The following is a continuation of Dissecting Illinois’ Pension Problem Part III: Understanding Tiers Overview The State of Illinois’ growing underfunded liabilities was the folly of many and not subjected to a single action. It was the compounded effect of many various decisions made by different individuals over decades. Part IV in our Illinois Pension seriesContinue reading “Dissecting Illinois’ Pension Problem Part IV: History of Neglect (The 1990s)”
Category Archives: economics
Dissecting Illinois’ Pension Problem Part III: Understanding Tiers
The following is a continuation of Dissecting Illinois’ Public Pension Problem Part II: Modeling Pensions. Overview Public employees are separated into two tiers, depending on when they began employment, and each tier contains a different vesting structure for their pension. The two tiers are simply referred to as Tier I and Tier II. Tier I EmployeesContinue reading “Dissecting Illinois’ Pension Problem Part III: Understanding Tiers”
Dissecting Illinois’ Public Pension Problem Part II: Modeling Pensions
What are Pensions? Pensions are money owed to former public employees as severance to their public service and work. Recipients of these benefits in Illinois include teachers, police, firefighters, state employees, judges, and more. Recipients start collecting this benefit at retirement. How Pensions Work Both the pension recipient and Illinois taxpayers pay into a specificContinue reading “Dissecting Illinois’ Public Pension Problem Part II: Modeling Pensions”
Dissecting Illinois’ Public Pension Issue: Part I
The State of Illinois has accumulated roughly $137 billion in public pension debt at the end of 2019. This is money owed to state employees who have retired as a severance to their public service and work. The massive amount of debt is an issue because as the underfunded liabilities grow, it will continue toContinue reading “Dissecting Illinois’ Public Pension Issue: Part I”
Remember when Illinois Banned Branch Banking?
Topic: Finance Issue: Branch Banking in Illinois There was a period in Illinois history where banks could not freely establish branches at different locations, suppressing bank expansion and limiting consumers to only their local community bank to suffice financial needs. Illinois’ Constitution in 1870 prohibited branch banking unless the General Assembly voted by a three-fifthsContinue reading “Remember when Illinois Banned Branch Banking?”
Analyzing the Arguments For and Against Universal Basic Income
By: Quinn Newman, contributing writer Topic: Finance and Economics Issue: Universal Basic Income Problem: The United States has experienced rising economic inequality over the last four decades. Between 1989 and 2013 median household income only grew by 9% with the wealthiest 1% of Americans owning 35% of the country’s wealth. Additionally, with the federal minimumContinue reading “Analyzing the Arguments For and Against Universal Basic Income”
Illinois’ Sales Tax Structure
The State’s Tax Reliance on Goods Overview The State of Illinois primarily taxes goods as opposed to services. Currently, the state taxes 17 services with 12 coming from public utilities. This narrow base is poor to adapting to changing in the economic climate because it becomes overly dependent on taxes from only a few services belonging toContinue reading “Illinois’ Sales Tax Structure”
Income Taxation in Illinois
The modern Illinois Constitution, adopted in 1970, sets forth a non-gradual structure where every individual pays the same base tax rate of 4.95 percent. This current rate of 4.95 percent was adopted by the General Assembly in 2017 and implemented beginning in 2018, up from the previous 3.75 percent. While different rate structures cannot beContinue reading “Income Taxation in Illinois”
Prairie State Policy 