California

Broken: A guide to Illinois’ pension crisis

By illinoispolicy
12/02/2013
REPORTS Pension Solutions: reforming retirement age More than 50% of Illinois government pensioners retired at age 59 or younger. Read more… Pension Solutions: cost-of-living adjustments are supersizing state pensions More than 8,000 Illinois government retirees receive more than $100,000 in annual pension benefits. Read more… Illinois’ pension system lacks transparency Actuarial data need to be...

The next municipal bankruptcy?

By John Klingner
11/15/2013
Yet another city is heading toward bankruptcy. Desert Hot Springs, Calif., a city of 26,000 in the south-central part of the state, warned it could run out of money as soon as March 2014. If that occurs, the city could be forced to file for bankruptcy. If that happens, Desert Hot Springs will be the...

TAGS: bankruptcy, Desert Hot Springs, pensions

Illinois Obamacare grant goes to California

By Jackson Adams
10/28/2013
A California group with a history of making political contributions to Illinois politicians and connections to the Obama administration was awarded a federal “navigator” grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, to help Illinoisans enroll in the Obamacare health insurance exchange. The East Los Angeles Community Union, or TELACU, was awarded...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act

Lessons from Vallejo: Don’t avoid pension reforms

By Ted Dabrowski
10/08/2013
Illinois legislators and local officials could learn a thing or two from California cities that have buckled under the weight of too much debt. The first is if they don’t implement reforms early enough, bankruptcy for the city of Chicago and other municipalities may be unavoidable. In California, both Stockton and San Bernardino were forced...

Shrinking the Illinois Senate

By Brian Costin
10/08/2013
With 42,336 elected officials as of 1992, Illinois has nearly 12,000 more state and local elected politicians than any other state. Amazingly, with this unprecedented wealth of legislators Illinois hasn’t been able to adequately address some of its most dire problems. Illinois still ranks near the bottom of the nation in numerous key economic indicators,...

TAGS: term limits

Unmasking state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson’s agenda for higher taxes

By Benjamin VanMetre
10/04/2013
State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, penned a press release attempting to mask her agenda for higher taxes in Illinois and sell her progressive tax plan as something it isn’t. When it comes to her peers and opponents, Jakobsson suggests that arguments about a progressive income tax for Illinois need come with coherent policy arguments combined with facts....

TAGS: fair tax, graduated income tax, income tax, Naomi Jakobsson, progressive income tax

Illinois’ ObamaCare exchange and Gov. Quinn’s failed math

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/24/2013
A Sept. 24 press release from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office announced with excitement that Illinois’ health insurance premiums under the state’s ObamaCare health insurance exchange would be lower than previous government estimates. This statement implies that Illinoisans won’t see their insurance premiums go up despite the massive health insurance expansion about to unfold under ObamaCare. But what...

Illinois: nation’s 2nd-highest unemployment rate for sixth straight month

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
09/21/2013
ix months ago, Illinois overtook California to become the state with the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind only Nevada. It hasn’t budged since. Today’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics details yet another month of stalled unemployment numbers for Illinois. The state’s August unemployment rate remained at 9.2 percent – 1.9 percentage...

Less-bad news is still bad news

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/09/2013
If you were told that your health insurance premiums would be doubling next year, would you be celebrating? Only if you were expecting them to triple. A new study of ObamaCare health insurance premiums in 17 states and the District of Columbia suggests that the cost for consumers will be lower than the previous Congressional Budget Office...

Detroit: A story that must be told

By Ted Dabrowski
08/23/2013
Two weeks ago I took in the demise of Detroit with my own eyes. I was fortunate to be with my colleague, Detroit native Paul Kersey. As we embarked on the trip, he told me “Detroit is a story that must be told.” He was right. I’d seen the pictures and knew the history, but...

TAGS: Detroit