This blog is the fifth part of a series that explores Illinois’ workers’ compensation system, the state’s inadequate reforms, and opportunities policymakers should seize now to make the system less costly and more effective for employers and workers alike.
At its next meeting in February, City Council will likely approve legislation to expand the scope of the inspector general’s role to overseeing aldermen.
More than two-thirds of people moving far from their home state said employment or housing drove their decision.
Lacking signs of progress after 24 bargaining sessions with Illinois’ largest government-employee union, Gov. Bruce Rauner says that “further negotiation is no longer worthwhile.” AFSCME continues to ignore the fact that the people who pay its members’ salaries and benefits, Illinois taxpayers, continue to struggle in a difficult Illinois economy. Illinois workers, faced with stagnant earnings, are now paying for AFSCME salaries that are double their own.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services issued a two-notch downgrade to the Chicago Board of Education on Jan. 15, citing failure to address the district’s structural financial problems.
Ninety-two percent of Americans support a body camera requirement for police officers; to enhance transparency and accountability, Chicago should require its police to use body cameras.
Redflex bagman Martin O’Malley says John Bills ordered him to pay thousands of dollars to Mike Madigan’s 13th Ward Democratic Organization.
Sky-high debt and a meager rainy day fund make Illinois the second-least prepared state in the U.S. for its capacity to weather a recession.
General Electric will move its corporate headquarters and 800 jobs to Boston, Mass., from Fairfield, Conn., noting its concerns about Chicago’s government-worker pension debt in its rejection of the Windy City.
Illinois has the lowest credit rating among the 50 states, forcing taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in borrowing costs than residents of states in better fiscal condition.
Illinois could have saved a cumulative $3.5 billion had AFSCME salaries simply grown at the rate of inflation since 2004.