Chicago Daily Observer

How much wasteful spending goes on each year in Illinois? Yesterday, the Illinois Policy Institute released its 2008 Piglet Book, which details more than $686 million in wasteful spending alone. Highlights (or, rather, lowlights) include:

· $4 million for a Ford Technical Training Center in Chicago
Heights
· $1 million for the Illinois film office in Chicago
· $920,000 for the Chicago Aerospace Education Initiative
· $550,000 for the conservation of pheasants
· $500,000 to administer the tanning facility permit act
· $156,000 to Southern Illinois University to refurnish cabins at
the “Touch of Nature Environmental Center” at Southern
Illinois University – Carbondale
· $40,000 for the Springfield Figure Skating Club
· $35,000 for the Prairie Aviation Museum for a display gallery
in Bloomington

There’s a lot more where that came from, including protections for “fur-bearing mammals” ... Read More...

Sometimes the difference between a good think tank and a successful think tank comes down to taking action. Over the past month, the Illinois Policy Institute has been heavily engaged in fighting a Chicago Transit Authority bailout that included a sales tax increase in six Chicago suburban communities.

As a non-profit think tank, our job is to educate activists, policymakers, the press and the general public. Over the course of this tax fight, we did just that:

• The Institute targeted state representatives who were being pressured to vote for the tax increase and called more than 30,000 voters in their districts to urge them to contact their legislators.
  * We spread the word to leaders of Americans for Tax Reform, who contacted key members of the Transportation Committee to oppose the tax hike.
  * We also notified our friends at the National Taxpayers Union, who subsequently ... Read More...