Illinois’ manufacturing sector has been hemorrhaging jobs for decades, and policy has a lot to do with it. Since 2004, Illinois has lost 125,000 manufacturing jobs. Most of these losses resulted from the Great Recession – a colossal 117,000 manufacturing jobs were shed from January 2008-January 2010 – but precious few have returned. In the...
School districts in 14 Illinois counties are pushing for countywide increases in sales tax rates. These counties are utilizing the 2007 Illinois County School Facility Tax Act, or ICSFTA, which allows school boards representing 51 percent of a county’s population to put a referendum on the ballot for a countywide sales tax increase to fund...
On Sept. 12, the village of North Riverside took a big step forward in addressing its budget crisis. The village filed a suit with the Cook County Circuit Court asking for the right to terminate its currently expired firefighters contract. This effort is part of the village’s larger plan to deal with its budget crisis...
On Sept. 3, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel signed an executive order requiring city contractors to immediately hike wages for the city workers they employ to $13 per hour from the current rate of $11.93 per hour. The current rate is already nearly 45 percent higher than the statewide minimum wage of $8.25 per hour. Illinoisans...
After a year-long campaign by the nonpartisan Mackinac Center and other groups to inform Michigan’s teachers of their right to leave their union, around 5,000 teachers have decided to do so. But more than 100,000 teachers in the state remain under union control. And the Michigan Education Association, or MEA, is claiming victory for managing...
Stock markets have reached all-time highs just a few years after the market meltdown of the Great Recession. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has more than doubled since the end of 2008 and many individuals have replenished their retirement accounts, and then some. But if you’re an Illinois government worker stuck in a state-run...
The proportion of Illinois Medicaid enrollees found to be ineligible remains high, according to the state’s Medicaid Redetermination Project Quarterly Report for the second quarter of 2014. But here’s the kicker: The state will end up paying for more and more of them, regardless of eligibility. According to the report, 55 percent of the reviewed...
More than 1,300 Illinoisans will be laid off in coming months, according to notices filed in accordance with the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN. Among the cuts listed in the August WARN report are 418 jobs lost in conjunction with Hostess Brands’ shuttering of its Twinkie factory in Schiller Park – the...
Minorities have suffered disproportionately under the failed economic policies of Gov. Pat Quinn. From its pre-recession peak through 2013, the black employment rate has plummeted by 7.1 percentage points, more than any other racial group in Illinois. Fewer than half of black adults are employed in Illinois. And the black male employment rate has been...
According to ratings agency Standard & Poor’s 500 Illinois’ credit rating is the worst among the 50 states. We are the only state in the country with an A- credit rating – on par with nations such as Botswana, Latvia and Slovenia And Illinoisans should be aware of the possibility that we could be headed...
Illinois has become infamous for encouraging cronyism and discouraging entrepreneurship, but there are a number of steps state lawmakers could take to end this cycle and encourage growth. Without serious changes, Illinois will continue on a cycle of job loss and economic decline. According to the Kauffman Foundation, Illinois ranks near the bottom for entrepreneurial...
Illinoisans’ average property tax rates as a percentage of home value have soared to 2.28 percent in 2012 from 1.93 percent in 2010. This is the second highest rate in the nation. Many Illinois residents are asking why their taxes are so high, and are curious as to where all this is money going. One organization,...
Warshawsky Muffler has operated in Rockford, Ill., for 70 years, but that’s scheduled to change. The Rockford City Council said it may seize the three properties owned by S&L Warshawsky’s Inc. in order to allow a private developer to build a parking lot, according to the Rockford Register Star. The city decided earlier this year to...
At least 84 corruption-related stories have been reported from across the state of Illinois in August alone. Atop August headlines is the recent revelation that a federal grand jury subpoenaed the emails of Gov. Pat Quinn’s ex-chief of staff in relation to Quinn’s anti-violence grant program. The case, which has been referred to by some...