Metra

Elgin city tax hike

By Chris Andriesen
12/21/2011
The Elgin City Council plans to vote tonight on a new budget that increases taxes and adds new fees. The Council has chosen to pursue new revenue sources to fill a $4.5 million deficit, rather than run a more efficient government. This strategy of higher taxes only compounds the problems that average Illinoisans and residents of Elgin...

Riding Away on the Taxpayer Train

06/15/2011
by Katherine Casey Taxpayer-funded state lobbying is once again on the rise in Illinois. As the Illinois Policy Institute noted earlier this year in its 2011-2012 Illinois Legislators’ Guide to the Issues, a lack of transparency still plagues the topic of lobbying across the state. Unknown to many citizens, “state-level lobbying” has quickly seeped its way into towns and...

Fraudulent Free Riders

By Chris Andriesen
11/30/2010
by Kate Piercy Free rides aren’t so free: According to a report from the University of Illinois, the free-rides program initiated and sent through the legislature by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich costs the CTA, Metra and Pace between $38 million and $116 million last year. On top of this, “Thousands of fraudulent free rides have been...

Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying Includes Indirect Donations to Politicians

10/26/2010
by Wesley Fox The Illinois Policy Institute has proposed greater transparency in taxpayer-funded lobbying, including reports on state and local government expenditures on lobbyists.  The Daily Herald has found another good reason for transparency. According to the Daily Herald, the Regional Transit Authority (RTA), Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Pace and Metra spent more than $12.8 million on...

Metra Employees Taking Advantage of Overtime Pay

07/12/2010
by Will Compernolle The Sun-Times reports that more than 10% of Metra employees last year made at least $20,000 in overtime pay. Total overtime pay in 2009 reached nearly $20 million. Metra says that, while it’s hardly ideal to spend so much on overtime pay, there’s not much it can do about a lot of it. Accidents, bad...

$6.4 Million in Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying

05/24/2010
A report from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform found that taxpayers paid lobbyists nearly $6.4 million to influence their own state government last year.

4 ways to break out of Illinois’ pension trap

Causes, costs, how to set the state free

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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