Illinois began August with a $4.4 billion dollar backlog of unpaid bills. If lawmakers would have kept the promises they made in 2011, the backlog would be zero today – or close to it. In January 2011, Illinois lawmakers pushed through a record tax hike that raised the income tax rate on individuals to 5...

Taxpayers finally scored a victory in Illinois. Lawmakers kept their promise and passed a budget slated to provide income tax relief starting in January 2015. But a threat to that relief still looms large. After the November election this fall, current lawmakers will meet for a final time in January for their lame-duck session. There’s...

Temporary tax hikes notoriously stick around longer than planned. Pennsylvania passed a 10 percent tax on alcohol to pay for damage from a flood in 1936. The state continued to levy the tax after the flood damage was paid for. Today the rate is 18 percent. But lawmakers across the country have been better at...

Illinois Policy Action is announcing an initiative to help hold legislators accountable to their word following the three major state income tax defeats during the spring session. We will be asking all House and Senate members to sign our “Keep Your Promise” pledge, which will affirm politicians’ stated opposition to keeping permanent the temporary 5...

The driving goal of the Illinois Policy Institute is to transform liberty principles into marketable policies that become law. The ultimate sign of success is when free market ideas are enacted into laws that change Illinoisans’ lives for the better. Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda emphasized the importance of a financially responsible and limited...