Over 200 Illinois towns have opted to charge a 1% grocery tax. Chicago is likely to follow. Local leaders have until October to decide whether to impose this regressive tax on people’s need to eat.
Illinois companies announced 1,477 mass layoffs during May. The highest concentration of cuts impacted Champaign after one of the state’s largest health insurers, Health Alliance, announced it would end coverage and halt operations.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson likes to parrot platitudes about taxing the rich to fix the city, CTA and Chicago Public Schools finances. But all three made bad decisions and did not adjust to post-pandemic realities. And the rich can move away.
Illinois state lawmakers failed to advance bills that would have helped ease housing shortages and reduced costs. Legislators also rejected damaging measures that would have most hurt housing builders and boosted rents and mortgages.
Chicago’s speed cameras issued $90.9 million in tickets and fees to drivers in 2024, down $11.3 million from 2023. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s is adding 50 new speed cameras to recover those fines, with 11 issuing tickets by the end of June.
Illinois will have spent over $2.5 billion on migrant care by the end of 2025. Costs have shattered projections and left taxpayers poorer.
Republican Illinois Senate members are suing their Democratic peers over the last-minute rush to OK a $55 billion state budget few people had seen – just like they do every year. The lawsuit aims to block the budget before Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs it in to law.
State lawmakers built Illinois’ record $55.2 billion budget for 2026 on gimmicks, one-time fixes and piecemeal tax hikes. They left pension debt, transit cliffs and real reform for another day.
The Chicago Teachers Union and its cronies destroyed Illinois’ only private school choice program. Now they are out to kill charter schools and public-school choice, leaving parents with no option but CTU’s failing product.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s record $55.2 billion budget relies on Illinoisans paying over $394 million in new or higher taxes on sports bets, tobacco, short-term rentals and more. At the same time, he’s set to take away a property tax break.
Illinois lawmakers got creative with state budget proposals to overhaul pensions and raise new revenue, many of which would have hit consumers and small businesses hardest. They also failed to intrude on how families choose to educate their children.
With only 10,100 of the Chicago Teachers Union’s 27,216 active members voting to retain Stacy Davis Gates as president, she doesn’t have support from nearly two-thirds of the teachers the union represents.
Published June 3, 2025 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The best path to empowerment and success, especially for poor people, is work. Work allows us to prosper while providing dignity, upward mobility, the means to support ourselves and create value for others. It’s how we become thriving members of our community. Central to this process is our education...