See our own story on this topic linked here.

It was introduced by Rep. Jesus Garcia of Illinois.

From Jan. 21 to Feb. 3 alone, 11 new class action lawsuits were filed in Cook County Circuit Court against a range of employers under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.

A reprint of our Wirepoints article.

A bill to extend an expiring ban on fentonyl had passed the U.S. Senate without a dissenting vote. So it’s perplexing that nine House Democrats from Illinois voted against the bill: Sean Casten, Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Chuy Garcia, Robin Kelly, Bobby Rush, Jan Schakowsky, Brad Schneider and Lauren Underwood.

A union representing Secretary of State Employees picketed outside the capitol Tuesday. Deneen Taylor, representing 98 IT employees in White’s office, said management was failing.

“This technology and the demands are increasing yet the number of employees to hold those positions and make sure everything is up to date and working properly aren’t there and that rests on the Secretary of State and their hiring,” Taylor said. Taylor said members were ready to strike for more money and improved hiring practices.

A cannabis-infused chocolate bar purchased in Illinois’ capital city of Springfield might cost $25 before taxes. But after the state, city and county take a cut, the consumer would end up paying $33.19.

Pritzker’s chief-of-staff Anne Caprara said when it comes time for the Democratic National Committee to discuss its primary voting structure, a very real push will be made to make Illinois the lead in the nation in the nominating process.

“In his Jan. 29 State of the State speech, Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for ‘real, lasting ethics reform.’ Good. But not good enough. Not for the moment we’re in.”

The snafu stems from a data-matching error between the state’s election board and the Illinois Department of Corrections. Individuals were incorrectly categorized as currently incarcerated when in fact they had completed their sentences and been discharged, officials said.

“The graduated income tax proposal that forms the basis of so many of Pritzker’s plans requires a constitutional amendment—creating an opening to push through a pension fix at the same time. Pritzker won’t walk through that door, no doubt because the unions that helped him win office wouldn’t like it much. But the responsibility Pritzker won was to represent the interests of all Illinoisans, not just those who carry a union card.”

“I’ve argued before that it is shorter-term cash considerations that pose a danger for pension funds, and that the system will not suddenly blow up, but rather slowly unravel. Looking at aggregate numbers is misleading…if enough of the 6,300 state and local pension plans fail, it will cause legal and political changes that will likely end the current system of partially funded defined-benefit plans for public sector employees. That could happen in the next recession.”

“This is not poor leadership, but an absolute lack of leadership. I have lived in Illinois my entire 63 years and will be retiring soon. J.B., will you do what it takes to keep me from taking my money in retirement and moving to another state? You can be certain that there are many like me.”

It’s actually a Midwest index.

Former State Senator Martin Sandoval is now turning on his various co-conspirators in what ultimately will become an every-man-for-himself feeding frenzy. “I intend to fully cooperate with the government, and because of that, I can no longer provide any further comments,” he told reporters.

Comment: Just imagine all the press like this and ribbon cutting ceremonies Pritzker will be getting out that obscenely oversized $45 billion capital spending program, paid for mostly with regressive new taxes.

“There are too many cooks in the kitchen,” said Sam Panayotovich, sports betting analyst for NBC Sports and a former sports anchor for WGN radio. “The leagues want a piece. The (state government) wants a big cut. The tax rate is too high. There are just too many things that too many people want and it just makes everything just way more difficult.”

Comment: My, what dumb article. More on that coming soon.

Comment: Good to see there’s at least one reporter in Illinois who sees through the flim-flam.

One Republican is convinced a state version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is something Illinois should adopt. House Assistant Minority Leader Grant Wehrli of Naperville signed on as Chief Co-sponsor of the Clean Energy Job Act, he announced last week.

Former Illinois State Sen. Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty on Tuesday to agreeing to act as a “protector” for red light camera company SafeSpeed in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes, and is cooperating with federal prosecutors in a sweeping corruption probe of SafeSpeed, ComEd, and others.

One of many national stories about Sandoval.

A trip to renew your state ID or driver’s license can be a confusing experience. Here is what you need to know before you go to get a REAL ID.

For decades, major energy initiatives in Illinois have run through two gatekeepers—House Speaker Michael Madigan and Commonwealth Edison. Springfield is preparing to test whether it can fundamentally alter the state’s energy future with those two political powerhouses sidelined.

