The city of Chicago’s four government-run pension funds each beat their expected investment returns in 2013, according their most recent financial reports. Yet the city’s unfunded pension debt grew by nearly $800 million. The assumed investment return for the city’s four pension funds ranges from 7.5-8 percent. Yet the 2013 investment returns were 13 percent...
Does bad blood between political leaders justify bad public policy? Most Illinoisans don’t think so, especially when the result is legislation that exempts their lawmakers from budgetary oversight. Earlier this year, at the midnight hour of spring session, Illinois’ legislative leaders carved out a special exemption for themselves from the state budgeting process. They enacted...
A recent piece in the Chicago Tribune shows that some in Illinois remain very interested in establishing a state-based health insurance exchange. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, states have the option of applying for federal dollars to establish a state-based health insurance exchange instead of using the federal exchange, healthcare.gov. But not only...
What’s a low-cost way to improve police accountability in Illinois while saving taxpayer dollars? Some say body cameras for police officers. After the events in Ferguson, MO, several editorials have encouraged Illinois police officers to wear body cameras as a way to deter misconduct, and some departments have already signed on to the idea. But...
The effects of the Great Recession still linger in Illinois, the pain of which has been distributed unevenly. Youth and minority workers have been hurt most by the state’s ongoing policy errors. The Great Recession caused employment losses across all demographic groups. Illinois’ policy mistakes and weak recovery – the worst in the U.S. –...
The towns of Addison, Algonquin and Mundelein earned high marks for online government transparency in a recent survey of Illinois municipalities. The current project evaluated 25 towns with populations ranging from Oak Forest’s nearly 28,000 to Calumet City’s 37,000 residents, the 51st– through 75th-largest municipalities in the state. The towns were graded using the Illinois...
In 2010, the Illinois General Assembly unanimously affirmed the right of citizens to speak at public meetings in stating: “Any person shall be permitted an opportunity to address public officials under the rules established and recorded by the public body.” In a sense, McLean County is complying with this state rule. In reality, county officials...
In late October, the city of Bloomington enacted one of the most comprehensive local government online transparency ordinances in the state, and taxpayers should be celebrating their officials’ commitment to open honest governing. By adopting an online transparency ordinance, largely based on the Illinois Policy Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist, Bloomington is taking the strongest possible action...
In June 2014, in response to attempts by the state to reform government-worker health-care costs, Illinois’ Supreme Court found these benefits to be protected by the state’s pension clause – even though retiree health-care benefits are nowhere to be found in the state pension code. As a result, many assume that if the state can’t...
A day after the Illinois Department of Employment Security reported that Illinois’ workforce shrank by 19,000 people in August, driving Illinois’ labor-force participation rate to a new 35-year low, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms the severity of the state’s labor-force dropout crisis. The labor-force participation rate measures the share of Illinois’...
Illinois continues to bleed workers, with another 19,000 Illinoisans dropping out of the workforce in the month of August alone, according to a press release from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, or IDES. As a result, Illinois’ labor force participation rate hit a new 35-year low in August. The state’s jobless rate fell from...
In the throes of Illinois’ fiscal crisis, nearly every nook and cranny of the Illinois state budget should be fair game for review and reduction. But some state lawmakers don’t seem to think so, especially when it comes to their money. In the waning hours of the final day of this year’s spring session, state...
Illinois is the worst state in the Midwest for black men to find work.
The village of Tinley Park has doubled-down on its investment in a privately managed restaurant within the 80th Avenue Metra station, voting this month to give $57,000 to Parmesans Station for a new pizza oven, according to the Chicago Tribune. In 2012, the village fronted a $600,000 investment for the restaurant space to complement the...