As Illinois motorists shell out more and more for the rising cost of gas, many people want to know: what am I paying for? In Illinois, especially in Chicago and Cook County, drivers may be surprised to find out that they’re paying significantly more in taxes on gas than drivers do in other states. At...
To advance its political agenda of imposing a progressive income tax on hard-working Illinoisans, the CTBA is misrepresenting Adam Smith in an attempt at legitimacy.
The Daily Herald published an editorial that highlighted a recent story about Illinois trial judges being the highest in the nation. The story featured research and commentary from the Illinois Policy Institute.
Illinois Policy Institute Senior Fellow Leonard Gilroy was interviewed by the Associated Press about Mayor Emmanuel's $7 billion public-private partnership plan for Chicago.
The Institute's senior director of government affairs, Collin Hitt, was quoted in an Illinois Statehouse News article about a former University of Illinois President receiving a golden parachute funded by the students and taxpayers.
Today the Illinois House adopted a budget framework for fiscal year 2013. The framework had bipartisan sponsorship, but unfortunately adopts an overall spending target that is still far too high. What is good about the budget is that it acknowledges the overwhelming burden of the unsustainable Medicaid program and takes steps to slow the growth of the...
Ever notice that going out to eat seems more expensive in Chicago than other cities? One of the reasons is that on top of the very high sales tax in Chicago, there are additional taxes on meals in restaurants: 0.25 percent Chicago restaurant tax and 1.0 percent Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) food and...
Chicago has the second highest taxes on meals of the 50 largest U.S. cities. Check out the Institute's interactive dashboard on meal taxes to see how we stack up.
On Tuesday, voters across Illinois rejected local ballot initiatives to increase their taxes. When given the choice, voters in the majority of cases told government to tighten its belt instead of increasing their taxes. Here are a few highlights: Nombre generico zyloprim In Morgan and Washington counties, voters rejected 1 percent sales tax increases. In...
President Obama and Congressional leaders will receive a letter from Illinois this week. Washington is urged to not bail Illinois, or any other state, out of debt. Last May, Senator Mark Kirk introduced a resolution in the U.S. Senate to put end federal bailouts of states. His reasons were simple and clear. The Federal government...
This is the Illinois Policy Institute’s fourth annual alternative vision for Illinois. In this report, we’ve charted a path that significantly reduces the state’s backlog of bills without borrowing and without new taxes, while meeting its pension liabilities. In addition, the state returns billions of dollars to taxpayers by repealing the January 2011 tax hikes....
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by Peter White, Liberty Justice Center Residents of Illinois are dying a death by a thousand cuts. Municipalities are finding ever more creative ways to raise revenue: fees, fines and taxes. The trouble for some localities such as the City of Chicago is collection. Now, however, they’ve found something new: the City is going to...
This week, Gov. Quinn submitted his budget proposals for fiscal year 2013, which starts July 1, 2012. The governor said that the state’s “rendezvous with reality has arrived.” But while the governor recognized the state’s problems, he offered few concrete reforms on how to solve these problems. Below is the Institute’s commentary on Gov. Quinn’s...