Illinois’ comeback story starts here.
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Presser at 10:30 a.m in Chicago; will have satellite feed for downstate outlets CHICAGO (April 15, 2014) On Tuesday, the nonpartisan Illinois Policy Institute will reveal its proposals to balance Illinois’ state budget while allowing the temporary income tax increase to expire. Gov. Quinn and state legislators continue to perpetuate the false narrative that tax...
If the states are laboratories of democracy, then a great comparative policy experiment is taking place in America’s Great Lakes region. Democrats in Illinois have been pursuing their blue-state model of higher taxes and union-dominated government. Neighboring states since 2010 have gone for lower taxes and union reform. The comparison is especially apt because Illinois...
The Belleville News-Democrat was right to raise a warning about HB 5485 (Illinois lawmakers erode local control, April 4), a bill that would allow arbitrators to set minimum staffing levels in fire departments throughout Illinois. Local officials ought to decide how firefighters are deployed. Allowing arbitrators to set both wages and manpower means that taxpayers...
In response to LA Commission Studies Pension Crisis, Recommends New Commission; Bankruptcy Inevitable reader Daniel writes … Hello Mish, Can you please explain why a home owner in a place like Los Angeles would be concerned with their city’s future bankruptcy? Will whatever happens not be short lived? I understand that city workers will be...
The Illinois House has approved a three-year ban on virtual charter schools, the moratorium coming shortly after a one-year ban expired. “It’s an amazing story about what they want to do here in Illinois. We are going absolutely backward in terms of education reform and education innovation,” said Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy at...
Members of the government employee union SEIU and a group of Democrat supporters protested an Illinois think tank for opposing efforts to push a hike in the Illinois income tax. The protests in the state capital were organized by a group calling itself the Community Renewal Society (CRS), a Chicago-based group that counts members of...
Our CEO John Tillman is quoted in the following article by Eric Zorn. He explains why Zorn calling for a Chicago income tax is a bad idea. “ I reject … the idea of a city income tax. I think that’s not the right way to go” — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, responding Wednesday to...
By EMILY K. COLEMAN Jack Cronan remembers when car dealerships used to be open on Sundays. “I missed the family picnics,” he said. “I missed the Little League games and all the other things on Sunday because I had to work. And on those days, we’d sell four or five cars that we would have...