Despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker touting growth in “every major region,” Illinois shed jobs in three metropolitan areas and lagged the national average in seven more.
A proposal in the Illinois General Assembly would prohibit right-to-work laws in Illinois, making Illinois the only state in the nation to ban the policy in a state constitution.
Illinois’ pension crisis is the nation’s worst. Maybe that’s because elected officials take a problem they aren’t sure exists, apply a solution they don’t know will work and never determine the cost.
This Thanksgiving, about 17,500 more Illinoisans will be using food stamps. By New Year’s, about 50,000 Cook County recipients must find jobs or lose benefits.
Faced with the impossible task of balancing Chicago’s budget without pension reform, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is forced to partially rely on phantom cuts and revenues.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.