Of Coffers and Kiosks: Where Are Your Tax Dollars Being Spent?
Of Coffers and Kiosks: Where Are Your Tax Dollars Being Spent?
by Alex Miller Today, businesses and jobs are leaving Illinois, thousands of students are trapped in underperforming schools, and the state unemployment rate is 8.7 percent. In such conditions, Democrats and Republicans alike should be calling on their state government to be responsible in determining where to allocate scarce state resources. Yet, during this present malaise of economic...
Government Monopolized Education Is Ineffective
Government Monopolized Education Is Ineffective
by Sameer Warraich New leadership is set to take control over Chicago Public Schools, and parents and students are pondering whether these new policy makers will be successful in reforming Chicago’s public school system. With a deficit that exceeds $720 million, CPS is in dire need of reformers who can simultaneously reduce costs while increasing the...
CMS Fights Workers’ Compensation FOIA Request
CMS Fights Workers’ Compensation FOIA Request
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson In December, the Menard Correctional Center became infamous after theBelleville News-Democrat revealed almost $10 million in workers’ compensation paid out to more than half the staff of the facility. The high incident of workers’ compensation claims have prompted multiple investigations at the federal and state level, and the increased scrutiny of the claims has resulted in...
WeAre21.org – 21 Workers to Fund 1 State Government Job
WeAre21.org – 21 Workers to Fund 1 State Government Job
Did you know that the average state government worker earns 23 percent more than the average Illinoisan? State workers receive about 1.5 times the benefits and have been promised generous pensions when they retire. Broken down, taxpayer by taxpayer, it takes 21 private sector workers to fund just one government job. Watch the Institute’s web-film...
$50,000 for a Glorified Bulletin Board
$50,000 for a Glorified Bulletin Board
by Kristina Rasmussen We told you about a $100K state grant to put up two informational kiosks in Springfield in a Spotlight on Spending report: $100,000 for Touch Screen Kiosks in Springfield The DCEO gave Downtown Springfield Inc. $100,000 for touch-screen kiosks to “provide information on local historic sites, restaurants, retail shops, services, hotels, recreational facilities, maps...
By Chris Andriesen
Pension Costs Will Hit Home: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis
Pension Costs Will Hit Home: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis
Download a pdf of this report and chart here. The required pension payment for Chicago city government and Chicago Public Schools will jump to $1.92 billion from $650 million between now and 2020. Current law will require local taxpayers to foot the bill. That’s a citywide per capita jump to $715 from $241. Illinois is...
Teacher Retirement Costs Exceed General State Aid to Schools: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis
Teacher Retirement Costs Exceed General State Aid to Schools: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis
Download a pdf of this report and chart here. The funding of Illinois’s Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) has become a major obstacle for future increases in state education spending. Years of overly generous pensions and delayed funding by the Illinois legislature have left the TRS approximately $47 billion short of its obligations. Historically, the largest...
Illinois’s $100,000 Plus Workforce: Strong and Growing
Illinois’s $100,000 Plus Workforce: Strong and Growing
by Mark Cavers Illinois will have $8.3 billion in unpaid bills by the end of the fiscal year, a projected deficit of $1.7 billion for fiscal year 2012 and $86 billion in unpaid pension liabilities. A contributing factor to our deficits, and a major reason behind calls for higher taxes is government employee’s pay and benefits. Rather...
Congratulations to the New Mayor of Chicago
Congratulations to the New Mayor of Chicago
Inauguration day carries a spirit of optimism. Changes are needed in Chicago, and we can all hope today is the day that those changes begin to take place. Chicago is a great city, and in almost every way it could become the greatest city in America. But sober realities await the new mayor. The city...
Update: Performance Counts Bill (SB7) Passes
Update: Performance Counts Bill (SB7) Passes
by Mark Cavers Update: Today is a big day for children in schools across state. Senate Bill 7, which represents a significant step forward in the effort to give all our children an excellent education just passed the House! By a margin of 112-1-1 the Illinois House of Representatives sent a strong message that they...
Will HB149 Take Away Previously Earned Pension Benefits? No
Will HB149 Take Away Previously Earned Pension Benefits? No
Pension reform is needed now. This five minute video addresses the misinformation about HB149, including the number one question people have: will it take away benefits that have been previously earned? The answer is no. Watch the video and then call your legislator and urge them to support HB149. Phone the Illinois Capitol Switchboard: (217) 782-2000.
What Voters Want – Pension Reform: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis
What Voters Want – Pension Reform: Charting Illinois’s Pension Crisis
A January poll asked likely Illinois voters how the state should address its increasing pension payment. Sixty-four percent of respondents said that benefits for current public employees should be reformed to work within the state’s financial constraints. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a record 67 percent tax hike. At the time, taxpayers were told the...
Illinois is the third worst place to do business in the United States
Illinois is the third worst place to do business in the United States
by Mark Cavers Last week a Chief Executive Magazine survey of 556 CEOs ranked Illinois as the third worst place to do business in the United States. Put another way, over 500 of the leaders who are making company’s decisions on where to invest, hire more employees, and expand or contract operations would opt to go almost anywhere in...