Can Cook County make its residents pay taxes on things they buy elsewhere? This week an Illinois appellate court said no, upholding a lower-court decision striking down the county’s “Non-Titled Personal Property Use Tax,” which charged an extra tax on Cook County residents who bought goods worth more than $3,500 outside of the county. In...
Over the last three decades, private-sector companies have transitioned away from traditional pension plans and toward 401(k)-style plans for their employees. While the traditional pension plans were unpredictable and unmanageable, these 401(k)-style plans offered companies a greater level of certainty in their budget and gave employees greater control over their retirement accounts. Today, 85 percent...
Illinois is now gearing up for the second round of ObamaCare open enrollment period that begins on Nov. 15. ObamaCare was passed with the promise that it would drastically reduce the number of uninsured Americans. Illinois’ state officials originally aimed to reduce the eligible uninsured adult population by half by the end of the first...
The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, was supposed to cut Illinois’ eligible, uninsured adult population by half by the end of March 2014. The state achieved only half of its goal. About one-quarter of Illinois’ eligible uninsured adults have obtained health insurance coverage under the ACA. The state’s original goal was to move half of...
Illinois has the lowest credit rating in the nation. The sad truth is Illinois hasn’t been a AAA-rated state since February 1979 – when a gallon of gas cost less than a dollar and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered in the low 800s. The state’s credit rating has been in a downward spiral ever...
U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 208,000 workers in the month of July, against consensus expectations of 230,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2 percent. However, one of the reasons for the increase is that the number of people in the workforce increased. It is healthy for workforce...
The state of Pennsylvania isn’t afraid to shame their convicted politicians, and Illinois shouldn’t be either. Recently, Pennsylvania started shaming the lawmakers who have been convicted of a crime by adding a detailed plaque under their portraits hanging in the state Capitol building in Harrisburg. The plaques highlight offenses committed by convicted lawmakers, including the...
Chicago’s North Shore is synonymous with million-dollar homes and top-notch schools. For decades, families have left Chicago to raise their families and educate their children in the North Shore suburbs. But tucked away within those wealthy villages is a city with schools on the other end of the spectrum. Waukegan, with a population of more...
The Statehouse was packed. Protestors crammed the building, chanting, pounding drums and marching around with signs. The historic Wisconsin state Capitol had become overrun with sleeping bags and activists. In some cases, lawmakers were harassed. Doctors diagnosed fake illnesses so protestors could be excused from work. The Senate Democratic caucus fled the state. Within days,...
Back on June 6, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation authorizing Chicago city officials to enact a 56 percent per-line 911 fee hike. This measure gave the city of Chicago the authority to raise the city’s per-line 911 fee to $3.90 from the old fee of $2.50. It didn’t take long for Chicago City Council...
If you live in Illinois and have private insurance – either through your employer or purchased on your own – your premiums likely increased this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare. Instead of reducing premiums by an average of $2,500 per family as promised, ObamaCare has increased what...
401(k)-style retirement plans have become America’s primary retirement vehicle. In 1985, only one in 10 Fortune 100 companies offered 401(k)-style retirement plans to their employees. Today, seven in 10 Fortune 100 companies provide only defined-contribution, 401(k)-style retirement plans to new employees. This trend is in line with the private sector overall, where nearly 85 percent of...
The taxi industry complains endlessly that ridesharing services such as UberX and Lyft are hurting its business. Now an AFL-CIO-affiliated group of Chicago cab drivers is seeking to improve its members’ fortunes by pushing the city to mandate higher taxi fares. But hiking prices doesn’t seem like a good way to save an industry that...
Illinois is often seen as the poster child when it comes to bloated government, wasteful spending and public corruption. As a recent WICS news story highlighted, Illinois’ capital bill is a perfect example of why the state holds such a reputation: the state budget is chock full of wasteful spending and pet projects. Take Decatur...