“We need to figure out how to get our message out to everyone that neither money nor pension benefits grow on trees. And if that takes meme-writing or some viral YouTube or Tik-Tok videos, well, then let’s get on it.”

Two lawmakers have proposed legislation to change what’s known as the Medicaid hospital assessment program, which sets aside an estimated $3.6 billion to help reimburse hospitals that care for patients who can not afford expensive hospital stays.

State Rep. Joe Sosnowski, R-Rockford, has introduced a bill that would require law enforcement to get a warrant to see someone’s I-Pass records. Examining 117 subpoena requests made to the Tollway over a 14-month timeframe, WBEZ found requests from local police departments, federal prosecutors and even private divorce attorneys looking to track what their clients’ exes were up to.

Senate Resolution 992 Monday that urges Congress to add farming to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to help attract students to agriculture. Professionals in PSLF, including government organizations and nonprofits, can have their student debt fully forgiven after making 10 years’ worth of monthly payments while working full-time.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale will receive $2.5 million of the $500 million in capital funding Governor JB Pritzker announced Wednesday for a statewide effort to boost research and innovation in Illinois. SIU’s “iFERM” hub will work to find new ways to utilize and market Illinois agricultural products.

Academic research on the marriage penalty has found that by punishing two-income households, this tax policy disproportionately harms the careers of married women and widens the gender pay gap.

House Bill 4558 would require the investigator to tell the panel of lawmakers that they’ve started an investigation but the commission would no longer be able to stop them from starting it or from releasing a report on the findings to the public.

“In fact, these frivolous lawsuits have gotten so out of hand in our great state that it’s landed us the No. 7 spot on the American Tort Reform Association’s (ATRA) 2019 Judicial Hellholes Report.”

The state will have to work hard to move past the challenges noted by Kiplinger’s, including flat employment numbers outside of Chicago and ongoing trade difficulties between the U.S. and China. Unsettled trade policy means slower and fewer exports through Chicago’s trading platforms.

Unless Illinois finds a way to deal with property taxes and pensions, it won’t really matter who fills the tanks of the moving trucks for the people moving out of state.

Truth In Accounting Research Director Bill Bergman said the report had four major shortcomings: It wasn’t immediately distributed, it wasn’t audited, it was still late, and it lacked components such as the cost of running the state’s universities.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid said the word “heartland” is “like a dog whistle for white voters.”

While all 13 Illinois US House Democrats voted to benefit the wealthy by increasing the SALT tax deduction, it was Illinois’ own Congressman Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville who actually introduced the legislation to increase the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) that can be deducted from federal tax returns, an amendment to the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

The e-commerce company has opened more than 20 warehouse facilities in Illinois within the past four years. With relatively easy access to interstates 55, 355, 80 and 88, this property is well located for another massive distribution center.

This latest legal volley from Heidner comes after the Gaming Board filed a disciplinary action against him in December seeking to revoke his gambling license for allegedly offering up a $5 million “illegal inducement” to the owner of a gambling parlor chain that planned to remove Heidner’s machines.

The department contracts with community colleges to provide vocational programs inside state prisons, while community colleges are responsible for the cost of academic post-secondary programming, for which they receive reimbursement from the Illinois Community College Board. But state investment in community colleges has dropped dramatically over the last two decades.

The Illinois Policy Institute shows that as Illinois’s population decreased, it has started to cause real problems for the pension system in the state. Because the pension liabilities are fixed regardless of population, the remaining residents are seeing higher taxes as a result to fund the system.