Good Government

Banning the unknown – Chicago aldermen’s Styrofoam ban is just plain wrong

You’re not using Styrofoam. Not if you’re eating takeout, drinking a soda or chugging a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. These disposable food and beverage containers are made from polystyrene. Not Styrofoam. But the public has long confused these two products. (Disclaimer: my last post did not accurately represent Styrofoam, either.) Dow Chemical, the company that produces...

By Hilary Gowins

Illinois’ largest cities show wide disparity in online transparency, Chicago fails

A new report looking at the state’s 25 largest municipalities shows a wide disparity in citizens’ access to basic government information online from community to community. In places such as Evanston, Skokie and Orland Park, citizens have excellent access to basic financial and participatory information online, but the same isn’t true in many other areas....

By Brian Costin

1,000 Groupon deals won’t save taxpayers from Divvy failures

With winter nearly upon us, riding a bicycle in Chicago is probably the furthest thing from most people’s minds – except for the more than 1,000 people who’ve recently purchased a Divvy Groupon. Divvy is Chicago’s taxpayer-funded bike-share program, through which users can buy daily or annual memberships to rent one of more than 3,000 bicycles...

By Brian Costin

Chicago aldermen prioritize Styrofoam ban over real business of the city

Two Chicago aldermen are convinced that banning Styrofoam containers would protect the children of Chicago. Accordingly, these aldermen – Ed Burke and George Cardenas – have proposed an ordinance banning the use of Styrofoam by coffee shops, restaurants, schools and other frequent users, according to the Associated Press. Burke and Cardenas are pushing this ban...

By Hilary Gowins

Chicago backs off e-cigarette ban

Last month, Chicago was poised to become the second city in Illinois to impose burdensome new restrictions on e-cigarettes, threatening to regulate them like tobacco products even though they contain no tobacco. But after facing strong opposition at the City Council’s joint Finance and Health Committee hearing on Monday, a much weaker version of the...

By Bryant Jackson-Green

Illinois term-limit petition halfway to 300K signature goal

Illinois is one of only 11 states without term limits, but a constitutional referendum proposal to bring the proposed reform to Illinois met a significant milestone. From the Chicago Sun-Times: “Bruce Rauner’s Committee for Legislative Reform and Term Limits has already reached 150,000 petition signatures — the halfway mark to getting onto the Nov. 2014...

By Brian Costin

Evanston’s opportunistic nanny state e-cigarette restrictions treat adults like children

E-cigarettes have become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly among smokers of traditional cigarettes looking to kick the habit by moving to a less harmful alternative. So why are Illinois governments wasting taxpayer dollars and time trying to make them harder to buy? The Evanston City Council recently jumped to regulate e-cigarettes under the same...

By Bryant Jackson-Green

Illinois has nearly 7,000 units of local governments

Illinois has more units of local government than any other state in the nation.

By Brian Costin

Naperville considers pension double-dipping transparency reform

Most public employees in Illinois receive a single pension upon retirement. But some workers don’t just get one pension – they get two or three. This is made possible by either working multiple government jobs at the same time, or retiring from one public job and beginning a second within a different pension system. Both...

By Brian Costin

Illinois General Assembly ignores citizens on term limits

“It is a safe bet that the General Assembly will never pass a bill limiting its own members’ ability to seek re-election.” – Christopher Mooney, University of Illinois Springfield professor, term-limits expert Overwhelmingly, Illinoisans support term limits. A recent poll showed 78.7 percent of Illinois voters support term limits. But good luck convincing Illinois legislators...

By Brian Costin

The Local Transparency Project

The Local Transparency Project is an encouraging example of a successful grassroots effort and a great resource for citizen activists looking to organize and mobilize.– Sunlight Foundation For democracy to work citizens need access to the information about what government does. Proactive online transparency is the best way to give citizens the opportunity to be educated...

By Jonelle Lesniak

Shrinking the Illinois Senate

With 42,336 elected officials as of 1992, Illinois has nearly 12,000 more state and local elected politicians than any other state. Amazingly, with this unprecedented wealth of legislators Illinois hasn’t been able to adequately address some of its most dire problems. Illinois still ranks near the bottom of the nation in numerous key economic indicators,...

By Brian Costin

Pay to stay

Earlier this year Texas Gov. Rick Perry wrote a letter to Illinois’ businesses and individuals trying to sell them on a move to Texas. The sales pitch was simple — it wasn’t tax credits, grants or sweetheart deals. The sales pitch was this — Texas doesn’t have an income tax. Perry understands something that Illinois...

By Benjamin VanMetre

Federal agencies stage fake “shutdown” of websites

This morning we began to notice that a number of Federal agencies have “shutdown” their websites. We put that shut down in quotes because the websites aren’t really shutdown. In reality, federal agencies have “shutdown” websites while keeping them online to say they are “shutdown”. For example, here’s the page you will see when you...

By Brian Costin