Oregon

Illinois bill would require prescription for cold medicine

By Bryant Jackson-Green
03/14/2014
Should you need a prescription to buy cold medicine? State Sen. Dave Koehler thinks so, and he has introduced a bill that would require just that for medicines you’ve always been allowed to buy over the counter. Senate Bill 3502 would amend the Illinois Controlled Substances Act to categorize ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as “Schedule III”...

TAGS: nanny state

Moving the goal posts on Illinois’ Medicaid expansion

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
02/05/2014
Some of the same Illinois lawmakers and Medicaid expansion advocates who promised better access to care, better health outcomes and lower emergency-room utilizations to justify expanding Medicaid eligibility in Illinois now want to backtrack on these promises. They are attempting to redirect attention away from their lofty promises and toward needing “more time” to achieve...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, Medicaid

Shrinking the Illinois Senate

By Brian Costin
10/08/2013
With 42,336 elected officials as of 1992, Illinois has nearly 12,000 more state and local elected politicians than any other state. Amazingly, with this unprecedented wealth of legislators Illinois hasn’t been able to adequately address some of its most dire problems. Illinois still ranks near the bottom of the nation in numerous key economic indicators,...

TAGS: term limits

New study finds that Medicaid doesn’t improve health outcomes

05/23/2013
by Jonathan Ingram Illinois lawmakers set to decide whether or not to adopt ObamaCare’s voluntary expansion of Medicaid may want to read a new study published in the Journal of New England Medicine. In 2008, Oregon officials wanted to expand eligibility for their Medicaid program, but only had enough funding for 10,000 of the 90,000 eligible...

The real “Mediscare”

By Chris Andriesen
10/12/2012
by Diane Cohen, general counsel with the Liberty Justice Center During last night’s debate, Vice President Joe Biden literally laughed off suggestions that ObamaCare sets up a death panel for Medicare recipients. This follows President Obama’s claim in the first debate that ObamaCare’s more than $700 billion cut to Medicare will not directly reduce Medicare benefits...

Chicago has second highest taxes on meals in restaurants

03/29/2012
Ever notice that going out to eat seems more expensive in Chicago than other cities? One of the reasons is that on top of the very high sales tax in Chicago, there are additional taxes on meals in restaurants: 0.25 percent Chicago restaurant tax and 1.0 percent Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) food and...

Interactive dashboard: Taxes on meals

03/29/2012
Chicago has the second highest taxes on meals of the 50 largest U.S. cities. Check out the Institute's interactive dashboard on meal taxes to see how we stack up.

Rahm’s First Budget Address

10/13/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Yesterday, Chicago’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, released his first budget proposal. In his prepared budget address, he acknowledged that Chicago’s history of unbalanced budgets could not continue, and he recognized that “What we cannot do, however, is to protect the status quo by asking more of Chicago’s taxpayers. Raising taxes will drive more people...
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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