by Mark Cavers Over the past three months, the Illinois Policy Institute has been working with 16 government entities in Lyons Township to the implement transparency best-practices as part of our local government transparency project. The Institute just completed a second round of audits on the local governments; this is an important benchmark for checking progress. You...
In a trend that continues to worsen, more Illinoisans found themselves unemployed in the month of July. Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report. After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm...
by Mark Cavers Last week, Governor Quinn signed into law the Tax Disclosure Act, which instructs the Department of Revenue to provide information on all state and local taxes in a single, central online database. Under this law, citizens will be able to see every tax they pay with just a few clicks of the mouse....
by Emily Dietrich In April, Americans celebrated Tax Freedom Day – the day of the year on which workers’ have earned enough money to pay all their annual taxes at the federal, state and local level. Liberating, right? Not so fast. When total government spending and costly regulations are factored into the government’s price tag,...
by Michael Wille On Thursday, a state Senator provided further evidence of the state’s inability to manage its education dollars. A hearing revealed last week that students with failing grades at Chicago State University continued to receive educational assistance dollars. Senator Edward Maloney indicated the following: Maloney, who requested state financial aid information after the Tribune report,...
by Ted Dabrowski Last Thursday, the Illinois Policy Institute warned of Illinois’s ballooning pension liabilities (See US Downgraded: Illinois Next?). In particular, the Institute’s paper highlighted the increasing scrutiny Illinois will receive from credit agencies once they begin to account for state’s overwhelming retirement obligations. Only hours later, Moody’s Investors Service, the credit rating agency, released...
by Jonathan Ingram Illinois cannot afford Obamacare. The Medicaid expansion in Obamacare is expected to increase Illinois’s Medicaid spending to $10.2 billion by 2030. This represents a 77 percent increase over 2008 spending. Illinois already faces a spending crisis, particularly within Medicaid, and the Comptroller reports even longer delays for payments to doctors and hospitals treating Medicaid patients are...
by Aon Hussain For weeks on end the debt ceiling deadline debate captured the public’s attention on a very serious fiscal situation. But what was actually accomplished in terms of solving our nation’s problems? Here’s a look at the projected numbers for fiscal year 2011. US Tax Revenue: $2,228,000,000,000 Federal Budget: $3,708,000,000,000 New Debt: $1,480,000,000,000 National Debt: $14,584,000,000,000...
by Aon Hussain With the world watching, the Republican controlled House and the Democrat controlled Senate and President came to an agreement on the debt ceiling that simultaneously raised the debt ceiling and ensured more than two trillion dollars in spending cuts. While this showdown was combative, another duel between Democrats and Republicans looms in...
by Aon Hussain Earlier this year, the Texas Transportation Institute measured traffic congestion across America. Their results found that Chicago has the most debilitating amount of traffic congestion in the entire country. The problem isn’t just local. In total, congestion cost the entire country almost $115 billion, forced travelers to sit behind the wheel 4.8 billion hours...
by Kolin Karchon On August 1st, the city of Central Falls in Rhode Island filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection citing that “the city’s financial condition has deteriorated to the point where it is insolvent.” The city’s pension plan is expected to run out of assets by October, but city negotiations regarding benefit cuts with current workers...
by Mark Cavers The Chicago Tribune reports that the City of Chicago has made progress in reigning in a traffic control aide program that is costing the city millions: “Fewer traffic control aides will be posted at downtown intersections during rush hour after the city laid off about half of Chicago’s full-time brigade to save money.”...
by Kristina Rasmussen Josh Barro of the Manhattan Institute has a new study out examining the high cost of public employee health care benefits, and he finds that “public-employee health benefits are more expensive than those in the private sector.” In the last quarter of 2010, government employees eared $4.66/hour in health benefits, compared to just $2.08/hour in...
Summary This report focuses on the seven downstate and suburban charter schools that enrolled K-12 students during the 2009-10 school year. Charter schools that focus exclusively on reenrolling high school dropouts are excluded from the analysis. Also not included in the analysis are Peoria’s Quest Academy, Rockford’s CICS Patriots Charter School and Southland College Prep,...