More than 100,000 Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program
More than 100,000 Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program
by Jonathan Ingram Illinois law has long required that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, perform annual eligibility checks to ensure that those receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. After years of HFS failing to adequately perform these annual eligibility checks, lawmakers enacted 305 ILCS 5/11-5.2, which allowed...
June unemployment: More than 1 million Illinoisans unemployed or underemployed
June unemployment: More than 1 million Illinoisans unemployed or underemployed
by John Klingner President Barack Obama visited to Galesburg last week to give a speech in which he said he would refocus on jobs and the economy. That’s little comfort for the unemployed workers in cities across Illinois. The economic policies the president wishes to enact at the federal level have been at work for...
For real reform, Illinois should repeal campaign contribution limits
For real reform, Illinois should repeal campaign contribution limits
Illinois’ limits on campaign contributions are anticompetitive and unconstitutional – and the bill Gov. Pat Quinn just signed enacting sweeping changes to the state’s election code only makes the system more arbitrary and unfair. The biggest problem with Illinois’ existing campaign finance law is that it limits how much money a person can give to candidates for state office...
Betting on Illinois: Pizza with a Purpose
Betting on Illinois: Pizza with a Purpose
Dimitri Syrkin-Nikolau doesn’t just make pizza. Through his Chicagobased business, Dimos Pizza, he also cultivates talented employees. He opens his doors to local schools. He helps foster enthusiasm and excitement within his community. That’s because, to Syrkin-Nikolau, business isn’t just about making money. He believes it’s about what he calls “purposeful profit.” “Ultimately, profit is...
By Hilary Gowins
Illinois taxpayer contributions to state pensions skyrocket
Illinois taxpayer contributions to state pensions skyrocket
Detroit’s recent bankruptcy is sending cities and states a warning: taxpayers shouldn’t be taken for granted. Unfortunately, Illinois’ long-term pension plan does exactly that. Springfield still believes that taxpayers are passive sources of revenue. While state worker contributions to Illinois’ five pension systems have gone up by 75 percent since 1998, taxpayer contributions have gone...
By John Klingner
Detroit’s tipping point is a warning for Chicago
Detroit’s tipping point is a warning for Chicago
by Paul Kersey How did Detroit get to be the urban disaster area it is today? One tipping point come in 1978, when a union got a “win” that cost the city, and eventually its own members, dearly. This “win” came in the form of a raise concession granted to a powerful police union, which...
CPS four notches above junk bond status
CPS four notches above junk bond status
In what’s become a torrent of bad news regarding Illinois’ fiscal health, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Chicago Public Schools’ $6.3 billion general obligation debt one notch. The credit rating agency’s outlook remains negative, and CPS debt is now just four levels above junk bond status. The CPS ranking drop to A3 from A2 follows recent downgrades...
By Ted Dabrowski
7 in 10 Fortune 100 companies provide only defined contribution, 401(k)-style retirement plans
7 in 10 Fortune 100 companies provide only defined contribution, 401(k)-style retirement plans
Suburban Chicago-based NorthShore University HealthSystem announced last month that it will “will freeze its employee pension plan as of Dec. 31 and shift all employees to a defined contribution savings plan.” The NorthShore hospital system isn’t the only private company making this move — Boeing, American Airlinesand Verizon each dropped their defined benefit plans for defined contribution retirement systems. The core...
By Benjamin VanMetre
Alaska’s bold solution to its pension crisis
Alaska’s bold solution to its pension crisis
Illinois has the nation’s worst-funded pensions. Each Illinois household can expect to pay more than $40,000 in additional taxes to cover the pension shortfall if no reforms are passed. The size of the pension crisis demands that state lawmakers pass the boldest reforms in the country. Fortunately, Illinois lawmakers can look to the examples other states have...
IRS workers want an exemption from ObamaCare
IRS workers want an exemption from ObamaCare
Another union has lost its enthusiasm for ObamaCare – or at least for one major feature of the federalized health insurance scheme. The National Treasury Employees Union, or NTEU, is encouraging its members to write their congressmen in opposition to HR 1780, a bill that would have federal government workers use health insurance exchanges to buy health insurance....
By Paul Kersey
FBI ethics probe causes Chicago alderman to hold off on White House honor
FBI ethics probe causes Chicago alderman to hold off on White House honor
On the same day the White House announced an honor for Chicago Alderman Joe Moore as a “pioneer for political reform, governmental transparency and democratic governance,” Moore also revealed that he had been questioned by the FBI in an ethics probe concerning some of his former employees. As the Chicago Tribune reported: The accusations involving...
By Brian Costin
Another misstep in CPS’ school closing boondoggle
Another misstep in CPS’ school closing boondoggle
Buried beneath the news of Chicago Public Schools’ dismal Illinois Standard Achievement Test scoreslast week was another bombshell: students from receiving schools – those schools that students from closed schools will attend next year – saw less than half of the gains on the ISAT as the rest of the district. In other words, thousands of displaced...
CTU recommendations for new revenue mirror Detroit’s failed policies
CTU recommendations for new revenue mirror Detroit’s failed policies
When Chicago Public Schools laid off more than 2,000 employees – including 1,036 teachers – last week, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis skewered Mayor Rahm Emanuel for not supporting tax-increasing policies that she claims would bring additional revenue to the city. She said: “It is equally shameful that as CPS slashes school budgets, they have not offered one...
U.S. House committee subpoenas Illinois’ new ObamaCare exchange insurance company
U.S. House committee subpoenas Illinois’ new ObamaCare exchange insurance company
As we reported a few days ago, one of the five companies participating in Illinois’ ObamaCare exchange is Land of Lincoln Health Inc., a startup funded by a $160 million federal loan to cover about 20,000 individuals in 2014. In Vermont, the federally funded Vermont Health CO-OP was denied its state insurance license, with a state regulator noting that the...
By Jonathan Ingram