Joliet

Unemployment woes: regional numbers show residents of Illinois cities still struggling to find work

05/10/2013
by Ted Dabrowski Illinois has the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate. At 9.5 percent, it’s two percentage points higher than the national average of 7.5 percent. That gap translates into lost opportunities and struggle for the many Illinoisans who wish to be gainfully employed. Nearly 130,000 more Illinoisans could be working today if Illinois employed people at the...

Institute on WAND TV: Illinois’ addiction to pork

12/31/2012
Institute policy expert, Jonathan Ingram, joined Doug Wolfe on WAND TV to discuss Illinois’ addiction to wasteful spending. Check our Piglet 2012 for examples of pork in Illinois. MUSEUM CAPITAL PROJECTS ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDEN FOUNDATION, INC. (Sangamon County) – $82,433. Renovation of the Ostermeir Farmhouse to add handicap accessible features, waterproof basement, replace carpet,...

TAGS: waste

Illinois’ out-migration crisis

12/20/2011
by Ted Dabrowski Illinois is bleeding people to almost every state in the nation. People are packing up and voting with their feet. Gone – goodbye. When people leave, they don’t just take their belongings. With them go their earnings, their spending power and their contribution to society. When they own companies, they even take the...

My Nominee for Pay Czar: David Stern

By Chris Andriesen
11/02/2010
by Dan Proft I do not think government functionaries should set private sector salaries or that U.S. policymakers should be adorned with the appellation properly reserved for Russian autocrats. But, if I did not believe in free markets and free minds, NBA Commissioner David Stern would be my choice for “Pay Czar.” Stern is in the...

Ready for the Snow? Gauging Illinois’s Performance on a Critical Core Service

By Kate Campaigne Piercy
02/16/2010
In January 1979, a severe winter storm blasted Chicago. The city government failed to clear the roads of snow, which virtually shut down the metropolis for a week. The snow closed O’Hare International Airport for a record 42 hours. Drifts, many of them 12 feet high, blocked more than 1,400 of the city’s streets. An...

Gauging Illinois’s Performance on a Critical Core Service

01/31/2010
Residents of Illinois demand clear and safe roads. State and local agencies must budget and prepare for the winter season, and then perform up to certain standards when the snow comes. Otherwise, we risk losing money, time and lives.
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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

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.

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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