by Kolin Karchon On August 1st, the city of Central Falls in Rhode Island filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection citing that “the city’s financial condition has deteriorated to the point where it is insolvent.” The city’s pension plan is expected to run out of assets by October, but city negotiations regarding benefit cuts with current workers...
by Mark Cavers The Chicago Tribune reports that the City of Chicago has made progress in reigning in a traffic control aide program that is costing the city millions: “Fewer traffic control aides will be posted at downtown intersections during rush hour after the city laid off about half of Chicago’s full-time brigade to save money.”...
by Kristina Rasmussen Josh Barro of the Manhattan Institute has a new study out examining the high cost of public employee health care benefits, and he finds that “public-employee health benefits are more expensive than those in the private sector.” In the last quarter of 2010, government employees eared $4.66/hour in health benefits, compared to just $2.08/hour in...
Summary This report focuses on the seven downstate and suburban charter schools that enrolled K-12 students during the 2009-10 school year. Charter schools that focus exclusively on reenrolling high school dropouts are excluded from the analysis. Also not included in the analysis are Peoria’s Quest Academy, Rockford’s CICS Patriots Charter School and Southland College Prep,...
Executive Summary Since the January 2011 tax hike, Illinoisans have seen more of their household budgets go to shoulder the growing cost of government employee compensation packages – packages made up of overly generous pay and perks that many can only dream of. Righting this imbalance is one of the great social justice questions facing...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson On Thursday, Gov. Quinn signed the budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins today. As governor, he has the power to make line item vetoes and reductions to the budget passed by the General Assembly. In his budget announcement, Gov. Quinn claims to have made $376.4 million in budget cuts, but looking deeper...
The Problem As families make their Fourth of July travel plans, motorists in Illinois are feeling the pinch especially hard. National surveys continually find that Chicago tops the list of highest average gas prices in the country. Latest numbers show that as of June 27, the average gasoline price in Chicago is $3.98, compared to...
by Kolin Karchon In recent days, there has been discussion in Washington about another stimulus package including infrastructure spending and clean-energy initiatives. But where would the money come from? The federal government is facing a mountain of debt and is currently borrowing 43 cents for every dollar it’s spending. As more and more Americans suffer in this economic crisis, spending...
by Alex Miller Representative Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, took the House floor on Wednesday, fervently criticizing the lofty tax exemptions that Governor Quinn has granted to large corporations who have threatened to leave the state due to Illinois’s poor economic outlook. Franks insisted that he could not, in good conscience, watch so many millions fly into the hands of...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson A new study by Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Rochester and Joshua Rauh of the Kellogg School of Management calculated the contribution increases that would be necessary to fully fund state and local pension systems across the U.S. over the next 30 years. The study found that in Illinois, annual government contributions would have to increase...
by Mark Cavers Legislators came and went from Springfield yesterday without making significant changes to the budget. We were told that the budget they passed is actually a pretty good one. But, as the Institute’s CEO John Tillman argued on FOX this morning, we are in fact spending more than we did last year. Still, legislators...
by Mark Cavers On Monday, the Chicago Tribune ran a story on the thousands of taxing districts and government bodies that are scattered across Illinois: “Illinois has the most units of government in the nation, and the Tribune acquired and combed through a list of each one — nearly 8,500 by the state comptroller’s count, from well-known...
Before the Illinois General Assembly began its spring session extension on June 22, the Illinois Policy Institute held a press conference in Springfield to present our latest report, “Budget FAIL: Plan Awaiting Gov. Quinn’s Signature Grows Spending, Debt.” The report shows that the 2012 budget is not a reduction in spending and does little to...
State spending will increase in 2012. That is, unless additional cuts and policy changes are added to the general fund budget currently awaiting Gov. Quinn’s signature. Following the close of the spring session, many news outlets reported that the House and Senate had passed a 2012 general fund budget of $33.2 billion that cut overall...