Illinois

Niles Public Library first in state to win Sunshine Award

By Brian Costin
04/27/2014
Over the four-year history of the Local Transparency Project, there have been 35 municipalities, 12 school districts, seven counties, four park districts, two townships and even one fire protection district to earn the Illinois Policy Institute’s Sunshine Award. But until recently, no library has won the award. The April 16 Niles Public Library board meeting...

Top 6 things legislators in Springfield don’t want you to know

By Donovan Griffith
04/25/2014
1. A supermajority means the rules do not apply When it comes to running a state, there is a long list of rules and parliamentary procedures the government must abide by during its everyday operations. These rules govern everything from how votes are taken to how bills are read and are in place to protect...

Illinois GOP leaders introduce executive term limits proposal, Quinn flips opposition

By Brian Costin
04/25/2014
Illinois is one of only 14 states that doesn’t have some form of gubernatorial term-limits. A proposal introduced by Illinois State Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) and Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) would give Illinois voters an opportunity to change that this coming November by enacting eight-year term limits on executive...

Did higher taxes create the Minnesota miracle?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
04/24/2014
A Better Illinois is claiming that the progressive tax and higher taxes on the wealthy are responsible for the “Minnesota miracle.” But the only marvels here are the impressive contortions they used in concluding that higher taxes is what holds Illinois back from impressive job growth and a budget surplus. The problem with their analysis...

Obama presidential library: Madigan and Rahm caught red-handed

By Jane McEnaney
04/24/2014
Last week, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to pull the wool over the eyes of every Illinoisan by dedicating $100 million of taxpayer dollars to the construction of Barack Obama’s presidential library, which the city of Chicago is vying for. Fortunately, they were caught red-handed. According to the Rules of...

ObamaCare: Wrong side up

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
04/22/2014
Under ObamaCare, if an employer offers a generous health insurance plan that does not happen to cover the law’s mandated minimum set of “essential health benefits” to its employees, the employer would pay more in penalties than if they had offered no coverage at all. There are 10 coverage categories that comprise the essential health benefits,...

ObamaCare in Illinois: Just say no to a state exchange

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
04/22/2014
Some bad ideas just won’t stay dead. Despite reasonable opposition from both sides of the aisle in Springfield, some political activists are continuing to push the idea of a state-based health insurance exchange. Illinois has a state-federal partnership exchange currently. At a time when the state’s health-care bureaucracy was caught paying Medicaid benefits on behalf of dead...

Lawmakers need to keep their promise to sunset the tax hike in 2015

By Benjamin VanMetre
04/21/2014
Illinois politicians pushed through a record income tax increase on families and businesses in January 2011. They promised the tax hike would partially sunset in January 2015. But as that date closes in, lawmakers are crying poor and threatening Illinoisans with massive cuts in services. Illinois lawmakers are using doomsday scenarios as scare tactics to...

In search of an education

04/21/2014
Meet Jailyn Baker. She’s a senior at Josephinum Academy – an all-girls school in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Jailyn is like many Chicago students: she works hard in school and she dreams of a bright future. What makes Jailyn’s experience unique, however, is that she has an hour-and-a-half commute both ways to go to school....

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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