From 2009 to 2014, the state added $8.9 billion in new tax dollars to the education budget, over and above the base amount of $6.8 billion it spent in 2009. Of those new dollars spent, 89 percent went to retirement costs and just 11 percent made it to classrooms.
Good-faith negotiation and trust were foundational to all of the deals made, but some Statehouse Democrats pushed for extreme solutions while others were actively compromising.
Gov. Rauner and the Illinois House of Representatives support a bill to release lottery winnings, but Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are standing in the way. Now Illinois Lottery winners may not be paid until 2016.
Flawed property valuations and the process required to fix them are a cash cow for law firms, including those of House Speaker Mike Madigan, Chicago Alderman Ed Burke and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton.
It is wrong that the General Assembly doesn’t have to feel the impact of their actions when they are responsible for other Illinoisans not receiving paychecks.
Like so many Illinoisans working in a stagnant state economy, state lawmakers will not receive pay raises this year. But House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton will still receive bonuses in excess of $25,000.
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.