Social Security

Unions block Medicaid scrub that could’ve saved state $350M a year

By Paul Kersey
11/29/2013
It wouldn’t be entirely fair to say that government unions exist solely to make government less effective and more expensive, but sometimes that’s just exactly what they do. One blatant example came a few weeks ago, when American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31 pushed the state into abandoning its contract with...

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, fraud, Maximus, Medicaid, waste

Pension solutions: Cost-of-living adjustments are supersizing state pensions

By John Klingner
11/26/2013
THE PROBLEM Illinois’ five state-run pension funds are more than $100 billion in debt, according to official state numbers. Without major reforms, the funds are headed toward insolvency – and that means retirees may see their pensions cut and younger workers may not have a pension at all. One of the biggest forces behind this...

State pension contributions: Taxpayers bear the brunt of increasing pension costs

By John Klingner
09/25/2013
The problem A common refrain sounded by public sector unions is that government workers have consistently “paid their share” into Illinois’ pension systems and the state has not. However, the facts tell a different story. While government worker contributions to Illinois’ five pension systems have increased by 75 percent since 1998, taxpayer contributions have increased...

TAGS: GARS: General Assembly Retirement System, JRS: Judges’ Retirement System, SERS: State Employee Retirement System, SURS: State Universities Retirement System, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

Nearly 106,000 Medicaid enrollees in Illinois found ineligible for the program

By Jonathan Ingram
08/09/2013
For years, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, has failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people actually receiving Medicaid benefits are eligible for the program. In 2012, for example, somewhere between 15 percent and 20 percent of Medicaid files were overdue for their annual eligibility checks. The auditor general noted that...

More than 100,000 Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program

07/31/2013
by Jonathan Ingram Illinois law has long required that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, perform annual eligibility checks to ensure that those receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. After years of HFS failing to adequately perform these annual eligibility checks, lawmakers enacted 305 ILCS 5/11-5.2, which allowed...

FOIA reveals 200 IRS employees work for union full time

By Paul Kersey
07/11/2013
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request from Americans for Limited Government, the Internal Revenue Service revealed that 200 of its “employees” actually work full time for the National Treasury Employees Union, or NTEU. The special union arrangement, known as “official time,” means that rather than working on investigating and collecting taxes, public workers whose...

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...
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Taxed out: 10 reforms to stop Illinois from losing people and jobs

Illinois’ tax code stands in the way of the state’s economic competitiveness. The combination of high tax burdens and a poor tax structure contributes to the loss of jobs and investment to other states. From a place of former economic dominance, Illinois now ranks 45th in gross state product (GSP) growth over the past decade...

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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