In January 1979, a severe winter storm blasted Chicago. The city government failed to clear the roads of snow, which virtually shut down the metropolis for a week. The snow closed O’Hare International Airport for a record 42 hours. Drifts, many of them 12 feet high, blocked more than 1,400 of the city’s streets. An...

Problem Illinois needs more cost-efficient, quality-driven spending activity at the local and state levels of government. Illinois’s state budget has exploded from $24.7 billion in 2004 to $32.2 billion in 2009, increasing nearly 30 percent over just five years. The state needs better spending practices, more transparency in the procurement process, and a tool to...