In January 2011, the governors of Wisconsin and Illinois took office for their first elected terms. They set their states on two very different paths: one that led to recovery, and one that led to further decline. Gov. Pat Quinn saw a hole in pension funding, so he raised income taxes on all Illinoisans by...
The 2014 Thumbtack.com Small Business Friendliness Survey asked 13,000 small businesses across the U.S. to grade the friendliness of their state and locality. Illinois businesses gave the Land of Lincoln an F. Ever the golden child, Chicago earned a D+. These grades are unacceptable. Illinois’ small businesses are sounding the alarm for what’s causing Illinois’...
Today is the submission deadline for proposals to the Barack Obama Foundation, the organization tasked with accepting bids from various contenders vying for Obama’s future presidential library and museum. The competition as it stands is between Hawaii, New York and Illinois; where President Obama was born, where he received his undergraduate degree and where he...
Get Covered Illinois has been hit by two scandals in as many days. A recent Associated Press (AP) investigation into a $33 million federal grant to promote ObamaCare in Illinois revealed that “More than 90 people, including executives from the firm and its subcontractors, billed at least $270 an hour for salary and overhead during...
The drumbeat for eliminating the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate is getting louder. And it is under attack from both sides of the political aisle, according to The Washington Post. The real question is, especially given new opposition from the law’s own supporters: Can it survive? A briefing paper released by the Urban Institute and...
Politicians are celebrating their pension “fix” for the city of Chicago. But their plan is nothing more than a massive property tax hike – it increases city contributions by $4 billion through 2025. More importantly, it doesn’t solve the pension problem. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pension plan does nothing to improve the retirement security of city...
In a ruling that has already sent shockwaves through public education, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu found in Vergara v. California that five California laws governing the hiring, firing and laying off of teachers – laws that teachers unions favor – violated the California Constitution’s equal protection clause, and should be struck...
Illinois recorded the second-worst growth in gross domestic product of any state in the Midwest, according to this week’s release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Illinois economy grew by just 0.9 percent in 2013. Only Missouri grew slower, at a sluggish 0.8 percent. The state’s growth ranks near the bottom nationally as well....
The Chicago Tribune recently reported on the links between the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, and various community organizing groups behind the campaign to increase Chicago’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. In her story, reporter Alejandro Cancino found that SEIU and its affiliates had spent at least $2 million on a campaign to organize...
These new rules are hitting drivers hard, and limiting their ability to make a living.
Politicians are waiting for Gov. Pat Quinn to approve their state budget, and many are complaining that the budget isn’t balanced. “The effect of the budget is to delay doomsday by borrowing and increasing our backlog of bills,” said a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton. “Admittedly, this budget reverses some of the progress that...
A federal jury has found state Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, guilty of taking a $7,000 cash bribe in exchange for writing a state grant recommendation letter in 2012. Under state law, Smith automatically loses his office with the felony bribery conviction. This is the second time Smith has lost his office. Smith was originally expelled from...
Illinois Policy Action is announcing an initiative to help hold legislators accountable to their word following the three major state income tax defeats during the spring session. We will be asking all House and Senate members to sign our “Keep Your Promise” pledge, which will affirm politicians’ stated opposition to keeping permanent the temporary 5...
When Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign spokesperson, Brooke Anderson, joined host Mike Flannery on Fox Chicago on June 8, she claimed: “Unemployment is at its lowest point in more than five years. More people are working in Illinois today than when the governor took office.” But that’s simply not true. While the unemployment rate in Illinois...