Only one month remains in the ObamaCare open enrollment period for this year. Even though the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops, Illinois is less than half-way to its goal of nearly 237,000 enrollees for 2014. March 31 is the deadline to obtain qualified health-insurance coverage or face a penalty under ObamaCare. Despite...
Only one month remains in the ObamaCare open enrollment period for this year. Even though the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops, Illinois is less than half-way to its goal of nearly 237,000 enrollees for 2014. March 31 is the deadline to obtain qualified health-insurance coverage or face a penalty under ObamaCare. Despite...
The city of Springfield owes $216 million in police and firefighter pension debt alone. This 2012 figure is 6.5 times larger than the $33.5 annual payroll for police and firefighters. Just 10 years earlier, the shortfall was two times larger. (A fully funded pension should have no shortfall.) Pension debts are dwarfing the payrolls that...
Government transparency – a major tool in preventing waste and corruption – took a small step forward in Illinois this past week. With the signing of House Bill 1040 – which passed both Illinois legislative houses unanimously – state agencies will now be mandated to develop detailed plans on how to get vital public information...
Our recent comprehensive report, “The crisis hits home: Illinois’ local pension problem,” reviewed the fiscal health of Illinois’ 114 largest cities to measure the impact of pension costs on taxpayers, city services and the security of city-worker pensions. Decatur received one of the lowest scores as a result of out-of-control pension costs. Here’s why: Taxpayers...
Why are regulators so out of touch? At a Chicago City Council committee hearing on ride-sharing services last week, taxi-industry lobbyist Matthew Daus, president of the International Association of Transportation Regulators, reportedly said that “millennials” were responsible for the rise of companies such as Lyft and Uber because they care more about “cost” than about the public...
Waukegan’s teachers have authorized a strike and plan to walk out April 16. The Waukegan teachers union wants a 2.25 percent pay raise, retroactively effective into last year, plus step-and-lane increases, which average 4 to 5 percent in additional increases annually. The union’s demands would cost an additional $4.8 million to taxpayers. The school board...
The Wall Street Journal’s article “Public Pension Red Alert” foreshadows more municipal bankruptcies countrywide as pension costs continue to spiral out of control. One of the cities facing the most stress nationally is Chicago. The city’s pension payments are set to jump to more than $1 billion as laws that allowed the city to skimp on pension payments...
Illinois has the highest jobless rate in the Midwest, and the third-highest in the nation. But not only that. Illinois’ jobless rate has gone up more in the last five years than any other state in the nation. Despite this dismal record, cheerleaders for the state government cite various studies to support a claim...
Why are regulators so out of touch? At a Chicago City Council committee hearing on ride-sharing services last week, taxi-industry lobbyist Matthew Daus, president of the International Association of Transportation Regulators, reportedly said that “millennials” were responsible for the rise of companies such as Lyft and Uber because they care more about “cost” than about...
Moody’s Investors Services recently cut the city of Chicago’s credit rating to Baa1 from A3 – citing pension debt as a key factor in the downgrade. Without real pension reform, a chain of credit downgrades will likely follow for Chicago’s sister governments. The Moody’s report noted that the recent passage of pension reforms for the...
More bad news is coming on the heels of the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that Illinois dropped 27,600 payroll jobs in the month of January alone. More than 1,000 workers will be laid off in comings weeks and months, according to advance notices filed by businesses to regulators. Businesses such as Accretive Health and...
Illinois policies continue to smother the job prospects for people in the state. Yesterday, the Illinois Department of Employment Security, or IDES, reported that the state lost jobs for the second month in a row. Illinois lost 27,600 payroll jobs in January, compared to 129,000 jobs gained nationally. The Illinois unemployment rate for January is...
Illinois started the New Year in the wrong direction, with businesses reporting a loss of 27,600 payroll jobs in January. The January loss makes two consecutive months of job losses. The unemployment rate declined from 8.9 percent to 8.7 percent. The number of payroll jobs today is the same as it was in November of...