Springfield

What Governor Quinn’s Income Tax Hike Means to You

12/31/2010
by Collin Hitt Illinois lawmakers are considering raising the state income tax. Different plans have emerged, but each would damage Illinois’s economic recovery.  The plan that has been discussed the longest is one that would raise Illinois’s individual income tax from three to four percent, a 33 percent increase.  More recent tax plans have emerged that...

Institute on FOX Chicago: Illinois Bad for Business

12/31/2010
Illinois already has a bad reputation as a place to do business and the new tax increase approved in Springfield is only going to make the situation worse, according to critics of the tax increase.

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 Sportsmen to DNR: Where’s Our Money?

By Chris Andriesen
10/28/2010
by Lee Williams Download a formatted version of this report, complete with a table of the Pittman-Robertson Act contracts awarded by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, here. SPRINGFIELD, IL.—The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is misappropriating millions of dollars that should have been earmarked for the state’s sportsmen. The Pittman-Robertson Act, an 11-percent federal tax on...

Peoria: Good Vibes and a New School Choice

09/17/2010
by Collin Hitt Central Illinois’s newest charter school held an open house last night. I drove up from Springfield to check it out. Called Quest Charter Academy, the school will grow to enroll children in grades 6 through 12.  It’ll focus on math and science, and will mirror the international compass of local businesses like...
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Pathway to a Profession: How Apprenticeships Could Reshape Illinois’ Beauty Service Industry

Occupational licensing requirements present one of the steepest barriers to low-income Illinoisans starting careers in beauty services. Illinois requires anyone seeking to become a barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or hair braider to obtain a state license, essentially a permission slip to work. Unlike 45 other states, Illinois offers only one pathway to licensure for each...

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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