That’s according to Kinsa Health, a company that collects about 40,000 temperature readings a day via its smart thermometers. As noted recently by the New York Times, the company can track the flu faster than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To be precise, 9.14 percent of Illinoisans have flu-like symptoms.

“[B]eyond reform that can be scratched on paper, changing the culture of business as usual in Springfield and at City Hall requires a revolt. It requires voters to prioritize ethics reform at the ballot box, and it requires political leadership willing to light a blowtorch. If that revolt doesn’t start with party leaders, don’t even dream of change. It’s got to come from the top and from the inside.”

Two years after President Trump signed the tax law, its effects are rippling through local economies and housing markets, pushing some people to move from high-tax states where they have long lived. Parts of Florida, for example, are getting an influx of buyers from states such as New York, New Jersey and Illinois.

Rick Bechtel, head of U.S. residential lending at TD Bank, lives in the Chicago area and said he recently went to a party where it felt like everyone was planning their moves to Florida. “It’s unbelievable to me the number of conversations that I’m

The International Union of Operating Engineers, which has many friends on both sides of the political aisle in Illinois, is pushing to have the General Assembly approve a proposed constitutional amendment effectively banning right-to-work laws—which guarantee that no employee can be compelled to join or pay dues to a union—anywhere in the state.

“The last thing the state of Illinois needs is another way to turn off companies looking to bring good jobs here. But that’s exactly what would happen if a powerful state labor union gets its way in its push for a permanent ban on so-called

“We continue to anticipate plenty of action on the political corruption front coming out of 219 S. Dearborn in the coming days, weeks or months. The difference is that we’ve lowered our expectations about the timing. You know the old saw about a watched pot never boiling.”

Why is this all taking longer than expected? Maybe because there are so many cases that federal authorities don’t have the resources to reel in everything at once? Or maybe it’s because suspects started cooperating as charges were about to be filed, giving prosecutors more time to prepare and new information to

“The Civic Federation agrees with Joe Cahill’s recent critique of the shortcomings of the draft preliminary report of the State of Illinois Property Tax Relief Task Force. Though it only reflects the initial work of more than 80 members of the General Assembly, much more is needed if Illinois is to begin addressing its property tax crisis.”

By Truth in Accounting’s Bill Bergman

“Long story short: Property taxes can’t plummet until legislators put forth a constitutional amendment that allows for pension reform. That notion tosses Illinois Democrats, their Springfield apologists and their union allies into conniptions. Which leaves Democrats arguing about whether to, say, expand the sales tax base. That new revenue could go to school districts and other local governments, and they in turn could reduce their property tax levies.”

More than 129,000 Illinois public pensioners will see expected payouts of $1 million or more during retirement.

If you own a trailer, the new license plate fee might empty your pockets starting this year.

Comment: We are not fans of his politics, but this is a refreshingly different move. Bravo.

Hoping to nail shut a door that former Gov. Bruce Rauner tried to pry open, a major state labor group is moving to put Illinois permanently off-limits to efforts to ban so-called union shops in the state.

The move is being led by International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, a large, well-funded building-trades group with considerable influence on both sides of the aisle in Springfield.

IUOE specifically wants the Legislature this spring to approve—and send to voters for final action on the November ballot—a proposed constitutional amendment banning right-to-work laws in the state. While political conservatives strongly

“Our research revealed Illinois legislators have acquiesced to a power grab by the federal and state judiciary.”

Across all five state retirement systems, typical career workers pay for about 5% of the cost of their pension benefits. They receive an average of $1.7 million to $3.6 million.

After more than a decade, the Illinois Senate finally has a new leader. But newly installed Senate President Don Harmon will have to wrestle with the same cast of snapping demons as predecessor John Cullerton.

Publicly, party leaders made a show of unity. Lightford, who is Senate majority leader, hugged Harmon on the Senate floor Sunday afternoon as she nominated him to become the next Senate president. Harmon, who is white, was elected unanimously after hours of negotiations. But afterward, accusations flew of personal betrayal, and long-time simmering feuds bubbled over.

