Gallup, Inc.

More inspectors general necessary to fight Illinois’ corruption woes

By Brian Costin
07/12/2014
For far too long Illinois politicians haven’t done enough to address a public corruption epidemic that has wreaked havoc on the state’s image and the pocketbooks of its taxpayers. Illinois consistently ranks in the top five states for public corruption, and a recent study estimated the cost of corruption in Illinois at nearly $1.4 billion...

Saving Chicago: Reforming city-worker retirement ages

By John Klingner
07/02/2014
The problem Chicago is suffering from one of the worst pension crises in the nation. To begin fixing its failing system, the city should move away from a politician-controlled, defined-benefit system. But another important step is reforming retirement-age requirements. The Chicago systems’ retirement ages don’t reflect today’s fiscal and demographic realities. People are living longer,...

Chart of the week: Waning entrepreneurial spirit in Illinois

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
06/27/2014
According to a recent Gallup survey, only 60 percent of Illinoisans believe that this is a good state to start a business. Not only do we have one of the most negative views in the nation, but it stands in stark contrast to booming states such as North Dakota and Texas, where more than 80...

Chart of the week: One-quarter of Americans hurt by ObamaCare

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
06/02/2014
According to the most recent Gallup survey, almost one-quarter of Americans believe that the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, has directly harmed them or their family. But that is only part of the story. A scant 14 percent believe that the law has helped them. These results might have important implications for bolstering political support...

Illinois politicians’ obsession with tax hikes

05/21/2014
Fifty percent of all Illinoisans would leave the state if they could. Twenty-five percent think it’s the worst state to live in. Another 72 percent don’t trust their government. These numbers came from three recent Gallup polls. In all three surveys, no state polled worse than Illinois. You’d think with results like that, the last...

ObamaCare grants in Illinois

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
05/16/2014
According to a recent Gallup survey, Illinois residents have the least trust in their own state government compared to every other state in the nation. That is why Illinois lawmakers should make stewardship of taxpayer dollars a top priority. When revelations of wasteful spending or outright fraud come to light, they only serve ti further...

Illinois out-migration a reflection of mistrust in state politicians

By Jim Long
05/09/2014
Half the Illinoisans surveyed in a recent Gallup poll said they’d like to move to another state. This attitude isn’t a new trend. Between 1995 and 2009, the state lost on a net basis more than 806,000 people to out-migration. As Illinois lost residents, it also lost out on a net of $26 billion in taxable...

U-Haul moving rates shine a light on out-migration

By Michael Lucci
05/05/2014
Illinois has a domestic migration problem. The state is losing too many people. Illinois has lost more people to other states than it gained in every single year since 1985 . And in every year, the people who left earned more money than the people who entered. The Internal Revenue Service released new migration data...

Gallup: Half of Illinoisans would leave the state if they could

By Michael Lucci
04/30/2014
Gallup released a stunning poll that shows 50 percent of Illinoisans want to leave the state, the highest percentage of any state nationally. This comes a week after Illinois’ worst-in-the nation performance in a Gallup poll that showed one in four Illinoisans consider Illinois to be the worst possible place to live. If Illinois government...
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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