llinois Policy Institute CEO says “Stop asking taxpayers to pay for lawmakers’ ineptitude”

Occupational licenses act as a barrier to potential new workers in an occupation. The costs and delay associated with obtaining a license convinces many potential workers to not even try. As a result of the decreased competition among workers, customers end up paying more, either directly or through their state and local taxes.

The “Illinois Schools Database,” which includes personnel records such as salaries, as well as administrator and union contracts, budget data and legal settlements.

NPR reporters poked around Illinois for a week to figure that out. Could have spent five minutes looking at comments on this site.

Monthly reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security allow the public to see Illinois’ record for job creation and unemployment. Understanding the components of the reports, what they measure, and the significance of the data are key to assessing the state’s economic health.Comment: Author Mike Lucci is the best numbers guy around on this topic.

Pensions, bonds and state employees are getting paid during the impasse, but higher education funds are stuck at zero, leaving public universities and poor students who rely on state aid among the hardest hit by the budget standoff. As more students look elsewhere, Illinois risks a long-term loss of residents, further pressuring the economy of the state that ranked 49 out of 50 in terms of population gains in the last three years.

Illinois’ 859 local school districts consume nearly two-thirds of the $27 billion in local property taxes collected across the state each year.

The Illinois attorney general – House Speaker Mike Madigan’s daughter – could play a major role in whether state lawmakers will pass a budget Illinoisans can afford. Comment: Unquestionably, she tried earlier to get courts to cut off paychecks, which would have shut down the state. She made those arguments personally, in court.

The company operates multiple underground and surface mines throughout the Illinois Basin, the fastest-growing coal-producing region in the United States. It cited “unprecedented” industry pressures and a sharp decline in the price of coal. Comment: “Mission Accomplished” for the Obama Administration and warmists.

Madigan is protective of the political machine he has built while pillaging Illinois taxpayers for the last half-century, so he is willing to play hostage-taker over the budget with the constituency groups he has fostered, from teachers and colleges to government employees and social services organizations. But Rauner is willing to play the long-game, too, and seems quite ready to stake his governorship on reversing decades of cronyism and mismanagement throughout Illinois’ state government.