Illinois has seen continual population loss for a decade. While taxes and lack of opportunities are driving people away, the state’s licensing requirements could be keeping people from moving in.
Occupational licensing is more burdensome in Illinois than in neighboring states for many professions. Those barriers are unreasonably keeping poor Illinoisans and Chicagoans from finding work.
Illinois could make it easier to escape poverty by letting more people work without first getting a license. Six neighboring states do a better job of easing occupational licensing on low-income professions.
The Illinois Supreme Court sided with the city of Chicago following a yearslong court battle over some of the nation’s toughest food truck restrictions.
Reining in unnecessary regulations is one way to create new opportunities for job seekers and improve choice for consumers. A bill in the Illinois Senate would help achieve that.
A trade organization is seeking to insulate the restaurant industry from competition in an Illinois Supreme Court battle over Chicago’s food truck regulations.
Chicago suburb failed once, but is trying again to redevelop its downtown and displace a business popular for more than 40 years. Without a developer, they only can hope that if they rebuild it, someone will come.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.