Mississippi

Interactive dashboard: State income tax rates

By Benjamin VanMetre
08/28/2013
Illinois’ competitive flat rate income tax is protected in the state’s constitution. But there is a growing movement to increase income taxes in Illinois by swapping out the state’s flat-rate income tax for a progressive tax. The progressive tax plan is being sold as a tax on the rich. But the data tell a different...

The work vs. welfare trade-off in Illinois

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
08/23/2013
A new study by the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., takes a state-by-state look at the value of the welfare benefits package. While no one in America receives welfare benefits from all 72 federal welfare benefits programs that provide direct cash or in-kind assistance, long-term welfare beneficiaries are more likely to receive benefits from multiple programs. Highlights...

TAGS: welfare

Supply without demand: public school hires increase while enrollment drops

10/30/2012
There are too many people working in America’s schools. From 1950 to 2009, the amount of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees grew 386 percent while the amount of public school students only grew by 96 percent, according to a recently released report from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Excellence. Looking even closer at the data reveals...

Illinois has highest cost of government in Midwest

By Lawrence McQuillan
07/26/2012
The average Illinoisan works 208 days to pay the cost of government   July 26 is Illinois’ Cost of Government Day, the date of the calendar year on which the average Illinois worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal,...

April 15 is Tax Freedom Day in Illinois

By Chris Andriesen
03/30/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Today, the Tax Foundation released their annual report on the Tax Freedom Day for each of the fifty states. The Tax Freedom Day measures the number of days Americans have to work to pay for all their annual taxes at the federal, state and local level. The national Tax Freedom Day for 2011 is...

Durbin Votes for Earmarks

By Chris Andriesen
11/30/2010
by Kristina Rasmussen Illinois Senator Dick Durbin help to vote down a proposed Senate ban on earmarks today, reports The Hill. As if tea pot museums and bridges to nowhere weren’t enough, Illinoisans had yet another reason to oppose Congressional earmarks. According to a new Cato Institute study by Brandon Arnold, Illinois is an “earmark donor state”—one that receives...

Illinois Pays $100k to Host a Football Game Between Two Out-of-State Universities

By Chris Andriesen
11/01/2010
by Wesley Fox The Chicago Football Classic Inc. received a $100,000 grant to assist in hosting the Chicago Football Classic. According to the DCEO website the game “will feature Mississippi Valley State versus Southern University.” Southern University is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Mississippi Valley State is located in Itta Bena, Mississippi. The grant was part of...

Fighting poverty with employment: Chicago block clubs

Leaders of these organizations on the South and West sides connect residents to jobs and engage youth to build safer neighborhoods.

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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