Illinois

Willowbrook mails public employee compensation info to residents

By Brian Costin
08/11/2012
Ever since the Village of Willowbrook’s participation in the Illinois Policy Institute’s Local Transparency Project, the Mayor and Board of Trustees have been interested in ways of furthering the Village’s transparency efforts.” – Garrett Hummel, Management Analyst, Village of Willowbrook. The Village of Willowbrook previously earned a transparency award from the Illinois Policy Institute for scoring an...

Illinois’ economic turnaround depends on entrepreneurship

By Lawrence McQuillan
08/07/2012
As the graphic shows, the rate of entrepreneurship in Illinois has been below the national average every year since 1996 except for 2001. The Kauffman Foundation entrepreneurship index measures the percentage of adults ages 20 to 64 that start a new business each month and work 15 or more hours per week. It’s measured across all 50...

Evanston lawsuit much more than just a food fight

By Lawrence McQuillan
08/07/2012
Illinois has felt the bite of the Great Recession more than most states. Our unemployment rate increased to 8.7 percent in June, the highest in the Midwest and 10th highest in the nation. Lawmakers should be doing all they can to make opening a business easier. But in Evanston, Illinois, they are imposing needless restraints....

Illinois’ economic turnaround depends on entrepreneurship

By Chris Andriesen
08/07/2012
by Lawrence J. McQuillan, PhD Chief Economist As the graphic shows, the rate of entrepreneurship in Illinois has been below the national average every year since 1996 except for 2001. The Kauffman Foundation entrepreneurship index measures the percentage of adults ages 20 to 64 that start a new business each month and work 15 or more hours...

Food fight in Evanston

08/07/2012
On August 7, 2012, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a City of Evanston ordinance that exists only to protect established restaurant owners from the legitimate competition that food trucks would bring to the C

Illinois has highest cost of government in Midwest

By Lawrence McQuillan
07/26/2012
The average Illinoisan works 208 days to pay the cost of government   July 26 is Illinois’ Cost of Government Day, the date of the calendar year on which the average Illinois worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal,...

Liberty Justice Center files lawsuit challenging lllinois campaign finance law

By Chris Andriesen
07/25/2012
On July 24, 2012, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Illinois’ campaign finance law. The law establishes a series of contribution limits on individuals and associations, including our client, Illinois Liberty PAC, while exempting political parties and their leaders from these same limits. The law’s overall scheme includes political party exemptions...

Lawmakers should not opt-in to ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion

By Jonathan Ingram
07/16/2012
Now that the dust has settled from the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision, states are trying to decide whether they should opt-in to ObamaCare’s massive Medicaid expansion. Just 10 states have committed to expanding Medicaid, with another three leaning toward implementing the expansion. Leaders in 13 states, including those run by both Republicans and Democrats, have...

Another day, another terrible competitiveness ranking for Illinois

By Lawrence McQuillan
07/12/2012
CNBC just released its 2012 America’s Top States for Business, and guess what, Illinois didn’t top the list (no surprise there), but it wasn’t even in the top half! Illinois placed a dismal 26th, worse than most of its neighboring states. Texas took top honors as it has done for three of the six years that...
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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