Barack Obama

Government salaries have received significant interest in recent months

By Chris Andriesen
11/30/2010
by Kate Piercy The Illinois Policy Institute has highlighted various instances where Illinois government employees are paid above national averages and much of the time land in the highest earners rankings. Our legislators, allexecutive officers, including the governor, and judges, make some of the highest salaries compared to counterparts nationwide. The Wall Street Journal today discussed President Obama’s recent...

Obama Announces Federal Pay Freeze

11/29/2010
Earlier today, President Obama announced a plan to freeze civilian federal employee pay for two years. The pay freeze “applies to all Executive Branch workers — including civilian employees of the Defense Department, but does not apply to military personnel, government contractors, postal workers, members of Congress, Congressional staffers, or federal court judges and workers.” The pay freezewill also “not...

Top Margin Income Tax Hikes Do Not Increase Revenue

By Chris Andriesen
11/29/2010
by Ashley Muchow History has shown us that increasing the top margin personal income tax rate has done little to impact tax revenues. Indeed, over the past 60 years, tax revenues as a percentage of GDP have averaged just under 19.5 percent even when the top marginal tax rate has fluctuated from its 92% peak in...

‘Build America Bonds’ Building Debt?

By Chris Andriesen
11/22/2010
by Ashley Muchow Steve Malanga’s article in the WSJ today covers a topic that is both timely and closely connected to Illinois’s deteriorating fiscal condition. One measure about to reach the lame-duck Congress floor is a call to extend Build America Bonds (BABs)–bonds used by states and municipalities to accrue nearly $160 billion in new debt...

Obama Will Extend Tax Cuts – Here’s Why

By John Tillman
11/17/2010
President Obama will eventually agree to extend all the tax cuts if the Republicans stand firm and hold out for the full extension for all income levels. Extending the tax cuts helps Obama for his 2012 re-election regardless of how the economy performs.  Allowing the tax hikes to go into effect could hurt him badly...

Education Reform in Action at CICS-Basil

By Chris Andriesen
11/16/2010
by Ashley Muchow Thanks to the hospitality of Meghan Schmidt, Director of Special Projects at Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS), and Chenita Hardy, Director of CICS-Basil, Amanda Griffin-Johnson, Daniel Anthony, and myself were able to take an eye-opening tour of one of Chicago’s groundbreaking charter schools—CICS-Basil. CICS-Basil is a K-8 charter school located in Chicago’s West Englewood neighborhood. The...

Obamacare Waivers

By Chris Andriesen
11/15/2010
by Kate Piercy Bureaucracy deciding who gets exemptions from a law and who does not: Here is the list of the lucky 111 groups (including unions and health care providers) exempt from the burden of the Obama administration’s onerous health care plan, buried six clicks deep on the Health and Human Services website and posted last Friday. Nice...

Most Voters Want Health Care Impact Investigated

By Chris Andriesen
11/11/2010
by Kate Piercy A recent Rasmussen Reports national survey found ambivalence among voters about House Republican plans to investigate the Obama administration – unless the subject of the probe is the unpopular national health care bill. Scott Rasmussen remarked about the findings, saying, “Voters want Congress to focus on substance, not distractions. Congressional questioning about policy...

More and More Federal Employees Earning $150k a Year

By Chris Andriesen
11/10/2010
by Wesley Fox The Institute has previously put the spotlight on excessive salaries for Illinois state employees, but now it appears federal employees are also being paid quite generously. According to USAToday the number of federal employees earning $150,000 or more has grown tenfold since 2005.  In 2010, approximately 82,034 federal workers earned $150,000 or more, compared to only 7,420...
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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

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.

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016