Illinois' public pension crisis has been bumped out of the headlines by the Nov. 8 presidential election and other attention-grabbers, but the crisis hasn't gone away, the vice president of a Chicago-based conservative think tank said in a recent article.
A newly released study that indicates higher-paid legislators spend more time fundraising than legislating prompted a conservative think-tank founder to ponder whether Illinois voters should consider reducing legislator pay.
The legal tussle between Naperville Township and the Naperville Township Road District is emblematic of the problems caused in Illinois, a state with almost 7,000 units of local government, a writer for a Chicago-based conservative think tank said in a recent article.
While online campaigning and phone polling are changing the way elections happen, Democrats in Springfield may find themselves in an unfamiliar position if they should win a super-majority next week, a Chicago-area political reporter said during a radio interview.
Illinois taxpayers need to send a clear message to the General Assembly to work with the governor and tackle the state's trillions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities, the president of a government advisory group said during a recent radio interview.
On Tuesday, voters in Illinois will vote on a constitutional amendment aimed at locking away transportation funds and preventing those funds from being spent for other purposes -- a measure that has opponents.
Illinois needs to diversify its tax base and make changes to become more competitive if it wants to stem the tide of people leaving the state, an analyst for an independent policy organization said during a recent radio show interview.
One of the biggest wins for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) when it scored a victory through a new four-year contract is that pension pickups were preserved; but what is good for teachers is not always what is good for everyone else as the plan stands to cost taxpayers a fortune.
The co-founders of a Chicago-based conservative public-policy think tank recently challenged an assertion by House Speaker Mike Madigan's (D-Chicago) spokesman that Madigan shouldn't have to release his tax returns as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has done.
Terming the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) an “800-pound gorilla at the negotiating table,” the Illinois Policy Institute recently examined the relationship between the union and Illinois workers, suggesting that the balance of power tends to tilt toward the union.
Four Illinois manufacturers announced in October that they are leaving Illinois and relocating to bordering states to open up new plants facing less regulation.
The state's largest public employee union is calling for Gov. Bruce Rauner to continue negotiating after talks were declared to be at an impasse earlier this month, but further talks with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) would be pointless, an attorney for a Chicago-based think tank said recently.
Already struggling under a multi-tiered fiscal burden, Illinois taxpayers are now confronting incontrovertible evidence of serious fiscal setbacks in their state as a new report revealed staggering amounts of pension debt and escalating red ink.
With Illinois' state pension liability 17 percent more than it was last year, the vice president of a Chicago-based think tank recently said that 401(k)-style plans for public employees would go a long way toward easing the pension crisis.
Citing worrisome data that indicates millennials are fleeing the state and taking their families with them, a Chicago-based think tank is urging state lawmakers to pass pro-growth reforms.