the average of all 50 states, July 15.
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7/25/2012
On July 24, 2012, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the campaign finance law passed in Illinois in 2009, and amended earlier this month.
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7/23/2012
Short of actually showing up for the hearing or listening to it live, the public lacks easy online access to Illinois' legislative committee process.
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7/23/2012
The Democratic Party is finally crystallizing what it has been unable to communicate for years. Namely, that we are made prosperous not by the actions of entrepreneurs, but by our government; by the Don, not the butcher.
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7/20/2012
Suggested reading for the week of July 16.
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7/20/2012
Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union are in the midst of very tough negotiations over a new contract. A strike is a distinct possibility.
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7/16/2012
Lawmakers in Illinois should join the growing chorus of lawmakers across the country refusing to opt-in to ObamaCare's (now-voluntary) expansion of Medicaid.
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7/13/2012
Suggested reading for the week of July 9.
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7/12/2012
CNBC just released its 2012 America’s Top States for Business, and guess what, Illinois didn’t top the list (no surprise there), but it wasn’t even in the top half!
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7/12/2012
A recent survey of American physicians conducted by the non-partisan Doctor Patient Medical Association found that ObamaCare has made a whopping 83 percent of doctors consider leaving their practices.
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7/12/2012
Mike Feinberg, co-founder of one of the country's most successful charter school networks, KIPP, or the Knowledge Is Power Program.
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7/9/2012
It is a standard bit of Alinskyite strategy: couch your demands in moral terms. It makes your opponents seem small and puts them on the defensive.
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7/6/2012
Suggested reading for the week of July 2.
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7/5/2012
The results of a new poll commissioned by the Institute finds that public opinion on this issue is mixed, not only across the state but across the political spectrum.
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7/3/2012
New accounting rules bring more transparency to government retirement debt, add billions in debt to the states books.
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7/3/2012
With a prolific history of corruption in Lyons, one would think leaders in the town would have a vested interest in promoting government transparency and compliance with state laws.
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7/2/2012
Meet Dennis Collins, a dedicated dad who successfully fought a sales tax referendum in Morgan County.
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6/29/2012
Suggested reading for the week of June 25.
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6/29/2012
We've previously explained why Illinois should not create a new bureaucracy that it will have virtually no control over. But there's another reason to reject a state-run exchange: doing so blocks new taxes on job creators.
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6/28/2012
Full text of the court’s decision, including the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, a concurring opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, and the dissenting opinion of Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito.
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6/28/2012
While four of the justices would have thrown out the law in its entirety, Roberts joined with the liberal wing of the Court to uphold the mandate as a tax.
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6/28/2012
The federal government can't force states like Illinois to expand their Medicaid programs. Lawmakers should refuse to implement the massive expansion of Medicaid in 2014 and halt plans to implement the expansion early in the Chicago area.
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