Illinois’ credit rating is in a free fall. Rating agencies have downgraded Illinois 13 times under Gov. Pat Quinn. Most recently, Moody’s Investors Service reduced Illinois’ credit rating to A3 from Aa3 – just four notches above junk status. Even before this downgrade, Illinois already had the worst credit rating in the nation. Illinois’ constant...
Illinois’ pension conference committee is once again rumored to be nearing a “fix” for the state’s pension mess. But if the pension conference committee is serious about saving the pensions of state retirees and workers who have dedicated their careers to public work, they will put an end to cost-of-living-adjustments, or COLAs, for government retirees...
Under the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, individuals are required to have health insurance coverage by Jan. 1, 2014, or pay a fine. This provision of the law is called the individual mandate. There are a number of ways that people can obtain coverage under ObamaCare if they do not currently get...
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 failed to...
It’s hard not to notice the disappearance of Illinois’ manufacturing sector. Anyone driving through the outskirts of Peoria can witness the closed buildings and half-abandoned neighborhoods. Cities all across Illinois have seen a similar story unfold. Illinois’ manufacturing base has been in decline, losing over 130,000 manufacturing jobs in the past decade. Even during the...
School districts across Illinois waste more than $941 million a year by giving raises to teachers who earn their master’s degrees, even though most studies show these degrees do nothing to boost student achievement. In fact, even U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thinks this is one of the worst ways to spend money in...
It’s hard not to notice the disappearance of Illinois’ manufacturing sector. Anyone driving through the outskirts of Peoria can witness the closed buildings and half-abandoned neighborhoods. Cities all across Illinois have seen a similar story unfold. Illinois’ manufacturing base has been in decline, losing over 130,000 manufacturing jobs in the past decade. Even during the past...
While the media and public are focused on lawmakers’ fight over ObamaCare and the federal budget, a bigger fight is taking place in the courts. On Oct. 8, the state of Indiana, along with 15 school districts, filed suit against the Internal Revenue Service over ObamaCare’s employer mandate. Under the law, large employers are required...
Illinois school districts and administrators want to keep parents in the dark. That’s why the Illinois State Board of Education is refusing to do a full release of results from a survey about the inner workings of the state’s public schools. The state paid $600,000 to Chicago Consortium on School Research to conduct the survey,...
Just a couple of weeks ago the AFL-CIO passed a sharp criticism of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, in a written document at its national convention in Los Angeles. This document was the last of a string of union complaints about the national health insurance law and the way that the...
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is in damage control mode in the wake of the glitches and failures of ObamaCare’s grand unveiling. Her op-ed in USA Today calls the government’s ObamaCare website “simple, user-friendly.” She also appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But her next appearance might be in...
The Local Transparency Project is an encouraging example of a successful grassroots effort and a great resource for citizen activists looking to organize and mobilize.– Sunlight Foundation For democracy to work citizens need access to the information about what government does. Proactive online transparency is the best way to give citizens the opportunity to be educated...
A new Tax Foundation report reveals one of the reasons why Illinoisans are finding it so hard to get jobs – it’s getting more and more expensive for businesses to operate in Illinois. The Tax Foundation released today its 2014 State Business Tax Climate Index, confirming the state’s worsening position. Illinois has dropped 15 spots to...
Illinois legislators and local officials could learn a thing or two from California cities that have buckled under the weight of too much debt. The first is if they don’t implement reforms early enough, bankruptcy for the city of Chicago and other municipalities may be unavoidable. In California, both Stockton and San Bernardino were forced...