Taxpayer pension costs exceeded Illinois projections by $13.7 billion since 2013

By Justin Carlson

06/17/2022

Unrealistic assumptions and missed investment returns have meant Illinois taxpayers paid $13.7 billion more for public pensions than state leaders projected five years earlier. Unless the estimates improve, taxpayers will pay an extra $21.3 billion during the next decade.

TAGS: debt, JB Pritzker, pension reform, pensions

Illinois sees worst population decline since World War II

By Bryce Hill

12/22/2020

Even subtracting COVID-19 deaths, Illinois still suffered its largest population drop in modern history in the first year of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s fiscal policies, including 20 new tax and fee hikes, as well as his pandemic response.

TAGS: outmigration, population, U.S. Census Bureau

Building fairness and opportunity: The effects of repealing Illinois’ prevailing wage law

By Orphe Divounguy

12/07/2017

Illinois’ Prevailing Wage Act has no place in the 21st century. Policymakers should enact fair and competitive construction laws that give all individuals who are willing to work a fighting chance.

An Illinois workers’ compensation system for the 21st century

By Mark Adams

07/15/2016

The state of Illinois has one of the oldest workers’ compensation systems in America, dating to 1911.

Illinois corruption watch, July 2014

By Brian Costin

08/09/2014

The bad news keeps piling up for Illinoisans. Illinois Policy’s “corruption watch” blog series hit a new high in the month of July with nearly 100 corruption-related stories. Chicago and Springfield are the two cities most synonymous with the state’s corruption woes. Unsurprisingly, both cities dominated headlines with the top two corruption stories of the...

September jobs report — no cause for cheer

By Ted Dabrowski

10/05/2012

US labor report Many analysts are challenging the 0.3 percentage point drop in the nation’s September unemployment rate released this morning by US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS announced the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent in August. The unemployment rate, which is now below 8 percent for the first time...

September jobs report

10/05/2012

Today there are 5 million fewer people participating in the labor force than when President Obama took office in January 2009. That

Illinois’ pension math

By Ted Dabrowski

08/14/2012

When Rhode Island saw the writing on the wall late last year, its legislature did something no one thought it could do. It passed the boldest pension reforms in the nation. A democrat-controlled state, with the second-worst funded pension system in the nation, passed a series of reforms that cut the state’s unfunded liabilities by...

Experts Clash on Constitutionality of Borrowing to Balance State Budget

01/31/2011

Institute CEO John Tillman was featured in a story on the state budget.

Reinforcing Hauser’s Law

By Chris Andriesen

11/30/2010

by Ashley Muchow Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy has made it on our list of bloggable material for quite some. She has, yet again, delivered another applicable piece of statistical analysis. In the graph below, de Rugy uses the earliest records available to plot the historical path of tax revenue as a percentage of GDP and the trend of the top...

World War II

Taxpayer pension costs exceeded Illinois projections by $13.7 billion since 2013

Illinois sees worst population decline since World War II

Building fairness and opportunity: The effects of repealing Illinois’ prevailing wage law

An Illinois workers’ compensation system for the 21st century

Illinois corruption watch, July 2014

September jobs report — no cause for cheer

September jobs report

Illinois’ pension math

Experts Clash on Constitutionality of Borrowing to Balance State Budget

Reinforcing Hauser’s Law

Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Report Archive

Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students