The Illinois Honest Taxation Pledge has another new signer! Senator Dale Righter (R-Matoon) reaffirmed his commitment to protecting taxpayers and being honest with voters through his signature today. The pledge asks incumbents pledge to oppose and vote against all tax hikes through the start of the 97th Session of the General Assembly in 2011. Previously, David Vaught the Illinois...
With Cook County being known nationwide for its levels of corruption you know it’s bad when Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says that a case of corruption by Hanover Township’s former welfare services director, Aurea Picasso, “may be a new low in Cook County corruption.” “Assistant State’s Attorney Bill Conway said that as welfare...
by Wesley Fox In 2009 the Chicago Horticultural Society received a $250,000 grant from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity “to assist in the development of the visitor interpretive features in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center.” The Center is located at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. According to the DCEO Grant Tracker website (search Chicago...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson The Heritage Foundation recently released their 2010 Index of Dependence on Government, and their results are not encouraging. The findings of this year’s Index include: The Index of Dependence on Government grew by 13.6 percent in 2009; The Index of variables that moved the most over the past year were Health care and welfare at 22 percent, Rural...
With the elections in less than 2 weeks the campaign rhetoric is heating up. On the federal level one of the hot button issues is the expiration of the so-called “Bush” tax cuts, set to expire on January 1st, 2010. Despite the harsh recession Congress has failed to extend the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts....
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Like many state governments, city and county governments across the country are facing huge unfunded pension liabilities. Recently, researchers from the University of Rochester and Northwestern University found that the average unfunded municipal pension liability per household is about $15,000. Unfortunately, Chicago has the highest per household unfunded pension liability of the 50 cities...
Problem Do you wonder how busy downtown traffic is able to go and stop in Chicago? Is it because Chicago has traffic control aides in the streets? That’s up for debate. According to the City of Chicago’s website, traffic control aides assist in facilitating the movement of traffic; keeping intersections clear; allowing police to be...
by Mark Cavers The Illinois Honest Taxation Pledge has another new signer! Representative Kay Hatcher (R-Yorkville) reaffirmed her commitment to protecting taxpayers and being honest with voters through her signature last week. The pledge asks incumbents pledge to oppose and vote against all tax hikes through the start of the 97th Session of the General Assembly in 2011. Previously,...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson In New Jersey, auditors concluded the New Jersey Turnpike Authority “wasted $43 million on unneeded perks and bonuses.” The audit found public funds were spent on an employee bowling league and an event for toll operators which “none of the authority’s employees actually attended.” In an egregious example highlighting the problems with the current compensation...
by Kate Piercy A recent Rasmussen poll sounds the alarm to incumbents: The major votes you’ve cast in Congress over the past couple years appear likely to come back to haunt you this Election Day. A national telephone survey found most Likely Voters think their representative in Congress does not deserve reelection if he or she...
by Kate Piercy Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to compare net job creation since 2000. Check out the chart below.
by Ashley Muchow Depression. Great Recession. Trough. We’ve heard it all in reference to the struggling state of the U.S. economy. President Barack Obama has insisted his policy moves and $787 billion-plus spending initiatives staved off a second Great Depression. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared late last month that the recession ended in June of 2009, after less...
by Ashley Muchow Check out this cartoon from Scott Stantis of the Chicago Tribune illustrating Quinn’s far-fetched claims to revive Illinois. Shouldn’t rescue consist of less digging?
by Ashley Muchow The Mercatus Center released a longitudinal illustration of the changes in employment from 2001 to 2009. In 2009, private sector employment undoubtedly got the short end of the stick–losing nearly 6 million jobs, while government and federal employment numbers managed to increase. Now we all know the economy has been hit hard in recent years and...