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New app gives Illinois voters access to legislation, timely legislative information

By Jane McEnaney
10/09/2014
Since January 2013, the Illinois General Assembly has filed 6,305 bills in the House and 3,667 bills in the Senate. These figures don’t account for the myriad amendments that are tacked on to many bills before the full legislature votes on them. With that many pieces of legislation, the average concerned citizen needs a mechanism...

Judge OKs Peoria SWAT raid over parody Twitter account

By Bryant Jackson-Green
10/03/2014
If someone made fun of you on Twitter, how would you respond? If you’re Peoria, Illinois, Mayor Jim Ardis, you just pressure the police to raid the prankster’s home; and apparently the courts will back you up. Back in March, Jon Daniel of Peoria created the Twitter account “@peoriamayor” from which he sent out a...

Illinois corruption watch, June 2014

By Brian Costin, Anthony Trania
07/09/2014
Unfortunately for taxpayers, June was a groundbreaking month for corruption in Illinois. In June alone, there were reports of 85 corruption-related stories in the state. Some of the record-breaking highlights include the following: For the first time in 33 years, the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission exercised its subpoena powers in the issuance of a subpoena...

Chapa LaVia’s war on school choice

04/04/2014
Should this Twitter ad be illegal? State Rep. Chapa LaVia, a Democrat from Aurora and head of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, thinks so. She’s the chief sponsor of a bill that would prohibit “any and all marketing and advertising to the public for charter school enrollment and recruitment made by a charter...

State of the State 2014 BINGO

By illinoispolicy
01/24/2014
Gov. Quinn’s State of the State Noon Wednesday, Jan. 29 Tune in to Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State address live online. HOW TO PLAY Download one version of our cards below. Watch Quinn’s State of the State address Follow @illinoispolicy on Twitter  and use hashtag #ILSOTS (we will be live-tweeting throughout the speech) or...

Little movement during Illinois’ first pension committee meeting

By Chris Andriesen
06/29/2013
by Jane McEnaney On June 27, the Illinois General Assembly’s conference committee on pension reform met for the first time in Chicago. All 10 members of the bipartisan, bicameral committee were present. The committee met for five straight hours, hearing testimony from: Ty Fahner, President, Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago Jerry Stermer, Acting Director...

Springfield City Council votes to hike sales tax

03/31/2013
After several hours of debate, the city council voted 6-3 to raise the sales tax from 8 percent to 8.5 percent to repay an $86.6 million, 15-year bond issue to finance the three-year infrastructure program.

TAGS: sales tax

California’s fake reforms yield credit upgrade

01/31/2013
In January, Standard and Poor’s upgraded California’s credit rating to A from A-, an action the rating agency said resulted from the state’s “improved fiscal condition.”

State of the State BINGO!

01/31/2013
Gov. Quinn’s State of the State address Noon Wednesday, Feb. 6 Watch Gov. Quinn’s State of the State address live online. How he frames the issues and which solutions he offers will be instructive. Gov. Pat Quinn is hinting that his State of the State speech will remind the public how the state?s image has been cleaned...

TAGS: State of the State