Illinois General Assembly

Government transparency bill passes unanimously

By Justin Hegy
03/11/2014
Government transparency – a major tool in preventing waste and corruption – took a small step forward in Illinois this past week. With the signing of House Bill 1040 – which passed both Illinois legislative houses unanimously – state agencies will now be mandated to develop detailed plans on how to get vital public information...

Chicago’s pension red alert

03/10/2014
The Wall Street Journal’s article “Public Pension Red Alert” foreshadows more municipal bankruptcies countrywide as pension costs continue to spiral out of control. One of the cities facing the most stress nationally is Chicago. The city’s pension payments are set to jump to more than $1 billion as laws that allowed the city to skimp on pension payments...

TAGS: Chicago, municipal pensions

Madigan bill would appropriate $100M for Obama library

By Jane McEnaney
03/05/2014
House Speaker Michael Madigan just introduced a bill to the Illinois General Assembly that appropriates $100 million to build a presidential library and museum “dedicated to the legacy of President Barack Obama.” Illinois is sitting on $7.6 billion in unpaid bills. The state’s credit rating has been downgraded five times since the largest tax hike...

TAGS: Mike Madigan, Obama presidential library

Illinois politicians considering changes to law under review by U.S. Supreme Court

By Paul Kersey
03/05/2014
The Illinois General Assembly is poised to consider a bill that looks harmless at first glance, but should be raising eyebrows across the state. House Bill 5935 is supposed to make technical changes to the state’s Medicaid programs, but in the process it affects people who are involved in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case....

TAGS: Harris v Quinn, labor, Medicaid, Pam Harris, Pat Quinn, U.S. Supreme Court

Illinois pension reform resurfaces

By Matt Paprocki
03/01/2014
In December 2013, a pension reform bill passed out of the Illinois General Assembly. Sponsors of the bill estimated $160 billion in savings over the next 30 years, and supporters touted that the pension problem in Illinois was finally fixed. In fact, most of the dialogue throughout the Capitol was that the state-funded pension systems...

TAGS: 401(k), COGFA: Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, defined benefit plans, GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, pensions

Illinois unraveling

02/20/2014
Until the mid-1900s, people from across the world stampeded into Illinois in search of opportunity. Workers from rural America came to build Pullman cars, erect skyscrapers and fill factories. Immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in search of economic freedom. And laborers left the agrarian South to participate in America’s industrialization. Illinois’ population doubled from 1900...

Illinois Policy Action’s legislative agenda focuses on education, pensions, health care and more

By Jane McEnaney
02/15/2014
Yesterday marked Illinois lawmakers’ deadline to introduce bills for this spring’s legislative session. Our government affairs team was down in Springfield, finalizing Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the major legislative initiatives we’ll be pushing this session: Pension reform State Rep. Ron Sandack has introduced a bill that...

Illinois considers banning drivers from using Google Glass

02/08/2014
You can’t buy Google Glass in Illinois yet, but that’s not stopping lawmakers from trying to ban it from the state’s streets and highways. Senate Bill 2632, currently pending in the Illinois General Assembly, would prohibit drivers from wearing a “mobile computing headset,” defined as a “computing device with a head mounted display that can project visual...

TAGS: google glass, nanny state

Illinois borrowing penalty still three times higher than when Quinn took office

02/06/2014
It didn’t take long for Illinois’ spending machine to cram more debt down taxpayers’ throats. Only two months after signing a pension bill, Gov. Pat Quinn is borrowing yet another $1 billion to fund state construction projects. This will be the first large borrowing for Illinois since it passed Senate Bill 1, a pension fix...

TAGS: borrowing, capital project, debt, Pat Quinn, penalty borrowing rate, pensions

Google Glass app for government waste

By Justin Hegy
02/06/2014
While the Illinois General Assembly debates outlawing the use of Google Glass while driving, others are creating innovative apps to fight government waste and corruption using Google’s groundbreaking new technology. Have you ever walked down the street, stared at a government building and wondered how much it costs to operate? Imagine eyeing the elegant copper...

TAGS: google glass

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What is the Education Freedom Tax Credit and how can it benefit Illinois students?

The Education Freedom Tax Credit, also known as the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, will give Illinois students access to donor money if the state opts into the program.

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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