Wirepoints
Recent News About Wirepoints
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IRS: Illinois suffers record losses of residents, tax base
Illinois suffered record population and taxable-income losses over a two-year period ending in 2018, according to data just released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
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Wirepoints: State lawmakers can learn from the mistakes of a failed retailer
A recent article by Illinois state government watchdog Wirepoints asserts that lawmakers in Springfield could take a cue from beleaguered Sears Co., in particular from the one-time local “king of retailers'” fall from grace over the past decade.
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Wirepoints: Illinois has 'not set aside a penny' to cover $68 billion in retiree health benefits
Retiree health benefits for government workers in Illinois have grown by more than 70 percent over the last decade, leaving the state on the hook for upward of $68 billion in unpaid benefits.
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Market downturn could wipe out Illinois' public pensions, Wirepoints fiscal analysis warns
Even an unprecedented 10-year growth in the market can’t rescue Illinois’ struggling public pension plans.
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From Rockford Sun
Illinois homecoming – 'It seems like no one cares about people like us,' returning retiree says
After more than 20 years of living in Florida, Don and Paula Parker recently relocated back to their home state of Illinois to be closer to family and back in the place they know best.
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Wirepoints: Raising Illinois taxes will drive even more taxpayers away
Bankrupt Illinois needs precisely what it has less and less of – taxpayers.
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Government watchdog director calls out child 'exploitation' in climate change protests
The executive editor and founder of the government watchdog website WirePoints views the outbreak of climate change demonstrations across the globe featuring young people with a leery eye.
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More than half of Illinois' police and fire pension funds are underfunded, Wirepoints reports
Financial decay is happening at all levels of Illinois state government, according to the president of state news aggregation and research site Wirepoints.
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Beware of Comptroller Mendoza’s 'phony budget' numbers, fiscal watchdog Mark Glennon says
Recent fiscal news from the Illinois’ Comptroller Susana Mendoza, the overseer of the state’s finances, seemed to give Illinoisans a glimmer of hope that the state was finally emerging from its fiscal abyss. A positive-sounding statement from Mendoza’s office surrounding the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the fiscal year that ended June 2018 showed that the state’s general funds budget was still running a deficit, but it was a deficit reduced by half over the previous year.
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Illinois home values show little growth compared to neighbors, rest of U.S., Wirepoints reports
Illinois ranked near the bottom in average U.S. home values over a 12-year period ending in 2017, according to a new Wirepoints report.
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Late CAFR gives Illinois' bond buyers pause, causes speculation, Wirepoints founder says
Illinois' tardy fiscal 2018 comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) has to be making would-be state bond investors thinking again, according to the founder of an online news outlet.
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Wirepoints calls out Pritzker for doubling state's gas tax, breaking promise to middle class
Illinois state lawmakers have a dubious history of subjecting residents to gas tax hikes, but the recent doubling of the state gas tax to 38 cents per gallon seems to have taken things to an entirely new level.
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Wirepoints' Glennon sums up exodus from Illinois: Taxes, debt, crime, corruption, discrimination
Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon says there's no mystery behind Illinois’ rapidly falling population, which one recent report has at nearly 160,000 departures over the past five years.
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Pritzker’s claims of paying down pension debt “simply dishonest,” fiscal watchdog says
The recently approved state budget hardly makes Illinois the beacon of fiscal prudence that Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislative leaders claim it is, budgetary analysts at Wirepoints say.
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Wirepoints: Pritzker's capital budget 'is madness'
Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon believes Gov. J.B. Pritzker went overboard with his excessive budget for the state's infrastructure.
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New Trier, other wealthy school districts shifting their built-in pension spiking costs to taxpayers statewide
To spike their pensions, New Trier high school teachers, a few years from retirement, had six percent annual bumps in salary written into their 2016-2019 contracts.
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Senate leader Bill Brady’s undisclosed gaming interests 'worthy of a Chicago alderman'
Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady’s undisclosed financial interests in the gaming industry, and his public celebration with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker over legislative approval of a massive expansion of gaming in the state, the budget and other controversial bills marks a new low point for the Republican Party.
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Wirepoints: Pritzker win a loss for middle class
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s success in pushing his progressive income tax proposal to the brink of becoming law is being celebrated as a “big win” for the new governor, but the online government watchdog organization Wirepoints sees it differently.
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Wirepoints president claims capital bill debate is premature given state's many, more urgent issues
Wirepoints president Ted Dabrowski hints that the devil is probably in the details when it comes to the capital-improvements plan being pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
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Wirepoints predicts Pritzker's tax plan will only drag Illinois' real estate market down further
Illinois home values continue to lag, with recent data showing they remain 12 percent below pre-Great Recession peak levels.