Lightford, D-Maywood, blamed former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., and his son, Emil Jones III, who is currently in the Senate, for her loss. She would have been the first female black Senate president. She thinks their opposition may stem from

Comment: A particularly good summary of what should be obvious.

Over the last year, the City Council pushed Decatur’s boundaries outward, annexing hundreds of properties despite vehement objections from new residents whose spacious houses and half-acre lots contrast sharply with the smaller, aging homes in neighborhoods closer to downtown.

Illinois’ problem isn’t the form of taxation, it’s the level. Illinois government is simply spending at a rate its dwindling number of taxpaying residents cannot afford.

On the graduated income tax proposal, Brady says:

“Pritzker has sold it in a way that some people might believe—and he might even believe. But the truth of the matter is, if you look at the history of politicians, particularly Democrats, you’ll find they are more than willing to reach into the taxpayers’ pocket and take more money,” Brady said. “And there were other circumstances surrounding his election victory. Gov. Pritzker spent a record $180 million on his campaign. Gov. Rauner spent less than $50 million. It was a very lopsided appeal.

“I believe the voters will reject—when they’re informed

Presented without comment.

Comment: To all of us who think Illinois taxes cause population loss, this article says “back that argument up before it carries you off to fantasyland — or to Indiana, whichever is worse.” They should have added, for all you Wirepoints commenters who’ve told us you’ve moved or plan to because of taxes — you’re all liars. CC: Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Madigan’s home ward, the 13th on the Southwest Side, is receiving a special $10 million appropriation for street resurfacing, new streetlights and other improvements—a gift far larger than most and maybe all of the city’s other 49 wards are receiving.

The money was tucked into Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s huge new $45 billion capital program, the one that passed the Legislature last year with Madigan’s help. And though neither state officials nor especially Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration seem thrilled about it, both are going along with the move.

Based on Wirepoints’ compilation of Census data.

Quentin Fulks is the Chairman of Vote Yes For Fairness, a ballot initiative committee working to pass the Fair Tax in Illinois. Presented here, without comment, is his case that “drastic” out-migration is due to the unfairness in our tax system, which would be fixed by a progressive income tax, and that “it’s clear that taxes are not the reason people are leaving Illinois.”

A quarter of every tax dollar generated from recreational cannabis will go to the newly created Restore, Reinvest and Renew program. When she was a state senator, Toi Hutchinson explained what that’ll be spent on.

“That money is specifically going to small community agencies in the areas that have been impacted the most, that do the work on the ground,” Hutchinson said in 2019.

Comment: This article makes pretty much the same criticisms as ours on the draft recommendations by the Property Tax Relief Task Force. From this article: “The draft report of the property tax relief task force offers little hope that elected officials will do what’s necessary to reverse these trends.”

The high court’s action leaves a dark cloud over special revenue bonds, which could increase borrowing costs for local governments seeking to finance infrastructure projects.

“We agree with Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business that it’s time for Madigan to go….As for Pritzker, how much confidence are we supposed to have in his call for an investigation when the presumed anti-whisteblower did work for him and in essence still does? The governor is “appalled and disgusted?” Really? It has as much credence as Pritzker’s feigned support for redistricting reform. Pritzker talked a good game about that when he was running, but when was the last time anyone saw him actually do anything to make it happen?”

While much was made in advance about its potential significance, creation of the 88-member legislative committee on property-tax reform was never anything more than a political sop that Gov. J.B. Pritzker used to persuade reluctant Democrats to put his proposed constitutional amendment replacing the state’s current flat tax mandate with a progressive income tax on the November 2020 ballot.

State investigators are looking into whether an explosive email that refers to keeping quiet about a “rape in Champaign” could be tied to an inmate who got out of prison early and then sexually abused a young girl, sources familiar with the probe told the Tribune. “I can confirm it is one possible scenario that is being looked at,“ the source said.

Farm income is down, prices continue low. Stress grows.

While our neighbors have exercised some fiscal restraint, our elected officials continue to spend like drunken sailors.

After two years of revelations, it’s obvious Madigan’s closest associates felt that no one could hold them to account, however foul the deed. It’s time for the Illinois House speaker to go, Greg Hinz writes.

