While teachers unions hold tremendous power, cracks are starting to appear in their foundations. As Stephanie Simon reports in Politico, both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are dealing with new challenges: declining membership, the growing popularity of Right-to-Work laws and a loss of support among the public. As Simon describes...
While the media and politicians across Illinois celebrate the state’s “landmark,” “monumental” and “courageous” pension fix, for most Illinoisans nothing has changed. Taxpayers will continue to hear calls for higher taxes to keep the state’s pension systems afloat. Government workers and retirees are still trapped in a pension system that gives them no voice, no...
The national unemployment rate fell to 7 percent in November, down from 7.3 percent a month earlier, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. The number of unemployed Americans fell by 365,000, while both the number of employed and the labor force grew over the month. The number...
Eight of Illinois’ 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs, saw their unemployment rates rise or remain stagnant compared to October 2012, according to today’s combined September-October metropolitan area unemployment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Decatur and Danville regions are still suffering the highest unemployment in the state, with 12.3 percent and...
On Wednesday, thousands of Illinois residents got good news when Amazon announced that its Amazon Associates program – which allows bloggers and others with websites to make money when people click links on their sites to make purchases – would once again be open to them. Amazon dropped Illinoisans from the program in April 2011...
Illinois’ property tax rates have skyrocketed since 2010, according to new analysis done by the Tax Policy Center. The survey examined the 23 Illinois counties with populations exceeding 65,000. The average property tax rates as a percent of home value has soared from 1.93 percent in 2010 to 2.28 percent in 2012. This represents an 18 percent property...
Illinois’ pensions are among the worst-funded in the nation. The state has just 40 cents for every $1 that has been promised in benefits, and many government workers are concerned that they do not have choice and control over their own retirement. Illinois should not be forced to leave their retirement to the whims of...
Lawmakers met in Springfield on Tuesday for a special session on pension reform. After an early morning committee hearing, a gathering of each of the four legislative caucuses and several hours of lengthy floor debates, a pension bill passed the House and Senate, and now awaits Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature. The Illinois Policy Institute adamantly...
The Illinois General Assembly sent a pension bill to Gov. Pat Quinn. It is important to be clear about what this bill is and is not. Let’s start with what this bill is not. This bill is not the sweeping reform that Illinois has been waiting – fighting – for over the past few years....
Today U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that “nothing distinguishes pension debt from any other debt” – and that Detroit’s pension debt can therefore be partially discharged in bankruptcy. What does that mean for Illinois, where huge unfunded pension liabilities threaten to render the state government and many local governments insolvent? If the courts...
Madigan’s new pension “fix” does nothing to address the problems with the current pension system. Here’s another reason why Illinois teachers should urge their legislators to vote “no”: the new pension bill does nothing to address the unfair distribution of pensions under the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS. Amazingly, the pension a teacher in TRS...
For 33 years, Clyde Tome served the city of Detroit as a firefighter. Every day he was on duty he knew his life was on the line; in one encounter with riot fires, Tome watched a colleague die. Another time, he saw a nearby fireman killed in a random shooting. For his commitment, Tome counted...
House Speaker Mike Madigan’s latest pension proposal is a giant step backward. The overall effect of this plan would be to leave Illinois pensions worse off than they are today – and that’s saying something, considering the state has $100 billion in official pension debt. If this plan passes, both taxpayers and government employees will...
As lawmakers in Springfield prepare to vote on a controversial pension reform plan, a federal bankruptcy court judge in Detroit issued a ruling that could have major consequences for government employees throughout the country. Dealing with numerous objections to the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy, Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that pension debts were not given “extraordinary...