Wisconsin

Illinois should repeal the death tax

By Michael Lucci
06/03/2014
Of all Illinois’ taxes, its death tax is the most morbid. Only 15 states in the U.S. levy a tax on death, and Illinois has the second-highest rate. Death taxes include estate and inheritance taxes. They hit certain Illinois families hard. Farmers, investors and business owners often need substantial assets to generate a moderate income....

Illinois legislators try to resurrect unconstitutional ‘Amazon tax’

06/02/2014
Last October, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s “Amazon tax,” a state law that would have forced many online retailers to pay Illinois taxes regardless of whether they had any physical presence in the state. Now, despite this ruling, some legislators are trying to bring back this tax. The “Amazon tax” required Amazon...

Illinois proposes potential damaging rules on brew pubs

By Justin Hegy
05/29/2014
On May 14, one day before the official start of Chicago Craft Beer Week, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, or ILCC, proposed a harsh new cap on the amount of beer Illinois’ brew pubs would be allowed to sell. Under the proposed rules, a brew pub would not be allowed to sell more than 50,000...

TAGS: craft beer

Madigan’s millionaire tax returns

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
05/22/2014
House Speaker Mike Madigan couldn’t get a progressive tax hike on the November ballot. His next effort, to get an extension of the tax hike, has failed so far. Now, he is back with yet another money-grab scheme. Madigan has proposed an advisory referendum on the fall ballot proposing a millionaire surcharge. (An advisory referendum...

TAGS: millionaire tax

Illinois politicians’ obsession with tax hikes

05/21/2014
Fifty percent of all Illinoisans would leave the state if they could. Twenty-five percent think it’s the worst state to live in. Another 72 percent don’t trust their government. These numbers came from three recent Gallup polls. In all three surveys, no state polled worse than Illinois. You’d think with results like that, the last...

Illinois: $27 billion in tax increases since 2011

05/21/2014
A new report by Americans for Tax Reform shows that Democratic governors have enacted more than $58 billion in tax increases since 2011. Republican governors, on the other hand, have collectively signed more than $36 billion in tax cuts. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, one of the nation’s top five most tax-happy governors, has signed 29 tax increases...

Madigan and Illinois’ million-man migration

By Michael Lucci
05/21/2014
Gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner publicly opposes the tax-hike plan championed by Gov. Pat Quinn and House Speaker Mike Madigan. Rauner claimed that raising income taxes again in 2015 will cause more businesses and people to flee the state. Madigan fired back at Rauner with one of the most poorly-conceived statements of this campaign season. Madigan...

ObamaCare: Politicians living by the same set of rules gaining support

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
05/06/2014
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has filed suit in federal court “to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.” He now has support from dozens of his Congressional colleagues, as well as a growing number of supporters across the country, to make congressmen participate...

Did higher taxes create the Minnesota miracle?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
04/24/2014
A Better Illinois is claiming that the progressive tax and higher taxes on the wealthy are responsible for the “Minnesota miracle.” But the only marvels here are the impressive contortions they used in concluding that higher taxes is what holds Illinois back from impressive job growth and a budget surplus. The problem with their analysis...

In search of an education

04/21/2014
Meet Jailyn Baker. She’s a senior at Josephinum Academy – an all-girls school in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Jailyn is like many Chicago students: she works hard in school and she dreams of a bright future. What makes Jailyn’s experience unique, however, is that she has an hour-and-a-half commute both ways to go to school....

TAGS: school choice

Load More

Pathway to a Profession: How Apprenticeships Could Reshape Illinois’ Beauty Service Industry

Occupational licensing requirements present one of the steepest barriers to low-income Illinoisans starting careers in beauty services. Illinois requires anyone seeking to become a barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or hair braider to obtain a state license, essentially a permission slip to work. Unlike 45 other states, Illinois offers only one pathway to licensure for each...

View Report

Report Archive

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