In a recent article critical of a proposed move to a progressive income tax, the Heartland Institute’s Matthew Glans and Lennie Jarratt point out that one of the arguments for the tax is an empty one: revenues the state has been collecting through the current flat tax are among the most robust in the Midwest.

Sports wagering legislation in Springfield punishing two online gaming companies is a blind for protecting the in-state interests of billionaire casino mogul, Neil Bluhm, according to one of the nation’s leading legal experts on gaming.

Illinois is missing out on the economic boom benefiting most states, a fiscal update from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows. Years of overspending and fiscal mismanagement has the state actually contracting in some economic categories.

Under a new policy, the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) has been rejecting income tax credits it verified and accepted in the past, a top certified public accountant (CPA) says. As a result, thousands could overpay on their income taxes.

Legal pressure is ramping up on government unions to abide by a nearly year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision, Janus v. AFSCME, making it unconstitutional for them to deduct dues from the paychecks of non-union employees.

Former GOP Chairman Pat Brady delivered yet another sucker punch to his own party by donating to far-left Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, former State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) told Prairie State Wire.

A high-ranking official with the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) said that the training and fitness standards for correctional officer trainees have plummeted so far under IDOC Director John Baldwin that he fears for the safety of the guards and inmates in the state’s 35 prisons.

A Republican State Central Committee member is appealing to conservative Republicans statewide to donate to former State Rep. Bob Winchester’s (R-Rosiclare) nearly year-long legal battle to have him declared the rightful victor in the race for Central Committee in the 15th Congressional district.

Now a top political consultant, Chris Robling says he considered longtime friend and mentor Don Totten one of the “immortals, a mythical figure” of conservative Republican politics in Illinois when Robling was starting out in the early 19​80s.

All Republican Committeeman John McGlasson says he is likely to get out of his call for a special meeting of the state GOP after the shellacking the party took in November is a chance to speak his mind at the party’s regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 9 in Bolingbrook. If he can make his way onto the agenda.

Jan. 8 marked the end of the 100th General Assembly in Springfield, and almost certainly the end of any chance at transparency in contract negotiations between Illinois school districts and the all-powerful, politically connected teachers’ unions, says an outgoing legislator.

Legalization of recreational marijuana use in Illinois will almost certainly lead to a sharp increase in the number of motorists driving stoned, studies and surveys in states where pot is legal show. In Colorado, at least, fatal accidents shot up at an alarming rate during a period when legal adult use began in late 2012 followed by sales in 2014. From 2013 to 2015, traffic fatalities there rose 40 percent.

Late last month, the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) announced it needed an additional $400 million from Springfield next fiscal year, which begins July 2019.

Economic data and a statewide survey of registered voters show that high taxes and a negative view of a state’s economy are the leading reasons why people pack up and leave their state for another.

An election guide posted on the Communist Party USA’s (CPUSA) website said that the party is “deploying its resources” to unseat U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), as part of a larger effort to flip 24 Republican seats the Democrats need to capture control of the House.

One of the state’s most respected fiscal watchdogs is warning taxpayers to be on the lookout for legislation in Springfield that would give new life to the practice of “pension spiking” for public school teachers.

“I have been vindicated and the matter is now closed,” state Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) said in a statement issued on Sept. 5 after an investigation cleared him of harassment allegations.

Illinois has mastered the art of gaming the federal food stamp program to where 101 of its 102 counties continue to fall under a recession-era expansion of the program despite near record-low unemployment levels, according to a recent study by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA).

State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) surveyed cities and school districts in her legislative district asking how they plan to comply with June's U.S Supreme Court ruling that abolished 40 years of compulsory unionism.

Lobbying clients of Shaw Decremer, a former aide to House Speaker Michael Madigan, did not respond to requests for comment on allegations of harassment involving their influence peddler in Springfield.