United States Senate

Illinois to Congress: Don’t bail us out

By Collin Hitt
03/14/2012
President Obama and Congressional leaders will receive a letter from Illinois this week. Washington is urged to not bail Illinois, or any other state, out of debt. Last May, Senator Mark Kirk introduced a resolution in the U.S. Senate to put end federal bailouts of states. His reasons were simple and clear. The Federal government...

Rebooting transparency

12/23/2011
by Mark Cavers This article, along with other original stories, first appeared in the Institute’s quarterly magazine, the Compass. The Illinois Policy Institute released a report in November exposing how the state was removing salary information from its designated transparency website. We are happy to announce that the state has returned the information to the portal. The state...

2012: What’s next for Illinois citizens post-redistricting?

12/22/2011
by Brian Costin According to the Illinois State Constitution,“In the year following each Federal decennial census year, the General Assembly by law shall redistrict the Legislative Districts and the Representative Districts.” The redistricting process in Illinois has always been a hyper-political process subject to vast criticism, and this year’s redistricting process is no exception. However, the Illinois...

Personal tax relief is still missing

12/08/2011
by Kristina Rasmussen From the sounds of it, House leaders are planning another go on the “tax relief” deal and break it up  into two amendments. One for the business measures, and one for the personal measures. My dissatisfaction with Democrats’ previous attempts to offer tax relief to individuals and family is no secret (get my take from...

Has your legislator signed the Repeal the Tax Hike Pledge?

11/01/2011
by Brian Costin Just a few hours before a new legislature was sworn in, on January 12, 2011, at 1:30AM Illinois’s 96th General Assembly passed the largest tax hike in state history, raising the individual income tax rate by 67 percent and the corporate tax rate by 46 percent. The vote passed by a razor thin...

CLASS Act Scrapped

10/14/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Earlier today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act is not going to be implemented. The controversial long-term care program is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and has been under scrutiny since before the law was enacted....

Citizens Don’t Want More Taxes

08/05/2011
by Aon Hussain With the world watching, the Republican controlled House and the Democrat controlled Senate and President came to an agreement on the debt ceiling that simultaneously raised the debt ceiling and ensured more than two trillion dollars in spending cuts. While this showdown was combative, another duel between Democrats and Republicans looms in...

Quinn’s “Cuts”

07/01/2011
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson On Thursday, Gov. Quinn signed the budget for fiscal year 2012, which begins today. As governor, he has the power to make line item vetoes and reductions to the budget passed by the General Assembly. In his budget announcement, Gov. Quinn claims to have made $376.4 million in budget cuts, but looking deeper...

Tiny Taxing District Transparency

06/22/2011
by Mark Cavers On Monday, the Chicago Tribune ran a story on the thousands of taxing districts and government bodies that are scattered across Illinois: “Illinois has the most units of government in the nation, and the Tribune acquired and combed through a list of each one — nearly 8,500 by the state comptroller’s count, from well-known...

Budget FAIL: Plan Awaiting Gov. Quinn’s Signature Grows Spending, Debt

By Collin Hitt
06/21/2011
State spending will increase in 2012. That is, unless additional cuts and policy changes are added to the general fund budget currently awaiting Gov. Quinn’s signature. Following the close of the spring session, many news outlets reported that the House and Senate had passed a 2012 general fund budget of $33.2 billion that cut overall...
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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.

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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