One Chicago alderman is calling for the city’s 53 elected officials to forfeit their six-figure salaries for 15 days.
Due to its poor financial health and lagging economy, Illinois carries unique economic and fiscal risks from a prolonged market downturn or recession. The state must act now to mitigate harm from COVID-19.
With economic challenges driven by the coronavirus ahead, Illinois finds itself missing an important financial tool.
Lawmakers routinely spend faster than taxpayers’ incomes grow. A new bill would put Illinois with the majority of states that limit taxes or spending.
Visions of the community’s future no longer bring comfort. Instead, they inspire crippling fear.
Illinois law requires the governor to propose a budget balanced with existing revenues. To do so, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposes cutting aid owed local governments, raiding the road fund, letting health insurance costs pile up and withholding taxpayers’ refunds.
Property taxes in Illinois are nearly double the national average. Until state lawmakers trim down thousands of local governments and pursue pension reform, those bills wills remain high.
There’s no doubt: the county taxed soda more, so people bought less of it. It’s a simple lesson. So why doesn’t Springfield get it?
Illinois has not truly balanced its budget since 2001 despite a constitutional requirement to do so. A new bill would help change that.
A bill to make more public records readily available would better show taxpayers how local governments spend money.
Consolidating Illinois’ nearly 7,000 units of local government could help provide local property tax relief. One bill aims to consolidate mosquito abatement districts.
The years 2010 through 2019 will go down in Illinois history as a decade of public policy failure and economic decline. High fixed costs for pensions and government worker health care have prevented the state from balancing its budget in any year since 2001. Since the Great Recession in 2008, the state’s fiscal imbalance has...
Other states show how a progressive income tax would likely make the Illinois exodus worse, pushing jobs and tax revenue out of Illinois.
A progressive income tax would force nearly all joint filers in Illinois to pay higher income taxes than they would as single filers. Meanwhile, some wealthy couples would save thousands in state income taxes.