Illinois

New Jersey Privatizing Ideas: Save Hundreds of Millions

07/09/2010
by Kate Piercy New Jersey Governor Chrisitie’s administration has put out a 57-page report identifying areas where government services could be privatized in order to save tax dollars — 210 million dollars a year, to be exact. According to a report from NorthJersey.com: State parks, psychiatric hospitals and even turnpike toll booths could also be run...

DMV Cashiers Take Home $31K Salaries

07/09/2010
by Will Compernolle The State of Illinois hired 215 motor vehicle cashiers in fiscal year 2008 for a total of $6,722,279.25 in combined total wages and an average annual salary of $31,266.41. The highest paid motor vehicle cashier made $50,885. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics website, the mean annual salary for a cashier in...

Breaking All the Wrong Records

07/09/2010
by Ashley Muchow For Illinois, 2010 was a record breaking era.  Our state managed to shatter three tremendous records for this past fiscal year. Adjusted year-end General Revenue Fund balance was a negative $4.69 billion, a record. The backlog of unpaid bills at fiscal year end was $4.7 billion, a record. It now takes the comptroller’s office 153 working...

Unemployment Benefits Double, So Does Waste

07/09/2010
by Richard Lorenc, Guest Blogger We’ve been hearing lots about how giving money to unemployed folks creates jobs (or not) over the past few days. But how much, exactly, do these benefits cost? While we won’t have figures from 2010 for a while longer, the Labor Department says American taxpayers spent $76.8 billion in unemployment...

Is Illinois in Good Hands? Allstate CEO Doesn’t Think So

07/08/2010
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson According to a Bloomberg News article, Thomas Wilson, CEO of Illinois-based Allstate Corporation, recently “called for political leaders to cut costs.” Wilson is quoted as saying “Government borrowing is way out of control. We need to get our house in order.” Bloomberg reports: The middle class is “going to bear the brunt of the...

Clueless in Illinois?

07/08/2010
by Kate Piercy From today’s Chicago Tribune Editorial page: “Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has handed out raises — some of more than 20 percent — to his staff while proclaiming a message of ‘shared sacrifice’ and planning spending cuts of $1.4 billion because the state is awash in debt.” —The Associated Press, July 6, 2010. “Illinois ended...

Another Term Befuddled: Financial Reform

07/07/2010
by Ashley Muchow Considering the current financial woes affecting Illinois’s economy, coming to you with more bleak news isn’t fun.  Onward.  Congress has before it the Financial Reform Bill; a reform bill intended to overhaul the financial system as we know it.  But before you begin thanking Washington for coming to the rescue; for protecting...

$4.712 billion in unpaid bills

07/07/2010
by Kristina Rasmussen   $4.712 billion. That the size of Illinois’s unpaid bill backlog at the end of June, according to a new report from the comptroller’s office. It’s up from “just” $2.785 billion at the end of last year. Payment delays are also up: “the delay in paying vouchers was 153 working days this June compared to...

Are Government Jobs Recession Proof?

By Chris Andriesen
07/07/2010
Recently, a number of Illinois state government employees received pay raises in the midst of an economic recession and ongoing budget crisis. Was this an isolated incident? No, it’s a trend. The chart above was constructed using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it shows the compensation of public and private employees indexed against the first...

$15K for Two Batting Cages

07/07/2010
The State of Illinois gave a $15,000 grant (#06-203940) in fiscal year 2006 to the Chicago Park District “for the installation of two stall type batting cages at Jackie Robinson Park located at 1054 South Morgan Street in Chicago.” According to the DCEO’s grant tracker website, the grant was part of the Grant Management Program “for specific purposes to...
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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