Welfare abuse: As American as baseball, hotdogs and whoopie pies
Welfare abuse: As American as baseball, hotdogs and whoopie pies
The national food stamp program was originally designed to provide nutritional foods for folks who can
Progressive income tax: Brought to you by Illinois unions
Progressive income tax: Brought to you by Illinois unions
A coalition of progressive groups is beginning to coalesce around a proposal to create a progressive income tax in Illinois. Under their plan state income tax rates will increase as one reaches higher incomes, up to a top rate of 11 percent for incomes over $1 million. This plan would leave Illinois with one of...
Can you wait four years to get a job in Illinois?
Can you wait four years to get a job in Illinois?
Illinois’ July unemployment rate hit 8.9 percent, up from 8.7 percent in June, the second consecutive monthly increase. Thirty-nine states have a lower unemployment rate than Illinois. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Illinois’ labor force is roughly 6.5 million people. More than half a million of them are unemployed. This is a...
Institute in Baltimore Sun: Is another federal bailout coming?
Institute in Baltimore Sun: Is another federal bailout coming?
Maryland stands to lose big if the government steps in to save state pension systems
Feds to cut Medicare payments to nearly every Illinois hospital
Feds to cut Medicare payments to nearly every Illinois hospital
In October, the federal government will begin implementing the “readmissions adjustment factor,” one of ObamaCare’s cuts to hospital reimbursement rates. New research from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that the group hit hardest by these new cuts are safety net hospitals. According to federal data, a whopping 88 percent of hospitals in Illinois will be hit with this year’s rate cuts. By...
The cost of pension inaction
The cost of pension inaction
by Conor Durkin When politicians lose interest in reform, taxpayers “lose interest,” too. Last week Gov. Quinn’s special legislative session failed to pass a bill dealing with Illinois’ pension problems. Yet even if any measure had passed, Illinois’ massive problems would persist. The proposals debated in Springfield were far too small to make a visible...
Calling government unions’ bluff
Calling government unions’ bluff
As John Tillman noted yesterday, the last few days have been full of political melodrama as the Illinois General Assembly holds a special session that is unlikely to do more than pass a sliver of a reform — if they can even muster that. But I’d like to call attention to the role that AFSCME is...
Illinois House votes 100-6-3 to expel Rep. Derrick Smith (D)
Illinois House votes 100-6-3 to expel Rep. Derrick Smith (D)
By a vote 100-6 State Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) has been expelled from the Illinois House of Representatives.
Quotes from Aug. 17 special session to reform state pensions
Quotes from Aug. 17 special session to reform state pensions
While they only managed to pass an amendment, the House provided some memorable quotes.
Illinois must shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans.
Illinois must shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans.
Illinois’ state pension systems are barreling towards insolvency. Without a complete pension overhaul, Illinois’ five pension systems may reach their breaking point. There is only one way to prevent a collapse. Illinois must shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans. In a DB plan, an employer pays fixed, regular pension payments over a...
The truth about those union boos
The truth about those union boos
The spectacle of government union members booing the best friend they ever had off the stage Wednesday at the Illinois State Fair made for entertaining video. Gov. Quinn may not have liked the boos, but he certainly understands his starring role in this fiction of a drama. Here’s the truth: the pension proposals under consideration in Springfield...
Pension debt more than doubles under new rules
Pension debt more than doubles under new rules
THE PROBLEM Illinois reports that it owes $83 billion to its five public pension funds. That amount represents the chronic failure of the state to fully fund its pension systems, overly generous retirement benefits for state workers, and the inability of those funds to meet their investment targets. Unfortunately, this $83 billion figure grossly understates...
Government unions bluff on pension reform
Government unions bluff on pension reform
Lawmakers will return to Springfield for special session Friday to consider a woefully inadequate fix to the state’s pension system. On Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times published comments about the pension mess from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel: “If we do nothing throughout … our five funds, we have to raise property taxes 150 percent, and I will...
Illinois’ pension math
Illinois’ pension math
When Rhode Island saw the writing on the wall late last year, its legislature did something no one thought it could do. It passed the boldest pension reforms in the nation. A democrat-controlled state, with the second-worst funded pension system in the nation, passed a series of reforms that cut the state’s unfunded liabilities by...