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Rockford has more government retirees collecting benefits than active public employees, taxpayers picking up the tab ROCKFORD (Feb. 27, 2014) – State lawmakers spent the last few years debating state-level public pension reform in the capital, but a new study released by the Illinois Policy Institute suggests attention should turn to local government pensions, such...
by Patrick Gleason When a national soda and snack food tax went into effect in Mexico last month, it gave hope to those looking to revive efforts to impose such levies north of the Rio Grande. While there have been repeated attempts in recent years to pass punitive soft drink taxes in the U.S. at the national, state,...
by Naomi Lopez Bauman The Obama administration announced last week another one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate for some firms. This comes on the heels of the Congressional Budget Office’s “The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024,” which contains the now infamous analysis that the ACA will reduce work by a...
WGN covered a new report showing the how Illinois’ municipal pension systems are destroying city budgets, pushing property taxes higher and forcing cuts in local services. Read the report here. by Julian Crews It’s not just the state of Illinois as a whole that’s dealing with a huge, pension problem. Municipal pension systems are also in...
Springfield spends 100 percent of its property taxes on police, fire and city pensions State lawmakers spent the last few years debating state-level government pension reform in the capital, but a new study released by the Illinois Policy Institute suggests they should now turn their attention to pensions for the city of Springfield itself. Researchers...
Report analyzes outcomes of Wisconsin’s landmark labor laws, shows how three years later Wisconsin is prospering while IL continues to falter Three years ago, Wisconsin and Illinois both faced fiscal crises. Wisconsin had a budget shortfall of $3.6 billion, while Illinois had a backlog of $8 billion in unpaid bills. To combat their crises, the...
The lead story on page 1 of Thursday’s USA Today carried this headline: “New state problem: too much money.” It stood in stark contrast to the lead story that appeared on page 1 of Thursday’s Northwest Herald, about Gov. Pat Quinn’s “State of the State” speech and McHenry County lawmakers’ reaction to it. “After five...
Before the Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare, took effect earlier this year, a number of state and county governments across the country got permission to enact part of the law early: the Medicaid expansion. Here in Cook County, hospital officials saw the expansion as an opportunity to reduce the number of patients who don’t...