Opinions
Property taxes on 'Home Alone' house jump 57% in 1 year
The current owners Kevin McCallister’s house from “Home Alone” will pay more than $50,000 in property taxes this year. Illinoisans pay the second-highest property taxes in the nation on average.
A holiday message from Illinois State Senator Erica Harriss
As we head into the final week of this year, I want to sincerely thank you for allowing me to serve as your State Senator for the 56th District. Nearly 12 months ago, I took an oath of office to represent our community and this experience has been an incredible honor.
Illinois still hasn't finalized contract with state workers
The contract negotiated between the state and AFSCME Council 31 was ratified by members in July. But the final contract has yet to be released, meaning taxpayers don’t yet know how much it will cost them.
The costs of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Illinois universities
Several Ivy League schools have been put under a national microscope recently for applying the right to free speech inconsistently. These universities are giving some groups unwavering protection to protest, while shutting down other groups altogether. These inconsistencies have one common denominator: Higher education’s unwavering devotion to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Illinois’ long slide in manufacturing jobs continues
Short-term. Long-term. No matter how you slice it, Illinois’ manufacturing sector is in trouble.
Illinois again seeing one of the most-contested elections in two decades
Illinois politicians have worked hard to protect incumbent state lawmakers and discourage newcomers. But that is changing for the second election cycle in a row as more Illinoisans work to get into the Illinois General Assembly.
Why you should miss Squeezy the Pension Python
Illinois recently released its biggest, regular report on government pensions. Before getting to that, however, it’s fascinating to look back on what was widely agreed about pensions not long ago, and how all that was said is now forgotten.
Prenzler: PTELL would have prevented tax levy increases greater than 5%
The Illinois Truth in Taxation law requires that a notice be published in a newspaper and a public hearing must be held, if the proposed aggregate tax levy is more than 5 percent greater than the previous year's tax extension.
Universities better get ahead of surging anti-woke backlash. The University of Illinois should go first.
Most Americans of every political stripe gagged last week seeing three leading university presidents’ Congressional testimony on anti-semitism. After years of punishment and censorship of centrist and conservative viewpoints at their schools and others across America, none of the three could say that calls for genocide against Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct.
New 2023 data: Inflation can’t save Illinois from its worst-in-nation pension crisis
COGFA, Illinois’ official number-crunching group, is out with its state pension reports for both FY 2022 and 2023 and its analysis shows that while record-high inflation has reduced the stress of pension costs on the budget in the short-term, those retirement debts continue to be a major threat to the state’s fiscal and economic stability.
Gov. Pritzker’s dishonest spin on Chicago crime, Illinois jobs
There’s no denying Gov. J.B. Pritzker should be one of the state’s biggest cheerleaders, consistently accentuating Illinois’ positives. It’s what any good governor should do.
Illinois mandated annual reports on Invest in Kids: 4 years, no reports
The Illinois State Board of Education failed to publish diagnostic reports required by the Invest in Kids Act to track scholarship recipients’ progress starting in 2019. State lawmakers are letting the program expire without seeing a single report.
Illinois licensing makes escaping poverty harder than in other Midwestern states
Illinois could make it easier to escape poverty by letting more people work without first getting a license. Six neighboring states do a better job of easing occupational licensing on low-income professions.
Illinois’ 2nd-highest gas taxes drive up Thanksgiving travel costs
More than 55 million people are traveling for Thanksgiving this year, according to AAA. Illinois motorists can avoid the nation’s second-highest gas taxes by filling up in other states.
Illinoisans burdened with $207 billion in official state & local pension debts, $41,000 per household
The $200 billion Illinois’ public and private sectors got in federal covid bailouts pulled Illinois back from its decades-long, self-inflicted financial decline. Unpaid bills are now mostly repaid, state revenues are up and the state has received multiple credit rating upgrades.
Illinois becomes first state in America to go backward on school choice
School choice in Illinois is dead. For now. The teachers unions were on a warpath to kill Illinois’ small tax-credit scholarship program and their Democratic allies weren’t willing to cross them. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon failed to call a bill to a vote this week to extend the program and with that, the Invest in Kids Act sunsets at the end of this year.
Pritzker asks Biden to help Illinois attract more migrants
Gov. JB Pritzker met with Pres. Joe Biden for 45 minutes during Biden’s Thursday Illinois visit.
Chinese state-run publication cheers Gotion’s Illinois and Michigan projects as expansion of global supremacy in E.V. supply chain
The Global Times is a Chinese government publication controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Its October 31 column celebrates China’s expansion of its dominance over the the electric vehicle and battery supply line into the United States and the rest of the world.
1.2 million Illinois public school children can’t read at grade level, yet legislature, unions push to kill state’s only school choice program
It’s incredible that Illinois politicians and the teachers unions are focused on maiming – or even killing – the state’s tiny 9,700-student school choice program when states across the country are not only expanding school choice, but making it universally available for every single student in their state.
Gov. Pritzker shuns warnings from Biden Administration and top democrats about Chinese espionage
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said critics of his decision to provide taxpayer financing to Gotion, Inc., a Chinese electric vehicle battery maker with CCP ties, are “xenophobes” and “MAGA Republicans.” That’s ironic given that some of the most urgent warnings about China on spying, intelligence and supply chain risks come from the top of his very own Democratic party.