Illinois is the only state in the region that allows government workers to go on strike, effectively depriving residents of services they need and driving up the highest property tax bills in the nation.
The Illinois Senate passed a school funding reform bill containing the state’s first-ever tax credit scholarship program. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
While the state's stopgap budget adopted on the eve of a new fiscal year has for now satisfied the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), a taxpayer watchdog believes it's just a matter of time before more demands are made known.
SPRINGFIELD – Following the Illinois school funding reform’s recent Senate passage by a healthy margin, State Sens. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) and Bill Haine (D-Alton) said they were pleased with the 31-21-3 vote.
CHICAGO - In Illinois, increasing pension obligations are consuming more of its taxpayers’ dollars, pushing cities and towns to cut core services and raise property taxes just to keep up with the payments, policy experts say.
The union’s one-day strike is an illegal, aggressive political power play, and its attempt to coerce its members to participate violates its own constitution. Here’s a breakdown of the timeline, the law and the political statement the union is making
Pension holidays, steep increases in teachers' salaries, and lopsided ratios of teacher contributions to pension payouts have caused the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund’s unfunded liabilities to shoot up to $9 billion in 2015.
SPRINGFIELD — When the time comes, suburban and downstate Democrats will join him in his effort to have the state take control of Chicago’s debt-strapped school system, Gov. Bruce Rauner said Wednesday.
Facing $6 billion in long-term debt, solutions to the crisis facing the Chicago Public School (CPS) system are subject of fierce debate these days in the Windy City.
It is expected that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments sometime early in 2016 in what is a closely watched California-based lawsuit, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, with major implications for the state’s teachers union and potentially all public-employee unions.
VanMetreMore than $100 billion in tax hikes over five years may sound like a joke. But to many Illinois lawmakers, it sounds like a solution.State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, recently said that “creative lawmakers can come up with many options for new revenue.” Unfortunately, Illinois lawmakers have outdone themselves in the creativity department this year.The array of six tax hikes proposed by Illinois
