Several special interest groups and lawmakers in Illinois are pushing to increase taxes by swapping out the state’s constitutionally protected flat rate income tax for a progressive income tax. Advocates for higher income taxes try to disguise the tax hike as something it isn’t. Here are the facts on a progressive income tax: Thirty-one of...
Like so many in Chicago, I was saddened to hear that longtime WLS radio host Don Wade died last week. Don and his co-host and wife Roma arrived in Chicago about the same time as I did. They became my radio “friends” and helped me fall in love with the city. Being a guest on...
North Carolina is gearing up for another reform effort to enhance the state’s competitiveness. This year, political leaders overhauled North Carolina’s tax environment. Beginning in 2014, the state’s progressive income tax will be replaced with a lower, more competitive flat rate income tax. And the new flat rates are scheduled to decrease even more over the...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the national unemployment rate edged down in August to 7.3 percent, down from 7.4 percent one month earlier. Non-farm payroll employment rose by 169,000. Unemployment decreased by 193,000, leaving the total number of unemployed Americans at 11.3 million in August. But there are many Americans suffering from...
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...
On August 27, Gov. Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 923 which allows stop-arm cameras to be installed on school buses statewide. School districts would partner with a municipality or county to install and administer the stop-arm cameras violations. Violations would garner fines of up to $150 for a for a first time violation, and up to...
Last week, Judge Rebecca Foley of the McLean County Circuit Court issued an order striking down a Bloomington ordinance that prevented new competitors – including the Liberty Justice Center’s client, Julie Crowe – from offering vehicle-for-hire services in the city. Today, the Bloomington Pantagraph reports that the city will not appeal the judge’s decision and will not stand in Julie Crowe’s...
Extravagant doors designed by world class architects, coated in brilliant copper, no doubt would catch the eyes of many, but in Illinois they’re drawing attention for a whole different reason. Wasting money is nothing new regarding Illinois government, but the lavish new doors appearing on the state Capitol building are garnering some increasingly negative attention....
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presides over a union establishment that continues to lose members – more than 1.6 million between 2002 and 2012. The Obama administration’s more union-friendly posture hasn’t helped much – union members made up 12.4 percent of the workforce in 2008, but that declined to 11.2 percent in 2012. Making matters worse,...
Illinois’ residents and businesses pay some of the nation’s highest taxes. Illinois has the ninth-highest state and local tax burden per capita, the second-highest property tax burden as a percentage of median home value and the fifth-highest gasoline tax. A recent Tax Foundation study shows that Illinoisans also pay the nation’s 11th-highest combined state and local sales tax rates. The report...
The Illinois General Assembly passed a record income tax increase on individuals and businesses in 2011. And Gov. Quinn promised that it specifically was “designed to pay our bills.” Nearly three years and $18 billion in new tax revenue later, Illinois’ unpaid bills are still growing. Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka estimates that Illinois’ 2013...
This year, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, promised lawmakers that it had no plans to conduct outreach or marketing if the state decided to expand Medicaid eligibility under ObamaCare. Lawmakers explicitly asked whether the state would be conducting any kind of “marketing or other initiatives to recruit new enrollees.” Here’s how...
Illinois’ competitive flat-rate income tax is protected in the state’s constitution. But there is a growing movement to increase income taxes in Illinois by swapping out the state’s flat-rate income tax for a progressive tax. The progressive tax plan is being sold as a tax on the rich, but it would hike tax rates on...
Illinois Medicaid officials are under fire for awarding no-bid ObamaCare contracts for tracking, storing and processing electronic files for individuals’ most-sensitive personal health and financial information. Circumventing a competitive bidding process is disturbing, but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to privacy concerns under ObamaCare. The bigger concern is how ObamaCare might...