A number of business owners have joined the over 2,400 who have signed our tax hike repeal petition and have stated their intention to leave Illinois or close their doors.
Illinois already has a bad reputation as a place to do business and the new tax increase approved in Springfield is only going to make the situation worse, according to critics of the tax increase.
Migration between the U.S. states is the ultimate expression of voting with your feet. People move for many reasons, but, when examined en masse, its clear that public policy significantly influences where people choose to live.
The Labor Department report indicated the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs in December. The Report also indicated the national unemployment rate dropped slightly. Although this sounds positive, there are a few things one must keep in mind.
Testimony of Kate Piercy, Director of Government Reform, Illinois Policy Institute Submitted to the Special Committee on Workers’ Compensation Reform Friday, December 3, 2010 Co-Chairpersons Bradley and Brady, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Kate Piercy, and I am the Director of Government Reform for the Illinois Policy Institute. We...
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is engaged in a jobs spat with Wisconsin Governor-Elect Scott Walker. Walker had questioned the wisdom of committing Wisconsin to additional “high speed rail” boondoogle spending (read why he’s right on the policy merits); Governor Quinn responded by trying to woo a Wisconsin-based rail firm to Illinois. Beyond targeted campaigns to win over one company or another...
The Problem With its resources, location, expansive farmland, and first-class towns and cities, Illinois should be a leading economic powerhouse in the United States. Unfortunately, thanks to an unfriendly business and regulatory climate, Illinois has been underperforming for years. “Rich States, Poor States,” a comprehensive economic performance index authored by Steve Moore, Art Laffer, and...
by Kate Piercy Illinois’s late payments are catching up with it, and businesses are responding. Yet another vendor is saying farewell to Illinois because of our state’s dismal budget situation. The Department of Corrections scrambled this week when the Industrial Soap Co. refused to deliver foam food trays to Menard Correctional Center because it hadn’t been paid,...
by Kate Piercy Here’s a telling graph, courtesy of the Heritage Foundation, about how the stimulus has “worked” since January 2008: Federal Government: 198,100 jobs gained State Government: 6,000 jobs lost Local Government: 128,000 jobs lost Private Sector: 7,837,000
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson The Heritage Foundation recently released their 2010 Index of Dependence on Government, and their results are not encouraging. The findings of this year’s Index include: The Index of Dependence on Government grew by 13.6 percent in 2009; The Index of variables that moved the most over the past year were Health care and welfare at 22 percent, Rural...
by Kate Piercy Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to compare net job creation since 2000. Check out the chart below.
by Ashley Muchow Depression. Great Recession. Trough. We’ve heard it all in reference to the struggling state of the U.S. economy. President Barack Obama has insisted his policy moves and $787 billion-plus spending initiatives staved off a second Great Depression. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared late last month that the recession ended in June of 2009, after less...
by Ashley Muchow Check out this cartoon from Scott Stantis of the Chicago Tribune illustrating Quinn’s far-fetched claims to revive Illinois. Shouldn’t rescue consist of less digging?
by Ashley Muchow The Mercatus Center released a longitudinal illustration of the changes in employment from 2001 to 2009. In 2009, private sector employment undoubtedly got the short end of the stick–losing nearly 6 million jobs, while government and federal employment numbers managed to increase. Now we all know the economy has been hit hard in recent years and...