Rod Blagojevich

Blagojevich hits one-year mark in prison – has anything changed?

By Brian Costin
03/15/2013
March 15, the ides of March, is the one-year anniversary of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich heading to prison. At the time of his conviction Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman hailed the Blagojevich verdict as an opportunity to end an era of corruption in Illinois. “This trial represented what is the absolute worst of...

Four years of Quinn – higher taxes, bigger debts and no sign of change

By Benjamin VanMetre
03/06/2013
As Gov. Pat Quinn delivers his fifth annual budget proposal today, it’s important to review the governor’s track record and what his policies have meant for Illinois. When Quinn took office in 2009, Illinois was reeling from former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his culture of deficits and corruption. The state’s fiscal condition was a shaky...

Budget Solutions 2014: Pension reform and responsible spending for state and local governments

By Benjamin VanMetre, Jonathan Ingram
02/27/2013
Illinois is in crisis. According to official government numbers, Illinois has an unfunded pension liability of $96 billion – the worst in the nation. This heavy debt burden, combined with the state’s culture of out-of-control, wasteful spending, has driven the state into an economic death spiral. Illinois cannot be economically prosperous until real pension reform...

TAGS: Medicaid, pensions

Budget Solutions 2014: Pension reform

By Ted Dabrowski, Benjamin VanMetre
02/27/2013
The only way to end Illinois’ pension crisis is to empower government workers by transitioning benefits for all future work to a defined contribution system.

Pension reform bill “more of the same”

By Jonathan Ingram
12/18/2012
State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, state Rep. Daniel Biss and several of their rank-and-file colleagues recently unveiled a new pension reform proposal. These lawmakers should be commended for stepping forward with a plan, rather than waiting on their political leaders to get around to fixing the problem. Unfortunately, the Nekritz-Biss plan falls short of fixing the...

While Illinois burns, Moody’s threatens next downgrade

By Ted Dabrowski
12/14/2012
As the pension crisis threatens to engulf Illinois, legislators continue to fiddle. It’s no secret that Illinois has the worst-funded state pension systems in the nation. That’s an accepted fact by those on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, that fact hasn’t motivated any action from the state’s politicians. Now recent news point to even...

PAC database reveals biggest union beneficiaries

By Paul Kersey
12/11/2012
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE UNION PAC DATABASE The database shows which Illinois politicians have received donations between 2002 to 2012 from PACs associated with: American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); Illinois Education Association (IEA); Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT); and Service...
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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.

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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