Numbers from the March WARN report show that employers in Illinois across various industries laid off 2,573 workers; 267 of the layoffs were in manufacturing.
There are 170,000 fewer people working in Illinois since before the Great Recession.
House Bill 3393 would impose a 20 percent surcharge on fees earned by investment managers.
Illinois’ revenues are falling each month of this fiscal year, and it will be difficult to change course.
Illinois has racked up $14 billion in unpaid bills.
Government workers in Illinois can opt out of union membership, but they still have to pay fees to the union. Those fees are not supposed to go toward political activities, but a close look at AFSCME’s most recent union report demonstrates how unions use fair share fees for activities most people would consider “political.”
Workers’ compensation is a significant cost to Illinois taxpayers and drains scarce tax dollars from government coffers. A previous report in this series estimated the direct cost of workers’ compensation to state, county and municipal governments is $402 million in worker payouts per year.1 Building upon those findings, this report estimates that the total cost of workers’ compensation to...
AFSCME obstructed progress for months on a new contract for state workers. Whether AFSCME and the state are at impasse in negotiations now sits with the Illinois courts – and the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision not to take a direct appeal of the case means taxpayers must continue to pay an additional $35 million to $40 million each month in health care costs alone.
The highest state worker salaries in the nation, overtime pay, generous state pensions, taxpayer-subsidized health care coverage and free retiree health insurance for career workers combine to give the average Illinois AFSCME worker six-figure annual compensation.
Despite a fight from the union, the Illinois Department of Corrections is replacing 124 unionized nurses with private subcontractors, which could save taxpayers millions each year.
If voters approve proposals to raise St. Clair County sales taxes by a combined 2 percent, people in some parts of St. Clair County would face total sales taxes of over 11 percent.
Bailout bills moving in the Illinois General Assembly would attempt to turn Illinois’ massive debt problems into guaranteed profits for banks and bondholders and a lower standard of living for other Illinoisans.