Criticizing the ethics reform measures recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative inspector general called her job a “paper tiger” lacking the independence required to hold lawmakers accountable.
A Volcker Alliance report on truth and integrity in state budgeting finds Illinois lacking. Debt, budget gimmicks and thin reserve funds gave the state poor marks.
“One mom with a child with autism spoke up at the board meeting and said, ‘Instead of my child getting adequate speech services that he desperately needs, he has been taught how to put on a mask, how to wear a mask, how to keep his mask on his face.’"
The first step of passing a budget is to determine how much is available to spend. Illinois routinely misses the mark in estimating future revenues. There is a solution.
Illinois schools can resume in-person learning without masks next month now that the state has clarified its guidance to acknowledge local school boards should decide which COVID-19 policies best fit their students.
When a child’s lemonade stand was targeted by government regulators, an 11-year-old entrepreneur fought back. Now Illinois law officially bars government from interfering with a child’s right to sell cold summer drinks.
New federal and state health guidance adjusts policies on masks, distancing and quarantines in Illinois’ K-12 schools. Many students will again be masked in the coming year.
A national study ranked Chicago’s unemployment recovery 172nd out of the 180 most-populous U.S. cities. Lawmakers didn’t help when they imposed $655 million in new taxes on the state’s job creators.
To combat above-average unemployment, Illinois state leaders discussed a possible back-to-work bonus. The state would pay cash to those who go off unemployment.
Illinois shed 7,900 jobs in May but most of those losses were outside of urban areas.
On average, more than 4.7 million voting-age Illinoisans live in districts where there was only one option for the state House on the ballot, undermining their representation. Roughly half of all Illinois House races were uncontested under Illinois’ gerrymandered 2011 district map.