by Kristina Rasmussen Congress is on its way to passing a $26 billion bailout of state and local government overspending. States like Illinois can’t afford to fund the costly Medicaid benefits and plush public employee union contracts they’ve bestowed, so the federal government is stepping in to fill the gap. Illinois is slated to “get” over $1...

by Kristina Rasmussen Illinois’s budget is required to be balanced by constitutional mandate, right? Then why has the budget been balanced only 15 of the 41 years between 1970 and 2010? The last time Illinois had a balanced budget was in 2001. We certainly didn’t have one this year. Charles Wheeler has a great article in the...

by Kristina Rasmussen Yesterday Will blogged about the “Summertime Blues” list of 100 silly stimulus projects (compiled by friend-of-the-taxpayer Senator Tom Coburn). Will didn’t mention it, but there was an Illinois project on that list, coming in at number 72: 72. Studying Whether a Soda Tax Will Stimulate Health (Chicago, IL) – $521,005 The current administration has previously...

by Heather Wilhelm Illinois may be a laggard in many key economic rankings, but it’s leading its Midwestern neighbors when it comes to state borrowing. CNN Money put together an interactive table showing how much each state owes on a per capita basis. If you live in Illinois, your share of the state’s borrowing bundle is...

by Kristina Rasmussen As Illinois families dive into back-to-school shopping, smart moms and dads will account for how looming tax hikes will affect their household spending. A combination of the soon-to-expire Bush tax cuts and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s income tax hike plan would take a painful chunk out of the already-stretched family budget. A new report...