Legislature

Fitch warnings don’’t mean kick the can down the road

12/31/2012
Illinois’ credit rating received a warning today from Fitch Ratings. What Fitch cited as the “ongoing inability of the state to address its large and growing unfunded pension liability” means a rating downgrade is likely unless reforms are passed within s

Where’s your pension fix, Gov. Quinn?

12/31/2012
After four years in office, you have yet to provide a detailed proposal for how to reform the pension system. Oh, sure, there have been press releases and bullet-point presentations but nothing detailed enough to present to the Legislature as your solutio

Illinois’ high-tax problem

By Ted Dabrowski
12/20/2012
THE PROBLEM In 2010, the Illinois Policy Institute reported that Illinois is a high-tax state with a tax burden in the top third of all states. The Institute cautioned that any tax increase would damage the state’s economic competitiveness. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly ignored numerous warnings and used a lame...

AFSCME, collective bargaining, Quinn and the fine line

By Paul Kersey
12/18/2012
It is a basic axiom of government collective bargaining: If you have to bargain with a union about anything, you are liable to have to bargain with them about everything, and that includes things that you aren’t supposed to bargain about at all. This why collective bargaining with government employees is such a problem: Even...

While Illinois burns, Moody’s threatens next downgrade

By Ted Dabrowski
12/14/2012
As the pension crisis threatens to engulf Illinois, legislators continue to fiddle. It’s no secret that Illinois has the worst-funded state pension systems in the nation. That’s an accepted fact by those on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, that fact hasn’t motivated any action from the state’s politicians. Now recent news point to even...

Bringing it all together: what Right to Work means for Michigan and its workers

By Paul Kersey
12/13/2012
On Tuesday Michigan’s Legislature took the final steps in passing Right-to-Work legislation, and Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill into law. Outside the Statehouse, union protesters became more agitated, tearing down a tent where Right-to-Work supporters had gathered (a handful of people were almost trapped inside the canvas) and assaulting a Fox News correspondent. In...

Right to Work: How did Michigan get to this point?

By Paul Kersey
12/11/2012
Right to Work has become a reality. The two-bill package passed both houses of the state legislature, and was signed into law by Gov. Snyder. Unions are continued to cry foul and staged wild protests outside the Michigan Statehouse – at one point they tore down a tent belonging to Americans for Prosperity. In yesterday’s post we discussed what...

Veto session: sneak peek of week two

By Matt Paprocki, Jane McEnaney
12/03/2012
Last week in Springfield, there was very little legislative activity during the first week of veto session. Such limited action took place that the House canceled Thursday session, and it is rumored that the Legislature will only meet on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week as well. It is expected that the current two-week veto...

Veto session: recap of week one

By Matt Paprocki, Jane McEnaney
11/30/2012
The Illinois Policy Institute opposed eight bills and appeared in several committee meetings during the first week of veto session. Our policy team had crucial face time with legislators and discussed our positions on public policy that affects all Illinoisans. We also reached out to many members of the House Republican staff. Here is an...

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...
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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