While gas prices have dropped to a 12-year low in Illinois, Chicagoans pay $0.32 more per gallon than the state average due to multiple layers of city, county and state taxation.
Chicago’s many bureaucratic barriers to starting a business shield established businesses from competition and keep low-income entrepreneurs from getting ahead.
Instead of spending reform and policies to promote economic growth, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan proposes the same high-taxing, big-spending plans that got Illinois into its current fiscal mess.
Transcript, provided by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office, of his 2016 State of the State address, as prepared for delivery, to the General Assembly on January 27, 2016.
Illinois lost 3,000 jobs on net in 2015, while other neighboring and Great Lakes manufacturing states all gained tens of thousands of jobs on net for the year.
Occupational licensing requirements present one of the steepest barriers to low-income Illinoisans starting careers in beauty services. Illinois requires anyone seeking to become a barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or hair braider to obtain a state license, essentially a permission slip to work. Unlike 45 other states, Illinois offers only one pathway to licensure for each...