Illinois

More than 141,000 Medicaid enrollees in Illinois found ineligible for the program

By Jonathan Ingram
09/20/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...

Illinois August unemployment rate remains stalled at 9.2%

By John Klingner
09/19/2013
Tomorrow, Illinois is likely to celebrate its six-month anniversary of having the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. That’s when the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, releases its Regional and State Employment and Unemployment report for August. In the meantime, the Illinois Department of Employment Security, or IDES, pre-released some of the BLS data...

Chicago gives Whole Foods $10M tax incentive

By Brian Costin
09/18/2013
In a free enterprise system, businesses grow organically by providing customers with products of value, and in return customers reward those businesses with their hard-earned money. Unfortunately, in Illinois the free enterprise system has been corrupted by bad government policies. Because of Illinois’ high taxes, regulations and anti-free-market policies, many businesses now resort to playing...

Illinois and Chicago riddled with bad economic policy

By Justin Hegy
09/18/2013
Illinois and Chicago are riddled with many regulations, laws and licensing requirements that are unnecessary and anti-growth in nature. Politicians often claim to pass these laws in pursuit of a favorable business climate; but the result is often the opposite. Illinois’ economy is struggling. The state has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation at 9.2...

The hidden bill: Chicago taxpayers and the looming crisis

By Benjamin VanMetre
09/17/2013
The city of Chicago has long been regarded as an economic engine of the Midwest. It is home to some of the country’s largest industries and more than 30 of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies. Chicago is accessible by road, rail and water, and is located in a state that boasts an abundance of natural...

Chicago only major U.S. city without term limits; Illinois one of 11 states without term limits

By Brian Costin
09/17/2013
Term limits are a foreign concept to most Illinoisans. There are no term limit provisions governing our state legislature or constitutional officers. At least 39 other states have some form of term limits that apply to either state legislators or constitutional officers. Only a few municipalities in Illinois, such as Downers Grove, have any formal term-limits policy. But...

TAGS: Chicago, Committee for Legislative Reform and Term Limits, Mike Madigan, term limits

Illinois state government wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars

By Benjamin VanMetre
09/17/2013
Illinois spending is packed with waste. Nearly 200 examples of wasteful government spending in Illinois, totaling more than $354 million, is detailed in the “The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book,” a report compiled by the Illinois Policy Institute in a partnership with Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste. Each item highlights the decisions of politicians who...

Illinois and Chicago’s pattern of cronyism and corporate handouts

By Justin Hegy
09/17/2013
Instead of creating a business-friendly environment by keeping taxes and regulations low, Illinois state government and the city of Chicago have a laundry list of special tools they claim promote economic development. These tools include: tax increment financing, or TIF, districts; economic grants; and a series of loopholes in the tax code. When government gives...

TAGS: cronyism

National gas prices average $3 or more for 1,000th straight day

By Hilary Gowins
09/17/2013
Today marks the 1,000th day in a row the national average price for a gallon of gas was $3 or more. And AAA forecasts the national average will remain above $3 per gallon for at least another thousand days barring a major economic recession. “Paying less than $3 per gallon for gasoline may be automotive history for...

Illinois’ state government pension crisis and the top 100 pensioners

By Justin Hegy
09/17/2013
  Illinois’ current unfunded state government pension liabilities total approximately $200 billion under Moody’s Investors Service’s new methodology. The Illinois Policy Institute estimates that the state’s pension funding ratio is currently less than 25 percent, meaning the state has the worst-funded pension system in the nation. Buried within this massive financial obligation are thousands of current...
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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