There is some concern that these measures may not work in the way intended. The process is expensive – requiring a nonrefundable $5,000 application fee with winners paying $60,000 for the new dispensary licenses. The complicated 400-page application may limit who can realistically apply or necessitate hiring a consultant to navigate through it. The social equity points given for hiring impacted minorities may also work against local entrepreneurs and favor big cannabis companies.

Nearly 20,000 people with disabilities in Illinois are on a waiting list to receive state aid after they age out of the state’s public education system, the Tribune reported last month. Most wait years before they are selected.

The Census Bureau and IRS last week also released state population growth and income migration data for 2018 that show the exodus from high-tax to low-tax states is accelerating. Four states have lost population since 2010 including West Virginia (-3.3%), Illinois (-1.2%), Vermont (-0.3%) and Connecticut (-0.2%), but 10 experienced declines last year. New York was the biggest loser as a net 180,000 people left for better climes. Over the last decade New York has lost more of its population to other states (7.2%) than any other save Alaska (8%), followed by Illinois (6.8%), Connecticut (5.6%) and New Jersey (5.5%).

“[T]he outflow of Illinois residents just keeps climbing. And they’re taking wealth with them: Financial website Wirepoints reports that the average adjusted gross income of those who left in 2018 was about $85,000. Those who moved to Illinois had incomes of around $66,000. Collectively, that’s a lot of lost spending power.”

Trifinity Specialized Distribution, a Waukegan, Ill.-based company that serves major box stores and drug retailers, is relocating to Kenosha, bringing 61 jobs with plans to expand capacity. The company founder noted that the move is a money saver in several ways, saying taxes in Illinois, Lake County and the local community made it difficult to remain there. He also said the tax structure is lower in Wisconsin than in Illinois and noted that the Illinois fuel tax is going up by 35 percent.

A national republication of our Wirepoints article.

“Politicians like Pritzker occupy special places on the planet where the things they either say or don’t say are explained away by their public-relations representatives.”

Comment: Nobody should support it because it’s garbage. See our summary of it linked here.

The firm, Juris Capital, is in the business of bankrolling litigation upfront, making bets that it will enjoy an ample cut of a plaintiff’s proceeds.

“Our most troubled state” spent much of 2010 serving as a warning that states cannot tax themselves into prosperity and cannot thrive by using so much of their budget to line the pockets of government employees. Will this be the decade that the state learns its own lessons?

Lightford, the first African American woman to serve as Senate Majority Leader, represents the 4^th District, based in the western suburbs. She’s a leading candidate to become Illinois’ next Senate President. Steans, from the 7^th District on Chicago’s North Side, was a force behind passing the landmark legislation that legalized cannabis in Illinois.

Yet, what bonds them, intimately and fiercely, are their sons. Once sons, now daughters. Both women have transgender children who are transitioning to female.

Based on our Wirepoints report.

Comment: Naturally, 1IL’s article features a picture of Rauner at the top, blames him and concludes with this gem: “Pritzker is hoping to stem that tide with an overhaul of the state’s funding and taxation system — which will go before voters in November — and the legalization of marijuana that took effect New Year’s Day can’t hurt either when it comes to luring new residents to Illinois.”

Comment: See our own article linked here criticizing the draft report now available.

You might think this century of failure would humble today’s Illinois politicians. Wrong. The current crop of Democrats who run Springfield want voters in November to approve switching the state from a flat income tax to a progressive tax. Their scheme at first would hit only the top 3% of income tax filers.

This report is from September, but we missed it then, and it’s brutal on IL.

Comment: Hey, sounds like Wirepoints: “Exodus is a repetitive theme on this Editorial page, we know. Connecting the dots between high taxes, unsustainable pension costs and slow economic growth is a practice many elected officials in Chicago and Illinois would rather we shut up about.”

Precinct committeeman was once a job that aspiring politicians used to get a foot in the door of their party. These days, the elected position draws little interest. That’s understandable given the lack of pay and prestige and the generally minimal responsibilities. There are times, though, when the precinct committeeman plays a critical role. If a state representative dies in office or resigns, committeemen select a replacement.

