Nine states with the highest personal income tax rates lost $90.05 billion in adjusted gross income between 2000 and 2010
Nine states with the highest personal income tax rates lost $90.05 billion in adjusted gross income between 2000 and 2010
When people don’t like the direction in which their state is headed, they often vote with their feet. That’s precisely what Illinoisans did during the last decade, and they took their income with them. Illinois netted a loss of more $20 billion to other states through the out-migration of its residents from 2000-2010, according to...
By Ted Dabrowski
Moody’s credit downgrades: Illinois, Chicago area, take beating
Moody’s credit downgrades: Illinois, Chicago area, take beating
The recent string of credit downgrades by Moody’s Investors Service should leave little doubt what the rating agency thinks of Illinois’ worsening fiscal crisis. For the past few years the state’s five state-run pension funds have garnered most of the negative attention in Illinois. Moody’s has already designated Illinois’ debt as the riskiest of any...
Quinn signs 70 mph speed limit law for Illinois
Quinn signs 70 mph speed limit law for Illinois
Gov. Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 2356, which increases speed limits on rural highways to 70 miles per hour. The limit increase only affects highways outside of urban areas. Highways within Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Madison, McHenry, St. Clair, and Will counties will be able to opt out through local ordinances. According to the Chicago Tribune:...
By Brian Costin
Cook County’s debt downgraded: pension liabilities double under Moody’s new methodology
Cook County’s debt downgraded: pension liabilities double under Moody’s new methodology
Chicago’s fiscal crisis just got worse. Last month, the city received a rare triple-notch downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service, to A3 from Aa3. Now, Chicago’s parent government, Cook County, has received a downgrade of its own. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Cook County’s general obligation bond rating to A1 from Aa3 due to the county’s “growing...
By Ted Dabrowski
To help small businesses, Illinois should make LLC fees fair
To help small businesses, Illinois should make LLC fees fair
If you want to start a small business in Illinois, there are different forms your new business can take. For example, you can have a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation or a limited liability company, or LLC. The LLC is a relatively recent innovation that has advantages over the corporate form, and it can...
Quinn signs three Illinois Policy Institute-backed bills
Quinn signs three Illinois Policy Institute-backed bills
Although it has been reported that Gov. Pat Quinn has nearly 400 bills to sign, veto or change by the end of August, in the past week he has enacted three important pieces of legislation that the Illinois Policy Institute championed throughout the spring legislative session that ended in May. Last Friday, Quinn signed the Illinois Water...
By Jane McEnaney
Judge won’t halt CPS school closings
Judge won’t halt CPS school closings
A federal judge said Friday he won’t order a halt to the 50 school closings Chicago Public Schools officials announced in March. The Associated Press reported: “In a 54-page ruling posted Thursday, US. District Judge John Lee says parents who requested an injunction stopping the closures hadn’t shown kids forced to attend new schools would be...
Quinn signs budget transparency legislation
Quinn signs budget transparency legislation
Today, Gov. Pat Quinn signed two pieces of legislation that result in greater budget transparency. The bills – House Bill 2947 and House Bill 2955 – which have both passed out of the Illinois General Assembly, mandate that the governor’s office posts the Illinois state budget online, and specifically identifies if there a budget surplus or a deficit within...
By Matt Paprocki
Burgerbot: Fast food chains can cut costs by using new technology
Burgerbot: Fast food chains can cut costs by using new technology
Recently, unions have been encouraging fast food workers to hold out for a $15 an hour wage in Chicago and other cities. Proponents have argued that fast food employees deserve more than they have been getting, and that the pay boost will improve the economy. But if they succeed, a different effect could take place: the...
By Paul Kersey
Another day, another ObamaCare implementation delay
Another day, another ObamaCare implementation delay
The New York Times recently revealed yet another ObamaCare implementation delay. “In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care. “The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was...
By Naomi Lopez Bauman
July unemployment: Illinois unemployment rate stalled at 9.2 percent
July unemployment: Illinois unemployment rate stalled at 9.2 percent
The Illinois Department of Employment Security, or IDES, announced today that the Illinois unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent in July from June’s revised rate of 9.1 percent. Illinois’ unemployment rate is still 1.8 percentage points above the national average, which fell to 7.4 percent in July. The number of unemployed Illinoisans now stands at 604,700, up...
By John Klingner
Nearly 110,000 Medicaid enrollees in Illinois found ineligible for the program
Nearly 110,000 Medicaid enrollees in Illinois found ineligible for the program
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...
By Jonathan Ingram
Jesse Jackson Jr. sentenced to 2½ years; Sandi must serve full term of one year
Jesse Jackson Jr. sentenced to 2½ years; Sandi must serve full term of one year
Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to stealing more than $750,000 from his campaign fund and illegally using the money for personal purchases. “I was wrong and I don’t fault anyone,” he said. His wife received a term of one year and will have...
ObamaCare: health insurance for the little people
ObamaCare: health insurance for the little people
In a weekend appearance on Las Vegas PBS’s “Vegas Week in Review,” Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, not only admitted that ObamaCare is designed to fail; but he also admitted that the law is one step toward a single-payer health care system. This admission should be added to the growing pile of ObamaCare’s broken promises. Just as many of the law’s...
By Naomi Lopez Bauman