by Will Compernolle According to our transparency website, IllinoisOpenGov.org, the State of Illinois paid 28 Liquor Control Special Agents $1,418,421 in fiscal year 2008. The chairman of the committee was paid a salary of $56,685.71. According to the Illinois Department of Central Management Services website, Liquor Control Special Agents are meant to “conduct field investigations concerned with the...
by Will Compernolle The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) gave an $873,700.00 grant (#09-463009) in fiscal year 2009 to Unytite Inc.for “equipment that will enable the company to produce the larger nuts and bolts used in construction of wind turbines.” The DCEO’s grant tracker explains “these larger bolts (up to 48mm in diameter) are beyond...
by Heather Wilhelm When people say they’re going to “the Big House,” they usually mean a football stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan…or a jail. But prisoners across the country recently gave the latter interpretation of the phrase a whole new meaning, as discovered this week. “Nearly 1,300 prison inmates wrongly received more than $9 million in...
According to our transparency website, IllinoisOpenGov.org, the State of Illinois paid 30 fingerprint technicians $1,457,511.64 in fiscal year 2008 in combined total wages. The highest paid fingerprint technician was paid $52,494. According to the State of Illinois’s Central Management Services website, fingerprint technicians are meant to “perform functions related to the automated and manual processing of fingerprint submissions...
The Problem Illinois’s wealth of energy resources should be utilized to provide Illinois’s families and businesses with reliable sources of power. However, Illinois state government is unnecessarily picking winners and losers, distorting energy prices, and driving up overall government spending by awarding tax dollars to certain energy sectors via special government programs. For example, the...
by Kate Piercy As we argue in our Spotlight on Spending series, which aims to highlight wasteful or ineffective government spending in Illinois, looking at every type of spending, from smaller to bigger amounts, and asking “Is this the best use of taxpayers’ money,” does matter. David Vaught, state budget director for Illinois, also recognizes the importance...
by Will Compernolle The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) gave a $400,000 grant (#05-02206) in fiscal year 2005 to Solargenix Energy LLC to “provide solar thermal collectors to be installed on a meat packing factory roof.” According to the DCEO’s grant tracker, the grant is part of the Renewable Energy Resources Program, meant “to encourage utilization...
by Mark Cavers In 2008, the Illinois Department of Corrections employed 30 vocational instructors who made $1,837,058.27 in combined total wages. The highest paid instructor made $86,477.96 and the average wage for the instructors was $61,000. These individuals provide “occupational instruction in a specific vocation in a correctional facility.” On the other hand, the Illinois Department of Human Services employed 16...
by Will Compernolle The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) gave a $750,000 grant in fiscal year 2009 to the City of Pinckneyville to “construct a High School Basketball Hall of Fame and a Illinois Rural Heritage Museum.” The DCEO’s grant tracker says the grant (#09-240001) is part of The Community Development Assistance Program (CDAP). To find...
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) gave a $45,000 grant to buy a tour boat.
During a time when the Gulf oil disaster and the ever-increasing and mind-numbing federal debt are (rightly) dominating the news, it is easy to forget about the overwhelming fiscal challenges facing our own state government.
The Problem Wish someone would pay for your continuing education so you could get a higher paying job? If you are a unionized Illinois state government employee, you’re in luck. The State of Illinois runs the Upward Mobility Program, which is “a career mobility program designed to give state employees an opportunity to advance to...
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) gave over $83,000 in grants for costs associated with the production and showing of a film about Daniel Burnham.
Illinois taxpayers often struggle to fund higher education costs for their own families; they should not be funding higher education for state employees as well. The Upward Mobility Program should be eliminated.