Illinois

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...

AFSCME’s higher calling

By Paul Kersey
07/09/2012
It is a standard bit of Alinskyite strategy: couch your demands in moral terms.  It makes your opponents seem small and puts them on the defensive.  But while it sounds simple – replace “we want” with “we deserve” – it’s not foolproof.  As AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall demonstrated earlier this week, sometimes the moralizing wears thin, and the...

LOCAL PENSION ACCOUNTABILITY POLL

By Chris Andriesen
07/05/2012
Illinois survey of 500 likely voters Who should fund the employer share of teacher pensions: the state or local school districts? Will local pension accountability lead to higher property taxes? Last month, these questions prompted legislative talks over pension reform to come to a standstill. The results of a new poll commissioned by the Institute finds that public...

Why is Lyons removing public documents from website?

By Brian Costin
07/03/2012
“In 1990, Lyons police officers Donald Kroft and William Tweeter pleaded guilty to having sex with prostitutes in return for overlooking crimes at a suburban strip joint.” “Lyons Village President Kenneth Getty was convicted in 1998 of theft and money laundering for his role in a bid-rigging scheme involving two public works projects. 53 Prosecutors...

Illinois pension debt: It’s worse than you imagined

By Jonathan Ingram
07/03/2012
Last week, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, or GASB, finalized new rules to make pension funding more transparent. These new rules require governments to use more appropriate discount rates than most public pension plans have been using. Pension plans with sufficient funds set aside to pay future benefits can continue to discount future liabilities by current investment...

TAGS: GASB: Governmental Accounting Standards Board, pensions

Five reasons why local pension accountability is right for Illinois

By Ted Dabrowski
06/30/2012
To see how local pension accountability will affect your district, click here. For decades, the state has subsidized the costs of pensions awarded to teachers who work at locally-run school districts. How? The state pays the “employer” share of pension benefits that teachers accrue each year, even though teachers are not state employees. That arrangement...
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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