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...
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,...
The silence continues. Illinois judges and organizations who represent the state’s judiciary are still refusing to comment about their skyrocketing salaries and perks revealed last week with the publication of the Institute’s special report:Judicial Pay and Perks in the Prairie State. Calls and e-mails seeking comment placed this week to individual jurists, the Illinois Judges...
The Illinois Honest Tax Pledge has two more signers: Senator John Millner(R-Bloomingdale) and Representative Renee Kosel (R-Mokena). 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 Budget Director was quoted as saying, “We’re going to pass a tax...
by Ashley Muchow A five-week tax amnesty period for those behind on their taxes this year began the 1st of this month. SB377, signed into law this summer, allows those who have accumulated back taxes between June 30, 2002 and July 1, 2009, to pay without penalty from October 1st to November 8th. Those tax...
by Wesley Fox Governor Quinn recently announced a new $7 million “business investment package” that will keep U.S. Cellular’s headquarters in Illinois. The package is part of the state’s Economic Development for a Growing Economy Tax Credit Program (EDGE). The program provides tax credits to companies that promise to make capital investments within the state and create 25 new...
by Kate Piercy Not many people understand tax increment financing (TIF) very well, and the lack of transparency in the TIF process, particularly in Chicago, leaves many taxpayers unaware of exactly where TIF developments are located, how many tax dollars are going into these TIFs, and how the money is being spent. Mayoral candidates looking to fill...
by Kate Piercy Mayor Daley went forward with his plans to use TIF reserves in order to “balance” his proposed FY2011 budget, leaving it to his future replacement to tackle the inherent problems that led the city into a deficit in the first place. Balancing the budget is important, but TIFs were not created to be used...
by Wesley Fox With the release of the 2010 Capital Bill Piglet Book highlighting wasteful spending by the state, I was curious to see what kind of wasteful spending was taking place at the federal level on behalf of Illinois. This information was gathered from the Citizens Against Government Waste Pork Database and includes their sponsored earmarks for the...
by Brian Costin This is the weekly Liberty Leaders e-mail sent out for the second week of October. To sign up for the weekly (every Tuesday) Liberty Leaders email click here, select Volunteer Opportunities (Liberty Leaders Program). Help Stop TIF Abuse Tax increment financing (TIF) has been around for over thirty years, many people do not understand...
by Wesley Fox Despite Illinois’s record deficit and $6 billion in unpaid bills, Governor Quinn recently announced $50 million in new spending for the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative. The Initiative would focus on job training for adults and small businesses and also provide funds for small businesses in troubled neighborhoods with the goal of addressing violent crime problems by...
by Ashley Muchow Pew Center on the States and the Public Policy Institute of Californiareleased a comprehensive study this morning zoning in on the public’s opinion of state fiscal management. The study, Facing Facts: Public Attitudes and Fiscal Realities in Five Stressed States, polled residents from five fiscally distressed states: California, Arizona, Florida, New York, and our very...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson As the debate over whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts continues, Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center adds some much needed perspective by comparing the size of the tax cuts to the amount of spending over the next decade. In The American, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. de...