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Pension Reform, Illinois’s Future

05/26/2011
(UPDATED: action in House pension committee. See below) by Collin Hitt A bold proposal to reform government employee pensions has been put forward, Senate Bill 512. It is the broadest and best legislation yet introduced by legislative leaders hoping to address the long term debt, and insolvency, of Illinois’s public employee pension funds. Illinois taxpayers...

Government Monopolized Education Is Ineffective

05/25/2011
by Sameer Warraich New leadership is set to take control over Chicago Public Schools, and parents and students are pondering whether these new policy makers will be successful in reforming Chicago’s public school system. With a deficit that exceeds $720 million, CPS is in dire need of reformers who can simultaneously reduce costs while increasing the...

CMS Fights Workers’ Compensation FOIA Request

05/24/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson In December, the Menard Correctional Center became infamous after theBelleville News-Democrat revealed almost $10 million in workers’ compensation paid out to more than half the staff of the facility. The high incident of workers’ compensation claims have prompted multiple investigations at the federal and state level, and the increased scrutiny of the claims has resulted in...

Pension Costs Will Hit Home: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis

05/18/2011
Download a pdf of this report and chart here. The required pension payment for Chicago city government and Chicago Public Schools will jump to $1.92 billion from $650 million between now and 2020. Current law will require local taxpayers to foot the bill. That’s a citywide per capita jump to $715 from $241. Illinois is...

Congratulations to the New Mayor of Chicago

05/16/2011
Inauguration day carries a spirit of optimism. Changes are needed in Chicago, and we can all hope today is the day that those changes begin to take place. Chicago is a great city, and in almost every way it could become the greatest city in America. But sober realities await the new mayor. The city...

What’s Going on Next Door?

05/04/2011
by Mark Cavers Last week, Indiana’s Governor, Mitch Daniels, released a recap of the previous legislative session and touted a number of successes for the residents of Indiana. Here in Illinois, our legislators are now faced with many of the same opportunities that Indiana took advantage of over the past few months. Lets take a quick look...

High Speed Rail Dead in its Tracks?

By Chris Andriesen
04/29/2011
by Brian Costin In the above video from 2009 the Cato Institute’s Senior Fellow, Randal O’Toole, talks about the impact of high speed rail in Illinois. Fast forward to April 2011, and it appears as if the national high-speed rail plan touted by President Obama is losing significant steam. This blog post from O’Toole explains. “President Obama’s dream...

Chicago’s Big Hurt on Pensions: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis

04/26/2011
Chicago residents face twin financial crises at Chicago Public Schools and City Hall, driven by the costs of public employee pensions.  The steep tab for the retirement benefits of school and city employees is coming due. More retirees than ever are collecting pension checks. And state law will soon require the City and CPS to...

An End to Taxpayer-Funded Advertising for Politicians?

04/26/2011
by Brian Costin One of my biggest pet peeves of all times is how some politicians have an insatiable need to put their name on things at the expense of the taxpayers. The open road tolling signs with former Governor Blagojevich’s name and the Richard M. Daley signs at O’Hare Airport come to mind. However, a...

Digital Learning in Illinois

By Chris Andriesen
04/26/2011
by Collin Hitt The Chicago Tribune carried a good story over the weekend about online learning in the Chicago area. Technology-led learning will be playing a larger role in education in the area. Included was a quote from yours truly, regarding the uneven spread of online learning statewide. “There is no real, robust, state-led effort in online...
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4 ways to break out of Illinois’ pension trap

Causes, costs, how to set the state free

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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