“With tongue planted firmly in cheek, I would like to announce my selection for 2019’s “Most Unintentionally Comic Article of the Year.” It’s a genuine knee-slapper. I hope you think so, too. Capitol News Illinois recently produced an article headlined, “State funding for schools would lower property taxes.” Just let that headline sink in. In the great tradition of other over-educated lightweights, Frank Manzo (policy director of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute) and Robert Bruno (equally impressive as director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal, where do they get these names?) authored a commissioned report (a sure sign of

From electric trucks and startups to international megamergers, the state of the fast-evolving auto industry in Illinois comes down to a tale of three cities: Normal, Belvidere and Chicago…. But a future that includes everything from electric and self-driving vehicles to assembly lines increasingly staffed by robots could portend more challenges for Illinois auto plants — and their workers — down the road.

Comment: Credit Zorn with being honest about how most of the modern left works. His advice is “Ignore. Delete. Block.”

“Here’s the scariest thing: even in the best-designed systems, almost no one today will earn enough money in their lifetime to not work for 20 or 30 years at the end of their life. This is true no matter who pays for retirement—the individual, their employer, or the government.”

While the state of Illinois was too strapped to pay its bills, a Chicago-area university spent more than $1.5 million to continue to pay the salaries of 33 terminated employees who did little or no work.

See our own story on this linked here.

The state increasingly looks like it’s being squeezed out by Foxconn adding capacity elsewhere.

[W]ith respect to state and local public pension plans in the most-indebted states, that is, Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and the most-indebted cities, such as Chicago, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that . . . precisely nothing will happen.

Oh, sure, folks like Gov. JB Pritzker in Illinois will take some actions that they will claim have solved the problem, or at least take credit on what they’ll call a down payment on a solution…. Whatever it is, it’ll be a farce rather than a true solution.

llinois lost nearly 105,000 people in net domestic migration from 2018 to 2019, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Monday. In total, the Land of Lincoln lost on net 51,250 people, the largest annual population decline this decade.

Its the sixth consecutive year Illinois’ population declined.

“Why would anyone leave Hawaii?” Former Hawaii residents hear the question a lot, often from someone eager to relay the details of an incredible vacation in Maui or Kauai. But when you’re living paycheck to paycheck and working two jobs, you don’t get many chances to enjoy the island archipelago’s crystal blue waters and soft white sand. People leave Hawaii for the same reasons they leave Illinois and California: high costs and lack of opportunity.

See our own story on this new mandate linked here.

Tugboat companies have spent months getting stranded barges where they needed to go or sending empty barges to pick up waiting loads. One week earlier this month saw the highest grain tonnage of the year moving through a key Mississippi River lock. Volumes have been scaling back since.

“This was an epic year on so many fronts,” including trade wars over grains and steel that held down volumes, hurting the shipping companies’ bottom lines, said Ken Eriksen, a transportation and infrastructure expert and senior vice president at IHS Markit. “It just never got to what one would

A concise statement about the fundamental flaws in defined benefit plans.

Today, 125 of the 1,400 plans are expected to be insolvent within the next two decades, including the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund, due to collapse by 2025. Yet the PBGC has assets of just $2.9 billion to cover insured liabilities of $68 billion, as of Sept. 30.

Lots of Illinois communities and Peoria is worst.

Just how big is Illinois’ latest political scandal going to get?

People have been asking that question over and over in the aftermath of one prominent politico after another being swept up in the federales’ investigative dragnet. Now they have reason to ask it once again after another high-profile Chicago politician — Joseph Berrios — has been targeted with subpoenas seeking potentially sensitive information.

For the first time in history, 19 million public employee salaries at every level of government across America have been mapped and posted online.

Illinois’ pension crisis is the nation’s worst. Maybe that’s because elected officials take a problem they aren’t sure exists, apply a solution they don’t know will work and never determine the cost.

The roots of the utility’s entanglement in a wide-ranging federal probe of Illinois political corruption stretch back to a time when the company badly needed to turn Mike Madigan from a foe into an ally.

A terrific primer.

Persistent Medicaid backlog “strains credulity.”

An Illinois state court battle is heating up over whether an agency should be compelled to release the names of students who receive state financial aid to attend college.

Comment: This is what Illinois abuses to the max, stashing huge losses in the form of unfunded pension liabilities all while claiming a balanced budget.

So who wants to fund a highly unpopular politician’s sexual harassment settlement on behalf of a disgraced political worker under federal investigation? Executives at Illinois’ largest public-sector labor unions.

