School choice changes lives
School choice changes lives
Families and students in Illinois would benefit most from a total voucher system in which parents are empowered to choose an educational provider that works best for their unique needs.
Park Ridge mayor’s transparency agenda
Park Ridge mayor’s transparency agenda
by Brian Costin Park Ridge Mayor Dave Schmidt wants to improve online transparency and is using the Illinois Policy Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist as a best practice benchmark for his city in northern Cook County. As mentioned in the Park Ridge Journal: Schmidt has four items on his list including the city meeting the transparency checklist created...
Illinois’ supersized pension problem
Illinois’ supersized pension problem
Illinois’ pension problem dwarfs the retirement problems in all other states. Officially, the underfunding of the five state-run pension systems total $100 billion. But when more realistic assumptions are used, the shortfall exceeds $200 billion. Without real pension reform, every Illinois household is on the hook for more than $40,000 in additional taxes just to cover...
Illinois committee will reconvene to discuss pensions June 18
Illinois committee will reconvene to discuss pensions June 18
Though Illinois taxpayers should be disappointed that pension reform was not enacted during the scheduled spring legislative session, they should also be relieved that fake reform was not enacted. The competing proposals offered by House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton did not offer solutions commensurate to the severity of Illinois’ pension problem (Senate Bill 1and Senate Bill...
The ‘temporary’ income tax hike was a lie
The ‘temporary’ income tax hike was a lie
When lawmakers passed the record 2011 tax hike they went on record making promises to taxpayers about the purpose and temporary nature of the tax hike. Now it’s clear that those promises were actually lies. When passing the tax hike, Gov. Pat Quinn said: “We have some temporary tax increases that are designed to pay our...
Chicago has highest gas prices in the country
Chicago has highest gas prices in the country
In the fight for the highest gas prices in America, Chicago now reigns supreme. Customers purchasing fuel in the city are now paying an average of $4.59 per gallon. That’s $0.13 more per gallon than when we last reported on Illinois’ high gas prices at the end of May. Many have chalked up Chicago’s consistently high gas prices to...
Will Illinois embrace education innovation?
Will Illinois embrace education innovation?
Illinois legislators have a major decision to make: should the state adopt policies that will enable it to become a future hub of education innovation or should it institute laws that needlessly delay the policies necessary to create a school system that embraces technology? Thus far, Illinois has chosen the latter path. In fact, Gov. Pat...
Illinois’ failing economic model: more food stamps, fewer jobs
Illinois’ failing economic model: more food stamps, fewer jobs
by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner Illinois added nearly three times more people to its food stamp program than it added in jobs over the past year – just another confirmation that the state’s economic model is failing. Between February 2012 and February 2013, Illinois added nearly 200,000 new enrollees to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,...
Illinois lawmakers scale back progress in ‘management bill’
Illinois lawmakers scale back progress in ‘management bill’
by Paul Kersey Last year the Illinois General Assembly decided that up to 3,580 supervisors in state government would not be subject to unionization. Passing this legislation, dubbed the “management bill,” meant that Illinois would restore a well-established principle of labor law – that supervisors need to be strictly accountable to policymakers and the people...
Illinois’ congressional delegation proposes radical changes to government spending
Illinois’ congressional delegation proposes radical changes to government spending
by Brian Costin When it comes to proposing radical changes to government spending, Illinois Democrats vastly outdo Illinois Republicans. In fact, a group of five liberal Democrats from Illinois propose spending increases that dwarf the spending cut proposals of any Republican in the country by a wide margin. This information comes from a new National Taxpayers...
Lawmakers fail to act on government collective bargaining legislation
Lawmakers fail to act on government collective bargaining legislation
by Paul Kersey In the wake of the end of spring legislative session, it has become clear that the General Assembly left itself a lot of unfinished business for next year. Aside from failing to act on pensions and passing another budget with numbers that don’t add up, Illinois lawmakers also failed to make the...
Search for government waste with new phone app
Search for government waste with new phone app
Former Illinois gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski and his group, For the Good of Illinois, has created an app called “Open the Books”, which can be used to search 12 years of federal spending from their mobile phone. Quite the accomplishment. As Andrzejewski wrote in an editorial piece published in The Wall Street Journal: “If you...
National unemployment rises to 7.6 percent in May
National unemployment rises to 7.6 percent in May
by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the national unemployment rate rose in May to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent one month earlier. Non-farm private payrolls rose by 175,000. The payroll growth, which has averaged 172,000 over the past 12 months, continues to be significantly below the range needed...
Illinois General Assembly continues to ignore the basics of good public policy
Illinois General Assembly continues to ignore the basics of good public policy
by Ben VanMetre Illinois has a spending problem. State government spending has grown at three times the rate of inflation since 1990. Despite Illinois’ existing balanced budget requirement, the state hasn’t had a balanced budget since 2001. That’s because political leadership in Illinois has been ignoring the basics of good public policy for decades. Lawmakers had the...