United States Senate

Illinois legislators try to repeal the First Amendment

03/22/2014
Incumbent politicians hate to be criticized, and in Illinois some of them have decided to do something about it – not by correcting the behavior for which people criticize them, but by trying to repeal the First Amendment. That may sound outrageous, but it’s true. On Thursday, the Illinois Senate’s Executive Committee passed a resolution...

Illinois Policy Action’s legislative agenda focuses on education, pensions, health care and more

By Jane McEnaney
02/15/2014
Yesterday marked Illinois lawmakers’ deadline to introduce bills for this spring’s legislative session. Our government affairs team was down in Springfield, finalizing Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the major legislative initiatives we’ll be pushing this session: Pension reform State Rep. Ron Sandack has introduced a bill that...

Wisconsin’s turnaround: How labor reform under Act 10 gave power back to taxpayers and created a multimillion-dollar surplus

By Paul Kersey
02/13/2014
Three years ago, in the midst of a financial crisis, the state of Wisconsin enacted a landmark labor reform package, now known as Public Act 10. Through this legislation, the Legislature made fundamental changes to its government collective-bargaining law. Wisconsin started with a public-sector labor law that paralleled Illinois’ in most respects, but PA 10...

TAGS: labor, unions

Madigan’s Illinois pension fix: $15B less in savings, more gimmicks

01/28/2014
Not unlike ObamaCare, a bill Congress had to pass “to find out what’s in it,” Illinois’ General Assembly passed a pension fix in December 2013 without an official scoring of the bill. During floor debates, House Leader Mike Madigan and proponents of Senate Bill 1 promised $160 billion in savings over 30 years. Many opponents...

TAGS: pensions, Senate Bill 1

Top 10 things every Illinoisan should know about local government transparency

By illinoispolicy
01/26/2014
For decades, residents of Illinois have been barraged with a constant stream of public corruption stories in the media. In recent years, these tales include a governor trying to sell a Senate seat, a U.S. Congressman illegally siphoning off campaign funds for personal use, and a record breaking corruption story from the small town of...

Fighting the progressive tax in Illinois

By Benjamin VanMetre
12/27/2013
Fighting the progressive tax in Illinois The battle to raise taxes again is underway in Illinois. Politicians and special interest groups across the state have put a plan in motion to implement yet another income tax hike in Illinois – one that targets the state’s working- and middle-class residents. Politicians already pushed through a record...

TAGS: fair tax, flat tax, income tax, progressive income tax

A principled stand against pension “fix”

By Matt Paprocki
12/04/2013
Lawmakers met in Springfield on Tuesday for a special session on pension reform. After an early morning committee hearing, a gathering of each of the four legislative caucuses and several hours of lengthy floor debates, a pension bill passed the House and Senate, and now awaits Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature. The Illinois Policy Institute adamantly...

TAGS: Brad Halbrook, Brian Stewart, Dale Righter, Dan Duffy, David Harris, David Luechtefeld, defined benefit plans, Dwight Kay, Jason Barickman, Jeanne Ives, Joe Sosnowski, Kyle McCarter, pensions, Senate Bill 1, Tom Cross, Tom Morrison

Copper-plated doors tip of iceberg in wasteful spending

By Brian Costin
09/14/2013
With unpaid bills exceeding $8 billion, long-term debt surpassing $200 billion and the worst credit rating in the nation, revelations that the “broke” state of Illinois spent $670,000 on copper-plated doors and another$500,000 for chandeliers and sculptures for the Capitol in Springfield is an embarrassment for the entire state. Earning bad press and the scorn of angry taxpayers still reeling from the 2011 income...

Oops — another ‘error’ in Illinois’ pension mess

08/29/2013
If Illinoisans needed any more proof that the state’s defined benefit pension systems are unmanageable and dysfunctional, they got it on Aug. 26. Dick Ingram, head of the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, informed Illinois’ pension conference committee that TRS’s actuaries made a mistake in calculating the expected savings of House Speaker Mike Madigan’s proposed pension...