Food stamp participation has seen an encouraging decrease, but lagging economic growth leaves Illinois ranked highest among neighboring states in SNAP enrollment.

While neighboring states are making themselves friendlier for farmers, Illinois keeps its unfair death tax in place.

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 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...

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,...

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...