Illinois ranked No. 40 where 1 is best and 50 is worst.

The federal Higher Education Act allows those who have taken out student loans to seek forgiveness of the debt in the event that the college or university deceives the student in some way or violates certain state statutes.

Every baby born in Illinois would receive $50 in a 529-style investment account to help pay for their future community college, university or trade school expenses.

Soon, some Illinois colleges may have more staffers than students. In 2016, the freshman class enrollment at Chicago State University numbered just 86 incoming students. Meanwhile, the university employed 980 staffers.

Illinois home prices, especially in the Chicago area, appreciated at the slowest pace in the nation last year, growing just below the rate of inflation. One of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, according to a new report, was right next door to Illinois.

The in-flow of Chicagoans is one of the key reasons behind the Gary area’s 7.9 percent increase in home prices year-over-year, according to an analysis of home price indices from the third quarter of 2019 by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, higher than all but six areas nationwide.

Granite City, Illinois, a rust-belt town of 30,000 people on the Mississippi River, is facing a $130.8 million pension shortfall and has put part of its sewer system up for sale to raise funds. I

Alton, Illinois earlier this year sold its wastewater system to Illinois American and used the entire $53.8 million to chip away at its $134 million in pension liabilities. Godfrey, Illinois also sold a system this year that desperately needed upgrades to Illinois America. Mayor Mike McCormick says he’s stashing the money in a rainy day fund.

“When we made equity the core of the state’s new adult-use cannabis market, we wanted to ensure that social equity entrepreneurs had access to capital to get their businesses off the ground, and we’re proud to announce that interested applicants can start this process today,” said Pritzker.

Mark Flessner has a Naperville house and a Chicago condo. Records show he got a tax break on both in 2017 and 2018 as if each was his primary residence, in a possible violation of state law.

Presented without comment.

Mike McClain, a former top lobbyist and close adviser to House Speaker Mike Madigan, was blacklisted from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office after orchestrating behind-the-scenes efforts to oust the gov’s pick for chief of staff, sources say.

“All but the hopelessly gullible can see that this envisioned extra $3 billion a year from the fat cats is just a first grab. The big money is further down the income ladder. Yet Democrats have to keep asking for voters’ trust that they’ll spare the middle class — despite the sorry history that animates this series of editorials: ‘When taxpayers trust Springfield, here’s what happens.'”

Between 2013 and 2018, the cost of utility distribution paid for by ComEd customers in Illinois grew by $730 million. That’s a price increase four to seven times more than the average annual rate of inflation for the same period, according to a study commissioned by AARP and conducted by the independent Power Bureau. But all this has gone on without question, thanks to inexplicable backroom deals and masterful public relations spin. Until now.”

The trifecta of an FBI probe, Lightfoot’s standoff and the state House bill could finally be what is needed to force ComEd to come out of

“I’m not the target of anything,” he recently told reporters.

“You backing the Russians, boy?”

Q4 of 2019 marks 10 years since the low-point of the national housing crisis. Nearly one in four mortgaged homes had negative equity, meaning the market value of the property is worth less than the value owed in mortgage.

Illinois is among the states considering something similar.

A nice summary of major items the General Assembly will address in the new session starting next month.

The bottom three (Illinois, Kentucky, and New Jersey) are even more underfunded, dropping from ~50% funding in 2013 down to only ~38% in 2017.

A disturbing fact about the three worst funded state pensions is that they have been receiving more money, yet are more underfunded. According to the report, these states “had an average employer contribution rate of more than 31 percent of payroll in 2017—a 22 percentage point increase since 2007.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has given $5 million to a ballot initiative committee backing a graduated rate income tax, the cornerstone of his agenda, as both sides of the issue gear up for an expensive and contentious battle in 2020.

Adam Andrzejewski just turned 50, but he insists that, although he’s getting older, he’s also getting better.

The goal of Andrzejewski’s organization is to track the money spent by all 50 states and the federal government — “Every dime, On line, In real time” is the organization’s slogan.

Illinois needs deep, structural changes to significantly reduce property taxes that are choking off growth in key sectors of the state’s economy. Residential and commercial real estate markets are sinking, and high property taxes bear much of the blame