Illinois

The top 10 things every Illinoisan should know about ObamaCare and Medicaid

10/20/2014
The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly known as ObamaCare, is failing to deliver on its promises to provide health-care access and affordability. While some Illinoisans now have coverage, it has come at the expense of people like Michéle who lost her employer-based coverage as a result of the law and now struggles to find...

Post-recession pain points in Illinois: a breakdown

By Michael Lucci
10/20/2014
From the beginning of the Great Recession in January 2008 through August 2014, Illinois is still down 157,100 payroll jobs, more than any other state in the U.S. Some sectors of Illinois’ economy have recovered completely, while others remain dramatically below pre-recession levels. Manufacturing and construction have had it the worst through the recession era,...

TAGS: jobs, private sector, public sector

Kankakee County asks voters to hike county-level sales taxes by 800%

By Brian Costin
10/16/2014
Kankakee County already has one of the highest average property tax rates in the country. In 2012, the Tax Foundation ranked Kankakee County as having the 79th-highest property taxes in the nation out of more than 800 of the largest counties in the U.S. Soon, Kankakee County could have one of the highest sales-tax rates...

An introduction to Hudson rights

By Paul Kersey
10/16/2014
Hudson rights are important to Illinois government employees, because under state labor law unions are entitled to collect union dues – or their functional equivalent – from every worker they represent, even if the employee does not support the union. Hudson rights mitigate the harm done by forced dues, allowing workers to opt out of...

TAGS: Hudson Rights, labor

Worker Freedom: A retirement alternative for government workers

By Benjamin VanMetre
10/14/2014
Government workers across Illinois believe they have no viable alternative to the politician-controlled pension system. They’re stuck holding on to the false hope that politicians will make good on their next set of promises, and that somehow the pension crisis will solve itself in the future. That’s why the Illinois Policy Institute launched workerfreedom.com, an...

Meet the company pushing sales-tax hikes across Illinois

By Brian Costin
10/14/2014
Fourteen Illinois counties face higher sales taxes if referendums pass at the ballot box this fall. The tax is called the Illinois County School Facility Occupation Tax, or County School Facility Tax (CSFT) for short. The law authorizing the tax, which passed in 2007, allows school boards representing 51 percent of a county’s student population...

TAGS: Missouri, Nicolaus & Co., sales tax, Stifel Nicolaus & Co., taxes

Illinois’ symbolic first step – cut LLC fees

By Michael Lucci
10/12/2014
Small businesses and innovators are the lifeblood of any economy, and Illinois needs reform to encourage them to locate in Illinois. Small businesses are responsible for two-thirds of all new jobs created in the last 20 years. The disincentives for entrepreneurs to locate in Illinois are systemic, and thus require systemic solutions. An agenda for...

TAGS: jobs, LLC fees

25 percent of Illinois voters think state is headed in ‘right direction’

By Jim Long
10/12/2014
Starting in July, Illinois Policy Action has conducted enhanced voter ID canvassing across 20 key districts throughout Illinois. After 37,762 house-to-house door knocks by a team of 122 canvassers, followed up by over 430,000 automated and live phone calls to those homes not reached in person, we’ve produced a powerful barometer of Illinois’ political climate....

Mayor Emanuel’s minimum wage executive order doesn’t apply to political pals

By Brian Costin
10/11/2014
With great fanfare, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently announced an executive order requiring city contractors and concessionaires to pay their employees no less than $13 per hour. The move was highly touted in both the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune, as well as a number of other publications and television news broadcasts. None of these...

TAGS: Rahm Emanuel, transparency, unions

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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