Gov. Quinn announces $54.8 million investment in private universities
Gov. Quinn announces $54.8 million investment in private universities
Illinois can’t pay its bills. Lawmakers continue to eat away at the Illinois family budget with higher taxes. And the state refuses to stop ballooning pension payments from crowding out core government services. Yet Gov. Pat Quinn announced that Illinois will invest $54.8 million 27 private colleges and universities in the Chicago area. Some of this spending...
By Benjamin VanMetre
Three things you need to know about Chicago’s budget
Three things you need to know about Chicago’s budget
Chicago officials are reviewing the state of the city’s finances in preparation for a months-long budgeting process – and the numbers aren’t pretty. The city of Chicago released today its 2013 Annual Financial Analysis. As this document reveals, growing debt payments and unfunded pension liabilities continue to push the city’s budget into the red. As this...
By Benjamin VanMetre
Union workers more likely to resist new technology
Union workers more likely to resist new technology
Not all workers view technological innovation the same way. Earlier this week, the Tech Crunch blog, which covers trends in information technology businesses, examined how different types of workers view technological innovation. New technology has always had the ability to upend the workplace, and tech workers themselves are not immune. But tech workers are much more...
By Paul Kersey
More than 100,000 Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program
More than 100,000 Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program
by Jonathan Ingram Illinois law has long required that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, perform annual eligibility checks to ensure that those receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. After years of HFS failing to adequately perform these annual eligibility checks, lawmakers enacted 305 ILCS 5/11-5.2, which allowed...
June unemployment: More than 1 million Illinoisans unemployed or underemployed
June unemployment: More than 1 million Illinoisans unemployed or underemployed
by John Klingner President Barack Obama visited to Galesburg last week to give a speech in which he said he would refocus on jobs and the economy. That’s little comfort for the unemployed workers in cities across Illinois. The economic policies the president wishes to enact at the federal level have been at work for...
For real reform, Illinois should repeal campaign contribution limits
For real reform, Illinois should repeal campaign contribution limits
Illinois’ limits on campaign contributions are anticompetitive and unconstitutional – and the bill Gov. Pat Quinn just signed enacting sweeping changes to the state’s election code only makes the system more arbitrary and unfair. The biggest problem with Illinois’ existing campaign finance law is that it limits how much money a person can give to candidates for state office...
Betting on Illinois: Pizza with a Purpose
Betting on Illinois: Pizza with a Purpose
Dimitri Syrkin-Nikolau doesn’t just make pizza. Through his Chicagobased business, Dimos Pizza, he also cultivates talented employees. He opens his doors to local schools. He helps foster enthusiasm and excitement within his community. That’s because, to Syrkin-Nikolau, business isn’t just about making money. He believes it’s about what he calls “purposeful profit.” “Ultimately, profit is...
By Hilary Gowins
Illinois taxpayer contributions to state pensions skyrocket
Illinois taxpayer contributions to state pensions skyrocket
Detroit’s recent bankruptcy is sending cities and states a warning: taxpayers shouldn’t be taken for granted. Unfortunately, Illinois’ long-term pension plan does exactly that. Springfield still believes that taxpayers are passive sources of revenue. While state worker contributions to Illinois’ five pension systems have gone up by 75 percent since 1998, taxpayer contributions have gone...
By John Klingner
Detroit’s tipping point is a warning for Chicago
Detroit’s tipping point is a warning for Chicago
by Paul Kersey How did Detroit get to be the urban disaster area it is today? One tipping point come in 1978, when a union got a “win” that cost the city, and eventually its own members, dearly. This “win” came in the form of a raise concession granted to a powerful police union, which...
CPS four notches above junk bond status
CPS four notches above junk bond status
In what’s become a torrent of bad news regarding Illinois’ fiscal health, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Chicago Public Schools’ $6.3 billion general obligation debt one notch. The credit rating agency’s outlook remains negative, and CPS debt is now just four levels above junk bond status. The CPS ranking drop to A3 from A2 follows recent downgrades...
By Ted Dabrowski
7 in 10 Fortune 100 companies provide only defined contribution, 401(k)-style retirement plans
7 in 10 Fortune 100 companies provide only defined contribution, 401(k)-style retirement plans
Suburban Chicago-based NorthShore University HealthSystem announced last month that it will “will freeze its employee pension plan as of Dec. 31 and shift all employees to a defined contribution savings plan.” The NorthShore hospital system isn’t the only private company making this move — Boeing, American Airlinesand Verizon each dropped their defined benefit plans for defined contribution retirement systems. The core...
By Benjamin VanMetre
Alaska’s bold solution to its pension crisis
Alaska’s bold solution to its pension crisis
Illinois has the nation’s worst-funded pensions. Each Illinois household can expect to pay more than $40,000 in additional taxes to cover the pension shortfall if no reforms are passed. The size of the pension crisis demands that state lawmakers pass the boldest reforms in the country. Fortunately, Illinois lawmakers can look to the examples other states have...
IRS workers want an exemption from ObamaCare
IRS workers want an exemption from ObamaCare
Another union has lost its enthusiasm for ObamaCare – or at least for one major feature of the federalized health insurance scheme. The National Treasury Employees Union, or NTEU, is encouraging its members to write their congressmen in opposition to HR 1780, a bill that would have federal government workers use health insurance exchanges to buy health insurance....
By Paul Kersey
FBI ethics probe causes Chicago alderman to hold off on White House honor
FBI ethics probe causes Chicago alderman to hold off on White House honor
On the same day the White House announced an honor for Chicago Alderman Joe Moore as a “pioneer for political reform, governmental transparency and democratic governance,” Moore also revealed that he had been questioned by the FBI in an ethics probe concerning some of his former employees. As the Chicago Tribune reported: The accusations involving...
By Brian Costin