If you’re an ordinary Illinoisan, you may be tempted to support Gov. Pritzker’s plan to change Illinois’ flat tax structure to a progressive one. He’s promised to lower your taxes if you’ll support the switch.
There’s no arguing that Illinois is a wreck. But read Gov. J.B. Pritzker's recent pre-budget report and you'll get the impression former Gov. Bruce Rauner alone caused that wreck.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker got a warning of sorts from Moody’s ahead of his first budget address. The rating agency’s most recent report highlighted the usual crises Pritzker must tackle: ballooning pension debts and chronic budget deficits.
Governor J.B. Pritzker has made his position clear on pensions: No reforms. Not necessary. Just pay them. Nobody in the Democratic party, which holds supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, has voiced any dissent.
While the request is being downplayed as “symbolic,” it reveals just how out of touch education officials are from the realities facing Illinois and its residents, like the state’s crumbling finances, punishing tax bills and the increasing flight of Illinoisans.
Illinois Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker says one of his first legislative priorities is to focus on things that will “lift up the standard of living” for Illinoisans by “putting dollars back in their pockets.”
COLLINSVILLE – Inspired by a desire to take action against out of control taxation, a “Taxpayer Revolt Rally” is set to take place Oct. 24 in Collinsville, just ahead of an election that could be considered a referendum on the hot topic.
You can trust public pension apologists to deflect any critique that calls out the failure of defined benefit plans. Unsurprisingly, their response to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial highlighting Wirepoints’ research was just that – deflection via misdirection and victim playing.
If you want to understand Illinois’ corrupt budget making process, take the example of how the legislature just “cleaned up” some of its unaccounted-for budget deficits.
Illinois media is widely reporting that no news on Illinois’ budget negotiations is good news – that a quiet battleground in the statehouse means all is well. Especially after a nasty near three year impasse between Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Glance at the list of the Civic Federation’s Trustees and you’ll see a collection of Illinois corporate titans. Many of the 16 men and one woman are CEOs, heads of private equity, chairs of boards, investors or hugely successful entrepreneurs.
A proposal that would make residential property owners pay an additional 1 percent special assessment over and above their existing property tax bills to help bail out five under-funded state pension systems has two conservative politicos steaming.
Your job, your pension, or your home. This is the choice left to several families in Harvey, Illinois. They can’t have all three and some don’t even have the choice of one.
Police and fire pension funds for the cities of East St. Louis, East Alton and Granite City are among the worst funded in the state of Illinois and puts them at risk for garnishment like what the city of Harvey now faces, according to a Wirepoints report.
