Small businesses create virtually all new Illinois jobs

By Bryce Hill

11/26/2025

Small Business Saturday gives Illinoisans another reason to be thankful: these businesses have been the sole job creators since 2020.

Thank a small business on Saturday: they’ve generated all Illinois’ job growth

By Bryce Hill

11/29/2024

Small Business Saturday offers a reason to be extra thankful: businesses with fewer than 20 employees have been the only ones to grow payrolls since COVID-19 hit.

TAGS: small business

Unlocking Opportunity: How Occupational Licensing Reform Would Promote Equitable Empowerment in Illinois

By Josh Bandoch, Larry Han

10/16/2024

Published Oct. 16, 2024 Illinois finds itself at a crossroads: will it empower minorities and poor people to unleash their potential, or will it perpetuate an inequitable status quo? For far too many Illinoisans, opportunity is unfairly and unnecessarily out of reach. Illinois ranks in the bottom ten among all states in social mobility and...

Madigan’s fiscal legacy: How the longest-serving state House speaker built Illinois’ mountain of debt

By Adam Schuster

08/26/2020

Decades of institutionalized financial mismanagement left Illinois with the nation’s worst fiscal health. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan has been at the center of nearly every bad decision along the way.

Illinois should suspend, repeal hospital bed limit law to address COVID-19 crisis

By Bill Reveille

03/30/2020

Health care institutions need flexibility to prepare for infection rates that could overwhelm current hospital bed capacity.

TAGS: Certificate of Need, coronavirus, COVID-19, regulations

Illinois Forward: A 5-year plan for balanced budgets, declining debt and tax relief

By Adam Schuster

02/15/2020

The years 2010 through 2019 will go down in Illinois history as a decade of public policy failure and economic decline. High fixed costs for pensions and government worker health care have prevented the state from balancing its budget in any year since 2001. Since the Great Recession in 2008, the state’s fiscal imbalance has...

Illinois can spend another $10B on infrastructure without tax hikes

By Adam Schuster

05/15/2019

Illinois can do it the old way and raise taxes to deliver pork projects. Or Illinois can be smart and make each tax dollar work hard to deliver projects that help residents and the economy.

Budget Solutions 2020: A 5-year plan to balance Illinois’ budget, pay off debt and cut taxes

By Adam Schuster

02/04/2019

Gov. J.B. Pritzker inherited a $2.8 billion budget deficit the moment he stepped into office. Next year, that deficit is projected to be $3.4 billion1. It’s the same story every budget season. But Illinois’ budget crises could be a thing of the past if the state would adopt pension reform, right-size its union contracts and...

Report: Illinois’ budget health is the worst in the nation

By Adam Schuster

10/17/2018

A new university study ranks Illinois last of all 50 states for fiscal health. Pension reform and spending caps are essential for recovery.

TAGS: balanced budget requirement, budget, income tax, pensions, taxes

6 reforms to end Illinois’ perpetual budget crisis

By Donna Arduin

04/15/2016

Illinois needs a combination of constitutional and statutory changes to put and keep the state on sound fiscal footing and allow it to pay its providers and better prepare for emergencies.

TAGS: budget

George Mason University

Small businesses create virtually all new Illinois jobs

Thank a small business on Saturday: they’ve generated all Illinois’ job growth

Unlocking Opportunity: How Occupational Licensing Reform Would Promote Equitable Empowerment in Illinois

Madigan’s fiscal legacy: How the longest-serving state House speaker built Illinois’ mountain of debt

Illinois should suspend, repeal hospital bed limit law to address COVID-19 crisis

Illinois Forward: A 5-year plan for balanced budgets, declining debt and tax relief

Illinois can spend another $10B on infrastructure without tax hikes

Budget Solutions 2020: A 5-year plan to balance Illinois’ budget, pay off debt and cut taxes

Report: Illinois’ budget health is the worst in the nation

6 reforms to end Illinois’ perpetual budget crisis

FAQ: How the federal scholarship program would help Illinois students

Report Archive

Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students