Myth: Gov. Pat Quinn says that Illinois is a regional leader in job creation, and that the state is making a comeback. Fact: Illinois has ranked at the bottom of regional job comparisons since the Great Recession hit. Illinoisans suffer a jobless rate that is the second-worst in the nation and the highest in the...
The problem At the end of fiscal year 2013, Illinois had accumulated more than $100 billion in state pension debt. Although the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 1 in December 2013, the bill will – at best – reduce the unfunded liability to $80 billion, roughly where it was during the pension crisis in 2011....
Expect Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s call for property tax hikes to be a boon for Chicago’s collar counties and Lake County, Ind. Cook County residents have been fleeing to neighboring counties for decades, and Emanuel’s proposed hikes – to prop up city pensions – will only increase the outflow. According to IRS data, Cook County lost...
State Sen. Don Harmon and advocates for his progressive tax proposal argue that the progressive income tax will provide tax relief for Illinois’ middle class. Not only is the argument not true, but the progressive income tax was never about tax relief. The proof of that is in the numbers. Under Illinois law, the individual...
The constant stream of government corruption stories in Illinois takes a dramatic toll on citizens’ trust of government. A recent Gallup poll showed only 28 percent of Illinois residents trust their state government. Illinois is the only Midwestern state where trust in state government is less than 50 percent. The most recent corruption story to...
Many Illinois families are all too familiar with the many broken promises of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. The president repeatedly promised that the average American family would save $2,500 per year. Not only did the president and administration later backtrack on that promise, but many families actually also...
Union members are allowed to deduct their union dues on their taxes, equating to an estimated $15 billion nationwide. According to the Internal Revenue Service, workers are allowed to deduct union dues as part of their itemized deductions: “You can deduct dues and initiation fees you pay for union membership… You can also deduct assessments for...
The 2015 fiscal year marks a long-awaited milestone for Illinoisans: taxpayers are less than one year away from tax relief. The record 2011 income tax increase is slated to partially sunset during the 2015 fiscal year. But politicians are already crying poor as Illinois approaches the tax-hike sunset. The solutions they’ve offered up involve making...
The 2015 fiscal year marks a long-awaited milestone for Illinoisans: taxpayers are less than one year away from tax relief. The record 2011 income tax increase is slated to partially sunset during the 2015 fiscal year. But politicians are already crying poor as Illinois approaches the tax-hike sunset. The solutions they’ve offered up involve making...
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pension reform scheme passed through the General Assembly this week and has been moved to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk. This plan authorizes Chicago to raise $2.25 billion in additional property taxes over the next decade. Despite this massive tax hike, the city will raise only half its legally required pension payments. Hiking...
On April 9, the City of Countryside was presented the Illinois Policy Institute’s Sunshine Award during their monthly City Council meeting. Countryside earned this award by taking the initiative to be transparent to their residents – posting vital government information online for the public to access. Scoring 93.1 percent on the Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist,...
A week ago, my colleague Josh Dwyer reported an exchange between state Reps. Linda Chapa LaVia and Ron Sandack. Sandack, R-Downers Grove, recently asked Chapa LaVia – when they were debating the bill in the House to end the state charter school commission – what the logic was behind crafting the bill. Chapa LaVia responded:...
This session, a bill was introduced to the Illinois General Assembly that would impose draconian regulations on Uber and Lyft’s ridesharing programs. This legislation was crafted by the cab unions with the intention of drastically increasing regulation so as to maintain monopoly control over the urban transportation market. In addition to stifling the free market,...
Illinois’ 10 largest metropolitan areas continue to be plagued with joblessness, according to a release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This news comes on the heels of no monthly improvement in the state jobless rate, which at 8.7 percent is 2 points higher than the national average. Illinois has the second highest jobless rate...