Chicago

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...

Freedom for workers – teachers can get out of paying union dues

By Paul Kersey
10/01/2013
Illinois public school teachers are required to financially support unions whether they want to or not. They don’t have much of a choice – it’s either pay up, or give up teaching. Union bosses claim to have teachers’ best interests in mind, but despite this they sometimes make outrageous demands that cost teachers their jobs....

TAGS: agency fees, Civil Rights Act, Hudson Rights, Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

As usual, politicians win, taxpayers lose in legislator pay lawsuit

09/28/2013
In July, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn used his line-item veto power to suspend legislators’ salaries, pledging to withhold legislators’ paychecks until they solved the state’s pension problem. But just Thursday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil H. Cohen ruled that Quinn’s move was unconstitutional. Article IV, Section 11, of the Illinois Constitution prohibits any “changes” to...

TAGS: John Cullerton, lawmaker pay, Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn

ObamaCare: How much is it going to cost Illinosians?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/26/2013
Illinoisans have heard the pitches about how affordable health insurance will be under the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. On Sept. 24, Gov. Pat Quinn was trumpeting the ObamaCare health insurance exchange in Illinois. Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is at it. Both have been cheering the least-expensive health insurance...

Labor law fails to protect whistleblowers

By Paul Kersey
09/26/2013
The ethics of big labor tend to be completely backward, protecting the corrupt while punishing the diligent. One reason why is a federal labor law that fails to protect union officials when they try to protect their members from crime, as James Sherk writes in National Review’s “Corner” blog. In a recent article that appeared...

State pension contributions: Taxpayers bear the brunt of increasing pension costs

By John Klingner
09/25/2013
The problem A common refrain sounded by public sector unions is that government workers have consistently “paid their share” into Illinois’ pension systems and the state has not. However, the facts tell a different story. While government worker contributions to Illinois’ five pension systems have increased by 75 percent since 1998, taxpayer contributions have increased...

TAGS: GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, JRS: Judges’ Retirement System, SERS: State Employee Retirement System, SURS: State Universities Retirement System, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

Chicago gives Whole Foods $10M tax incentive

By Brian Costin
09/18/2013
In a free enterprise system, businesses grow organically by providing customers with products of value, and in return customers reward those businesses with their hard-earned money. Unfortunately, in Illinois the free enterprise system has been corrupted by bad government policies. Because of Illinois’ high taxes, regulations and anti-free-market policies, many businesses now resort to playing...
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FAQ: How the federal scholarship program would help Illinois students

Illinois students could soon benefit from scholarship money to help them find a tutor, attend ACT or SAT prep sessions, pay tuition, get special education services or assist with other academic needs. That will happen in Illinois only if Gov. J.B. Pritzker lets the state’s schoolchildren benefit from the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, established...

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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