It’s taken as fact that Illinois’ five state-run pension systems have a $100 billion funding shortfall. That’s what the official reports say. But all that’s about to change. Moody’s Investors Service is making good on its promise to evaluate state pension plans on more realistic assumptions. The rating agency has long critiqued the pension funds’...
In March, the Illinois Policy Institute released a report on the lack of fiscal notes – or legislative “price tags” – on legislative bills that passed the 97th General Assembly. Fiscal notes estimate the costs, savings and revenue gain or loss resulting from the implementation of proposed legislation. Crafted properly, fiscal notes can provide a wealth of...
When lawmakers passed the record 2011 tax hike they went on record making promises to taxpayers about the purpose and temporary nature of the tax hike. Now it’s clear that those promises were actually lies. When passing the tax hike, Gov. Pat Quinn said: “We have some temporary tax increases that are designed to pay our...
In the fight for the highest gas prices in America, Chicago now reigns supreme. Customers purchasing fuel in the city are now paying an average of $4.59 per gallon. That’s $0.13 more per gallon than when we last reported on Illinois’ high gas prices at the end of May. Many have chalked up Chicago’s consistently high gas prices to...
by Brian Costin When it comes to proposing radical changes to government spending, Illinois Democrats vastly outdo Illinois Republicans. In fact, a group of five liberal Democrats from Illinois propose spending increases that dwarf the spending cut proposals of any Republican in the country by a wide margin. This information comes from a new National Taxpayers...
by Ben VanMetre Illinois has a spending problem. State government spending has grown at three times the rate of inflation since 1990. Despite Illinois’ existing balanced budget requirement, the state hasn’t had a balanced budget since 2001. That’s because political leadership in Illinois has been ignoring the basics of good public policy for decades. Lawmakers had the...
by Ted Dabrowski Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Illinois’ credit rating to “A3” from “A2” after the General Assembly failed to move forward on pension reform before the end of the spring legislative session. The rating agency also says it has a negative outlook on Illinois’ credit: “The negative outlook reflects our expectation that Illinois’ pension...
Illinois lawmakers want to pass another multibillion dollar tax increase in Illinois in the form of a progressive income tax. That discussion materialized earlier this year when state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, proposed an amendment (HJRCA 2) to swap out Illinois’ constitutionally protected flat rate income tax for a progressive tax. The plan is to make permanent...
by Ted Dabrowski Fitch Ratings downgraded Illinois’ credit rating to “A-” from “A” after the General Assembly failed to move forward on pension reform before the end of the spring legislative session. In its statement announcing the downgrade, Fitch called Illinois’ pension liability “unsustainable” and said it was concerned about the state being able to...
Just a few months ago, the big education news in Illinois was Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed $400 million cut to the General State Aid for Education budget – the state’s single-largest education expenditure. This article in the Chicago Tribune captured the frantic pleas of school boards, administrators and teachers at the time: Roger Eddy, a former state...
Like many, we are disappointed that pension reform was not enacted during the spring legislative session. But make no mistake: the Madigan and Cullerton pension proposals were not pension reform. Taxpayers should be relieved they did not pass. Right now, the job of Illinois government is to provide for the well-being of all the people....
by Ted Dabrowski and Paul Schumacher In 2011, when Illinois legislators passed the largest income tax increase in the state’s history, they promised to roll back the increase beginning in 2015. “We have some temporary tax increases that are designed to pay our bills, get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing and make sure that our state...
The Illinois General Assembly increased spending to more than $35.4 billion, up approximately $2 billion from what was approved for the current fiscal year. The budget handouts being passed around the Statehouse describe this as an “honest budget,” the same language Gov. Pat Quinn used when he proposed his version of a budget back in March....
by Ben VanMetre A few years ago there was a popular narrative in Illinois politics about going through the budget line by line and eliminating wasteful spending. Those efforts, of course, never moved forward, and the narrative is dead. That’s a common theme in Springfield, where lawmakers make promises they don’t intend to keep. It...