Judy Baar Topinka

Comptroller says Illinois’ unpaid bills will grow by $1 billion in coming weeks

07/09/2013
by Ben VanMetre Illinois is notorious for ignoring its financial obligations and racking up billions in unpaid bills. When it sits on those unpaid bills long enough, the state has to pay a penalty. Illinois is required by law to pay interest of 1 percent a month on its unpaid bills, also called invoices, when they become...

Comptroller seeks investigation into Washington Park’s missing $300K

06/26/2013
by Andrew Wyatt This year, Washington Park lost $300,000 of taxpayer money meant to cover village workers’ paychecks. The village also has not filed any financial reports, audits or tax statements to the comptroller’s office for the last seven years. The village of Washington Park, which is near East St. Louis, is no stranger to...

Forget reform: Illinois legislators want to borrow $4 billion

By Ted Dabrowski
11/28/2012
It was déjà vu in Springfield as proponents of more debt pushed Illinois to borrow another $4 billion from the bond market. Their promise? That the state’s backlog of bills would finally get paid down. This is exactly what we heard almost two years ago, when advocates of the massive $7 billion income tax increase...

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