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’...
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....
These new rules are hitting drivers hard, and limiting their ability to make a living.
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...
The nation’s unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest unemployment report. But with 217,000 jobs created, the total number of payroll jobs has finally recovered to its pre-recession level. In other words, the nation is finally back to where it was six years ago. While...
The Illinois Liquor Control Commission, or ILCC, has proposed new regulations to the craft brewing industry that would halt expansion plans for many craft breweries throughout the state. The proposed regulations would limit brewpubs’ ability to produce and sell more than 1,200 barrels of their beer for offsite consumption, even to licensed distributers. This is...
Illinois politicians want to make things worse for the many Chicagoans struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. They’re calling for state, county and local tax hikes on the city that already has one of the worst metro area unemployment rates in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Gov. Pat...
Should food producers be forced to label genetically modified, or GM, goods? It’s a trend that’s been popping up in states across the country, with laws now on the books in Maine and Connecticut. The possibility has been raised in Illinois, too, with a Senate bill under discussion that would require foods with even one...
Illinois’ metropolitan statistical areas are a long way from jobs recovery, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The release shows that Danville, Decatur and Rockford are still plagued with double-digit joblessness. All 10 of Illinois’ metro areas have jobless rates above the national average. Despite economic improvement and jobless rates falling nationally,...
On May 14, one day before the official start of Chicago Craft Beer Week, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, or ILCC, proposed a harsh new cap on the amount of beer Illinois’ brew pubs would be allowed to sell. Under the proposed rules, a brew pub would not be allowed to sell more than 50,000...
After health department officials shut down the cupcake business of a little girl from Troy, Ill., lawmakers tried to craft a new set of rules for “kitchen businesses.” But one Illinois senator had added so many harmful requirements into the bill that would have crippled the home kitchen industry – fortunately, his version of the bill...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked the regulatory environment in 10 major U.S. cities, and the results aren’t pretty for Chicago. One writer described starting a professional services business in Chicago as a “dystopian nightmare.” Professional and business services make up 780,000 payroll jobs in the Chicago metropolitan area, a major part of current employment...
Burke’s proposal to end the process of reissuing city carriage licenses starting in 2015 came seemingly out of the blue.