The Obama administration has emerged from its bunker and is now in full-fledge campaign mode on ObamaCare after the recently unveiled online enrollment system has encountered numerous glitches and low sign-up rates. The most revealing thing about President Barack Obama’s Rose Garden speech this morning is that – after a calamitous roll-out – he never...
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to increase the cigarette tax in Chicago by 75 cents per pack. The tax hike would increase the per-pack total to $7.42 — making Chicago the most expensive city in the nation in which to buy a pack of cigarettes. This tax hike is one of the plans Emanuel is considering to...
The Illinois Supreme Court today struck down the state’s “Amazon Tax,” a state law that forced online retailers to pay Illinois taxes regardless of whether they had a storefront or other physical presence in the state. In its ruling, the Supreme Court indicated that it struck down the law because it conflicts with a federal...
As the Illinois General Assembly heads back to Springfield for veto session next week, here is a quick look at what elected officials have signed on to the Illinois Policy Institute’s legislative efforts to prevent lawmakers from amending the state’s constitution to permit a progressive income tax hike, which would increase taxes on 85 percent...
Every year, thousands of struggling Chicago Public School, or CPS, students are sent on to the next grade despite the fact that administrators and teachers know they aren’t ready – and they are destined to fall further behind. Research shows that promoting students before they are ready can have devastating long-term effects. In fact, unprepared...
A look at self-reported government union spending reveals budgets fraught with waste. Unions exist to represent workers, so that’s where the bulk of their money should go. Yet among the state offices of the four largest government worker unions, the portion of spending that goes to representation ranges wildly, from nearly $0.60 out of $1...
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...
Illinois government workers are able to retire before the age of 60 while collecting most of their final average salary.
Gov. Pat Quinn has been touting 100,000 new Cook County enrollees as evidence of ObamaCare’s success. The reality is that this claim reflects both desperate and creative government accounting. The governor was referring to 100,000 people who enrolled in the state’s Medicaid expansion program earlier this year under an early pilot project in Cook County....
In Big Labor mythology, union leaders are gritty, idealistic working class people standing up to the arrogant and wealthy. In reality, running a union is big business, and a union gig can mean making a pretty good living. Illinois teachers unions can be particularly generous with compensation. In “The Labor Book,” we looked at government...
THE PROBLEM The story of Illinois pensions over the last 20 years is full of reforms that were supposed to put the five state-run government pension systems on sound footing, but failed once they were implemented. Despite repeated attempts at a solution, the state’s official pension debt has jumped to nearly five times what it was in 1995. Taxpayers and...
One of the harsh realities of ObamaCare is that the insurance plans available under the president’s sweeping law are more expensive than insurance that is currently available. For example, a 27-year-old man living in Chicago would pay $125 per month for the lowest-cost “bronze” plan under ObamaCare. If that individual had an income of $25,000,...
In recent months, unions that had been sharply critical about many aspects of ObamaCare have been extremely quiet since Republicans in Congress have made a concerted – and very controversial – attempt to slow down implementation of the law. The federal government shutdown could have presented a creative union lobbyist with a great opening to...
Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, has been getting special treatment from the state for almost 20 years when it comes to funding for special education, transportation and nutrition programs. According to a recent report in the Belleville News-Democrat, CPS received $607 million in a special block grant from the state last year for these programs...