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Chicago unemployment rate 5th highest of nation’s 49 largest metro areas

By John Klingner
06/02/2014
Illinois politicians want to make things worse for the many Chicagoans struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. They’re calling for state, county and local tax hikes on the city that already has one of the worst metro area unemployment rates in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Gov. Pat...

Why Illinois doesn’t need mandatory labeling for genetically modified food

By Bryant Jackson-Green
06/02/2014
Should food producers be forced to label genetically modified, or GM, goods? It’s a trend that’s been popping up in states across the country, with laws now on the books in Maine and Connecticut. The possibility has been raised in Illinois, too, with a Senate bill under discussion that would require foods with even one...

Illinois’ misguided push to ban Google Glass continues

By Bryant Jackson-Green
05/23/2014
Illinois Sen. Ira Silverstein wants to ban Illinois drivers from using Google Glass, even before complaints about drivers using it have become an issue. Silverstein has been pushing a Google Glass ban for some time, even before it became available for the general public to buy, and this week representatives from Google went to the...

TAGS: google glass

Illinois: $27 billion in tax increases since 2011

05/21/2014
A new report by Americans for Tax Reform shows that Democratic governors have enacted more than $58 billion in tax increases since 2011. Republican governors, on the other hand, have collectively signed more than $36 billion in tax cuts. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, one of the nation’s top five most tax-happy governors, has signed 29 tax increases...

Illinois’ Corruption Hall of Shame, April 2014

By Brian Costin
05/06/2014
April was a very busy month for public corruption stories in Illinois. In total, there were 45 different public corruption-related news stories in just 30 days. A full list of those stories can be found here. Here are the April inductees to the Illinois Hall of Shame: 5. The city of Chicago spent more than...

Want a job? Move to a state that doesn’t tax work

By Michael Lucci
04/28/2014
Do high taxes help or hinder a state? The Fiscal Policy Center at Voices for Illinois Children thinks high taxes are a good thing. The group released a study recently claiming that states that levy high personal income taxes outperform states that don’t tax income at all. They use their study as a justification for...

Did higher taxes create the Minnesota miracle?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
04/24/2014
A Better Illinois is claiming that the progressive tax and higher taxes on the wealthy are responsible for the “Minnesota miracle.” But the only marvels here are the impressive contortions they used in concluding that higher taxes is what holds Illinois back from impressive job growth and a budget surplus. The problem with their analysis...

Illinois has the second-worst jobless rate in the nation

By Michael Lucci
03/18/2014
Illinois’ loss of 27,600 payroll jobs in January was second-worst nationally, according to today’s release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only California, which shed 31,500 payroll positions, fared worse. Texas and Ohio led the nation in adding payroll jobs.   Illinois is one of six states with an unemployment rate significantly above the...

TAGS: jobs, unemployment

Illinois unraveling

02/20/2014
Until the mid-1900s, people from across the world stampeded into Illinois in search of opportunity. Workers from rural America came to build Pullman cars, erect skyscrapers and fill factories. Immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in search of economic freedom. And laborers left the agrarian South to participate in America’s industrialization. Illinois’ population doubled from 1900...

Illinois’ ‘obesity epidemic’

By Brian Costin
02/01/2014
In a recent editorial, Better Government Association, or BGA, President Andy Shaw debates examines Illinois’ “obesity epidemic.” But bulging waistlines are not the target of Shaw’s ire. Instead, he complains about Illinois’ abundance of taxing bodies. “This is about a state that’s morbidly obese when it comes to government: Illinois has nearly 7,000 separate taxing...

TAGS: local government