Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Illinois to target SNAP households for Medicaid expansion

By Jonathan Ingram
09/05/2013
This year, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, promised lawmakers that it had no plans to conduct outreach or marketing if the state decided to expand Medicaid eligibility under ObamaCare. Lawmakers explicitly asked whether the state would be conducting any kind of “marketing or other initiatives to recruit new enrollees.” Here’s how...

More food stamps: Another 20,000 Illinoisans added to SNAP rolls in May

By John Klingner
08/13/2013
More than 2 million Illinoisans – 16 percent of the state’s population – are on food stamps according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, enrollment numbers continue to rise in Illinois, and have been continuing to increase across the nation. Illinois added nearly 20,000 people to food stamp rolls...

The food stamp decade: a million more Illinoisans dependent on SNAP

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
07/16/2013
The real story behind Illinois’ decade of fiscal and governance crises is that the number of jobs is shrinking and food stamps are taking their place. Illinois’ massive pension debt, perennial overspending and high taxes are squeezing out the private sector and jobs, while Springfield’s dysfunction and the state’s collapsing credit rating are destroying investor...

Illinois’ failing economic model: more food stamps, fewer jobs

06/12/2013
by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner Illinois added nearly three times more people to its food stamp program than it added in jobs over the past year – just another confirmation that the state’s economic model is failing. Between February 2012 and February 2013, Illinois added nearly 200,000 new enrollees to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,...

Illinois was the only state to see a double-digit year-over-year jump in food stamp use

05/14/2013
by Ted Dabrowski     Food-stamp use rose 2.7% in the U.S. in February from a year earlier, with 15% of the U.S. population receiving benefits. The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), reached 47.6 million, or nearly one in seven Americans. With more...

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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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