Illinois

Illinois needs a real balanced budget requirement

By Benjamin VanMetre
06/11/2014
Politicians are waiting for Gov. Pat Quinn to approve their state budget, and many are complaining that the budget isn’t balanced. “The effect of the budget is to delay doomsday by borrowing and increasing our backlog of bills,” said a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton. “Admittedly, this budget reverses some of the progress that...

State Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, convicted of taking $7,000 bribe

By Brian Costin
06/10/2014
A federal jury has found state Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, guilty of taking a $7,000 cash bribe in exchange for writing a state grant recommendation letter in 2012. Under state law, Smith automatically loses his office with the felony bribery conviction. This is the second time Smith has lost his office. Smith was originally expelled from...

TAGS: bribery, Chicago, corruption, Derrick Smith, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly

Quinn signs Chicago cell-phone tax hike

By Hilary Gowins
06/06/2014
Chicagoans could be on the brink of a cell-phone tax hike. Gov. Pat Quinn has signed into law an amendment to House Bill 2453, which gives the city of Chicago the authority to raise the city’s per-line 911 fee to $3.90 from the current fee of $2.50. Chicago cell-phone users are already hit hard by...

The nation’s 7 million “jobs gap”

By John Klingner
06/06/2014
The nation’s unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest unemployment report. But with 217,000 jobs created, the total number of payroll jobs has finally recovered to its pre-recession level. In other words, the nation is finally back to where it was six years ago. While...

The power of your voice

06/06/2014
It’s easy to be apathetic when it comes to effecting change in Illinois. Rampant corruption, legislators voting on bills they don’t read and the oversized influence of lobbyists all make trying to change public policy for the better a seemingly impossible task. But this doesn’t have to be the case – there are plenty of...

Not as good as you think: Illinois’ underperforming schools

06/05/2014
Is the school your child attends as good as you think it is? New research by Lance Izumi – senior director of education studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute – shows that a large number of suburban Illinois public schools aren’t making the grade. His study complements research conducted by the Illinois Policy Institute...

2014 legislative victories

By Matt Paprocki
06/05/2014
The driving goal of the Illinois Policy Institute is to transform liberty principles into marketable policies that become law. The ultimate sign of success is when free market ideas are enacted into laws that change Illinoisans’ lives for the better. Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda emphasized the importance of a financially responsible and limited...