Illinois

Illinois politicians’ obsession with tax hikes

05/21/2014
Fifty percent of all Illinoisans would leave the state if they could. Twenty-five percent think it’s the worst state to live in. Another 72 percent don’t trust their government. These numbers came from three recent Gallup polls. In all three surveys, no state polled worse than Illinois. You’d think with results like that, the last...

Illinois: $27 billion in tax increases since 2011

05/21/2014
A new report by Americans for Tax Reform shows that Democratic governors have enacted more than $58 billion in tax increases since 2011. Republican governors, on the other hand, have collectively signed more than $36 billion in tax cuts. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, one of the nation’s top five most tax-happy governors, has signed 29 tax increases...

Madigan and Illinois’ million-man migration

By Michael Lucci
05/21/2014
Gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner publicly opposes the tax-hike plan championed by Gov. Pat Quinn and House Speaker Mike Madigan. Rauner claimed that raising income taxes again in 2015 will cause more businesses and people to flee the state. Madigan fired back at Rauner with one of the most poorly-conceived statements of this campaign season. Madigan...

No room in Illinois family budget for another tax hike

By Benjamin VanMetre
05/20/2014
Illinois politicians are nervous. They don’t yet have the votes to pass another tax hike, and they’ve done nothing to prepare a balanced budget under the actual 2015 income tax rates. Now they’ve resorted to guilting Illinoisans into paying higher taxes. We’re all familiar with these stories by now. Politicians have focused on narratives that...

Proposed Illinois budget overspends by $3 billion

By Benjamin VanMetre
05/20/2014
Have you ever wondered why Illinois’ budget is such a mess? Or how this state became the poster-child of how not to run a state? Last week’s budget debates provide a telling look into how Illinois got here. During a floor debate, state Rep. Ron Sandack questioned the state’s ability to pay for one of...

Courts can strike down Madigan’s unconstitutional budget

05/19/2014
The Illinois Constitution is clear: the Illinois General Assembly’s spending in any fiscal year “shall not exceed the funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” The General Assembly has officially estimated how much money the state will have available in fiscal year 2015: about $34 billion. Yet the spending proposed...

Chart of the week: Your share of $37 billion

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
05/19/2014
Last week, Springfield lawmakers took the first step in taking an additional week’s worth of your wages. Over the course of 11 hours, Illinois lawmakers introduced 73 bills and spent almost $7,700 for every full-time worker in the state. This level of spending assumes that the promised 2011 income tax hike won’t begin to sunset...

Tennessee’s constitutional amendment on taxation

By Michael Lucci
05/19/2014
Policymakers in Illinois spent this spring debating whether the state should adopt a progressive tax scheme. At one point, there were as many as seven different tax structures being considered in Illinois. Supporters of the progressive tax fought for an amendment to the Illinois Constitution to allow such a change. Their efforts were rejected, and,...

Rideshare drivers rally to defend their jobs

By Bryant Jackson-Green
05/16/2014
Drivers and supporters of rideshare company Lyft rallied earlier this week on Chicago’s Federal Plaza to urge community members to oppose House Bill 4075, which would restrict ridesharing at the state level. The Illinois Senate approved the bill this week. Thanks in part to the efforts of Illinois Policy Action, the most anti-competitive aspects of...

Quinn’s former deputy chief of staff gets $117K a year pension bump in ‘error’

By Brian Costin
05/16/2014
As the Illinois General Assembly is nearing a vote on Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to extend the income tax hike, which will cost the average taxpayer about $1,100 per year, a WGN-TV investigation revealed one of Quinn’s former top staffers is the beneficiary of a $117,000 pension error. Brown Hodge, former Deputy Chief of Staff...
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Fighting poverty with employment: Chicago block clubs

Leaders of these organizations on the South and West sides connect residents to jobs and engage youth to build safer neighborhoods.

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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