Illinois

Detroit’s city pensioners vote to cut their own pensions

07/23/2014
It’s ironic that Detroit government workers and pensioners, on the one-year anniversary of the Motor City’s bankruptcy, have voted to cut their own pensions. Their vote is part of a “grand bargain” bankruptcy restructuring that seeks private, philanthropic and state funds to help avoid massive cuts in government pensions. The bargain reduces Detroit’s debt by...

TAGS: bankruptcy, Chicago, Detroit, Michigan

Millennials reject broken, traditional retirement benefits

07/23/2014
Most millennials don’t trust Social Security, according to a spring 2014 survey from Reason-Rupe: The report found that: “Fifty-three percent of millennials say Social Security is ‘unlikely’ to exist when they are 67 years old, while 45 percent say it probably will remain. But if it does exist at that time, even fewer millennials believe...

TAGS: Chicago, millennials, pensions

Could today’s Halbig decision topple ObamaCare?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
07/22/2014
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court has ruled today that the Internal Revenue Service does not have the ability to circumvent the original intent of the Affordable Care Act and provide insurance subsidies or impose individual and employer penalties in a state that has not created its own ObamaCare health-insurance exchange....

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act

Pension benefits of Chicago workers

By Benjamin VanMetre
07/21/2014
The problem Opponents of pension reform at the state and local level often argue that the average government-worker pension is modest. In a May 2011 commentary, government union chiefs Ken Swanson and Henry Bayer wrote that “at the end of a working life devoted to public service, an Illinois teacher, firefighter or librarian retires with...

TAGS: Chicago, labor

Flint offers grim look at the future of Illinois’ pension crisis

By Benjamin VanMetre
07/21/2014
Illinois isn’t the only place where retiree health insurance costs are destroying state and local budgets. For the latest example of where the Land of Lincoln could be heading, look no further than Flint, Michigan. Unless the city of Flint enacts reform, retiree pension and health expenses will consume $0.32 of every $1 in Flint’s...

TAGS: Chicago, Flint, pensions

Illinois workforce shrinks by largest margin in state history

By Michael Lucci
07/20/2014
In June, Illinois suffered the largest monthly workforce loss in recorded state history. June’s workforce loss was worse than the worst month of the Great Recession. Overall, 21,700 Illinoisans gave up and left the workforce in June; in September 2008, 17,500 Illinoisans quit the workforce. (Bureau of Labor Statistics data go back to 1976.) This...

Illinois should strive for better marks on hair-braiding regulations

By Bryant Jackson-Green
07/18/2014
The state of Illinois received a near-failing grade for the quality of its natural-hair-braiding licensing rules, according to a new study released by the Institute for Justice. The study overviews natural-hair-braiding (a popular beauty practice among African and African-American communities in the U.S.) regulations in every state in the country, ranking each one based on...

TAGS: licensing, occupational licensing, regulations, small business

Analysis of GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner’s ‘Bring Back Blueprint’

By Michael Lucci, Benjamin VanMetre
07/18/2014
Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner released yesterday another portion of his “Bring Back Blueprint,” acknowledging Illinois’ jobs crisis and identifying many of the pain points that make Illinois the lowest performing state in the Midwest, economically. The Illinois Policy Institute has reviewed Rauner’s proposal, and while the plan is not perfect, it addresses many...
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Taxed out: 10 reforms to stop Illinois from losing people and jobs

Illinois’ tax code stands in the way of the state’s economic competitiveness. The combination of high tax burdens and a poor tax structure contributes to the loss of jobs and investment to other states. From a place of former economic dominance, Illinois now ranks 45th in gross state product (GSP) growth over the past decade...

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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