Instead of creating a business-friendly environment by keeping taxes and regulations low, Illinois state government and the city of Chicago have a laundry list of special tools they claim promote economic development. These tools include: tax increment financing, or TIF, districts; economic grants; and a series of loopholes in the tax code. When government gives...
Today marks the 1,000th day in a row the national average price for a gallon of gas was $3 or more. And AAA forecasts the national average will remain above $3 per gallon for at least another thousand days barring a major economic recession. “Paying less than $3 per gallon for gasoline may be automotive history for...
Illinois’ current unfunded state government pension liabilities total approximately $200 billion under Moody’s Investors Service’s new methodology. The Illinois Policy Institute estimates that the state’s pension funding ratio is currently less than 25 percent, meaning the state has the worst-funded pension system in the nation. Buried within this massive financial obligation are thousands of current...
Myth: The temporary 2011 tax increase was necessary to pay down Illinois’ backlog of bills, stabilize the state’s pension crisis and strengthen its economy. Fact: Since the tax increase was passed, Illinois’ unpaid bills and pension debt have grown, and the state’s economy is among the worst in the nation. Illinois lawmakers in January 2011...
Before ObamaCare became law, many labor unions – including the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA – supported it. But over the last several months, labor unions have become more and more alarmed over the actual effects of the law. Now Terry Sullivan, General President of LiUNA, has gone further than any other union leader...
As part of ObamaCare, individuals and small businesses will begin purchasing private insurance from state-based health insurance exchanges in all 50 states and the District of Columbia beginning on Oct. 1. In order to facilitate the exchange of information between the states, the federal government, insurers, and consumers, the federal government is building a “Data...
Back in 2011 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took on the state’s powerful unions and the Wisconsin Legislature enacted a dramatic labor law reform. Several lawsuits filed since the bill passed claimed Walker’s overhaul was unconstitutional. These lawsuits have been percolating through the courts ever since. The latest decision comes from a federal judge, who has...
Following complaints about ObamaCare made by many of its constituent unions, the AFL-CIO has rendered its verdict on the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. From the labor federation’s convention in Los Angeles come four pages of finely tuned verbiage spiced with numbing bureaucratic minutia that boil down to “We love...
With unpaid bills exceeding $8 billion, long-term debt surpassing $200 billion and the worst credit rating in the nation, revelations that the “broke” state of Illinois spent $670,000 on copper-plated doors and another$500,000 for chandeliers and sculptures for the Capitol in Springfield is an embarrassment for the entire state. Earning bad press and the scorn of angry taxpayers still reeling from the 2011 income...
Here’s the traditional Chicago-style hot dog recipe: 1 all-beef hot dog 1 poppy seed hot dog bun 1 tablespoon yellow mustard 1 tablespoon sweet green pickle relish 1 tablespoon chopped onion 4 tomato wedges 1 dill pickle spear 2 sport peppers 1 dash celery salt Sounds good, doesn’t it? But if someone skipped the celery...
“We love what you were trying to do but we hate what you actually did.”
Labor unions are losing influence, popularity and the fight over labor policy in many states. To soften their fall, unions have dramatically increased political spending.
While rallying public support for the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, then-House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi famously said that Congress “[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.” It appears that Illinois state officials are taking a page from the Pelosi playbook when...
Labor unions are losing influence, popularity and the fight over labor policy in many states. To soften their fall, unions have dramatically increased political spending. A study from the Center for Public Integrity shows labor unions have notably increased political spending nationally in the first half of 2013. During the six-month period, unions contributed $10 million to...