Getting Illinois’ Fiscal House in Order — CTBA’s Response to the FY 2023 Proposed General Fund Budget Governor Pritzker’s State of the State/Budget Address delivered on February 2, 2022, focused on a message of healing and economic recovery. Words that frankly many needed to hear after two long years of…

The departure of the Chicago Bears from Chicago seems all but inevitable. ‎In September 2021, the Chicago Bears signed an agreement for the purpose of acquiring property in Arlington Heights, a suburb roughly 30 minutes from Chicago. …

It is that time of year again when the City of Chicago and the Cook County Government release their recommended budget proposals for FY 2023. …

The Inflation Reduction Act, or (“IRA”), which was signed into law by President Biden in August, is a sweeping piece of legislation, covering everything from climate change and healthcare to corporate tax policy. This blog provides a condensed version of key provisions of the legislation. Healthcare The IRA cuts out-of-pocket…

Unemployment Insurance (“UI”) is a partnership program between the federal government and individual states in the United States. UI programs provide benefits — which differ from state to state — to provide coverage in the form of compensation to workers who become unemployed (involuntarily) and meet specific eligibility requirements.[i] In…

Unlike most other core public policy areas, taxation is rarely the subject of either thoughtful public discourse or bipartisan cooperation. The reasons for this are not especially hard to understand: First, no one really likes paying taxes, and for that reason tax policy is the subject of much political hyperbole. …

In the middle of August 2021, the City of Chicago released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget Forecast. The budget forecast precedes the release of Mayor Lightfoot’s Recommended Budget and sets up the expectations of what the upcoming fiscal year may encounter. In discussing the FY 2022 Budget Forecast for…

Unemployment is used as a measure of the health of an economy. An unemployed person is a person of working age who simultaneously meets three conditions: · be unemployed, i.e., not having worked, even for one hour, during a reference week; · be available to take a job; and ·…

In economics, there is a concept called the “Marginal Propensity to Consume” or “MPC”. MPC describes the relationship between income and consumption of goods (the spending of income) — or more specifically: how someone’s consumption (spending of income) changes when that person’s income changes. A person’s MPC is calculated by…