On June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Pat Quinn was wrong to issue an executive order that forced the unionization of Illinoisans who are not state workers. This groundbreaking ruling asserts that state governments cannot force-unionize participants in state entitlement programs or force them to pay union dues as a condition of...
Two federal appeals courts issued conflicting decisions about the future of ObamaCare on Tuesday. In one, the Halbig v. Burwell decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Affordable Care Act means what it says: ObamaCare insurance subsidies are only available in states that have established their own health-insurance exchanges,...
It’s ironic that Detroit government workers and pensioners, on the one-year anniversary of the Motor City’s bankruptcy, have voted to cut their own pensions. Their vote is part of a “grand bargain” bankruptcy restructuring that seeks private, philanthropic and state funds to help avoid massive cuts in government pensions. The bargain reduces Detroit’s debt by...
Most millennials don’t trust Social Security, according to a spring 2014 survey from Reason-Rupe: The report found that: “Fifty-three percent of millennials say Social Security is ‘unlikely’ to exist when they are 67 years old, while 45 percent say it probably will remain. But if it does exist at that time, even fewer millennials believe...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court has ruled today that the Internal Revenue Service does not have the ability to circumvent the original intent of the Affordable Care Act and provide insurance subsidies or impose individual and employer penalties in a state that has not created its own ObamaCare health-insurance exchange....
Chicago has the most red-light cameras of any city in the country. Since 2003, the city’s 352 cameras have levied nearly half a billion dollars in fines. These cameras are sold to the public as a way to promote traffic safety, but the real outcome of the city’s program has been to grift lawful drivers...
The problem Opponents of pension reform at the state and local level often argue that the average government-worker pension is modest. In a May 2011 commentary, government union chiefs Ken Swanson and Henry Bayer wrote that “at the end of a working life devoted to public service, an Illinois teacher, firefighter or librarian retires with...
Illinois isn’t the only place where retiree health insurance costs are destroying state and local budgets. For the latest example of where the Land of Lincoln could be heading, look no further than Flint, Michigan. Unless the city of Flint enacts reform, retiree pension and health expenses will consume $0.32 of every $1 in Flint’s...
Illinois needs to pass a law to create space for this financial innovation, allowing families to invest in local businesses through crowdfunding.
In June, Illinois suffered the largest monthly workforce loss in recorded state history. June’s workforce loss was worse than the worst month of the Great Recession. Overall, 21,700 Illinoisans gave up and left the workforce in June; in September 2008, 17,500 Illinoisans quit the workforce. (Bureau of Labor Statistics data go back to 1976.) This...
The state of Illinois received a near-failing grade for the quality of its natural-hair-braiding licensing rules, according to a new study released by the Institute for Justice. The study overviews natural-hair-braiding (a popular beauty practice among African and African-American communities in the U.S.) regulations in every state in the country, ranking each one based on...
Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner released yesterday another portion of his “Bring Back Blueprint,” acknowledging Illinois’ jobs crisis and identifying many of the pain points that make Illinois the lowest performing state in the Midwest, economically. The Illinois Policy Institute has reviewed Rauner’s proposal, and while the plan is not perfect, it addresses many...
The Illinois Department of Public Health is posed to release new, stricter regulations on the sale of raw milk in Illinois this month, several media outlets report. But many small-farm operators are concerned they won’t be able to meet the new standards. Raw milk sales have only been growing more popular in recent years, and...
For years the left has complained about the influence that money has on politics. And almost without fail, they have focused on money held and used by private businesses. But money is money, whether it comes from companies or some other source, and it can be used to buy political influence, or political office, just...