Illinois Policy Institute
Encyclopedia
The Illinois Policy Institute is a non-profit research organization that supports free-market and liberty-based public policies in the State of Illinois
. Its website says that it is “a leading voice for economic liberty and government accountability,” and that it engages “policy makers, opinion leaders, and citizens on the state and local level.”
The Institute is often referred to as a conservative, free-market, or libertarian
organization. According to the Institute’s website, it focuses “specifically on economic liberty and free market principles.”
(CAGW).
At a time when the Illinois state government is $1.5 billion behind in its Medicaid payments, has $3.5 billion late payments due other IL government suppliers and creditors and has unfunded pension liabilities of over $100 billion, the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book identified $686 million in wasteful Illinois state spending, including $1 million for the Illinois film office in Chicago; $40,000 for the Springfield Figure Skating Club; $35,000 for the Prairie Aviation Museum for a display gallery in Bloomington, and; $156,000 to refurnish cabins at the Touch of Nature Environmental Center at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. A 2006 Piglet Book is also available on the Institute’s website.
The Institute addresses charter school caps in Illinois, which have recently been raised, in this report: Eliminating all caps restricting the growth of charter schools in Illinois and creating independent authorities that will enable charter schools to open.
The Institute released a study of charter schools in Illinois highlighting the success of the school choice movement in Illinois. The report is entitled Unsung Heroes: Downstate and suburban charter schools thrive in Illinois.
The Institute has also released a report entitled Opening the Door to Better Schools: Reforming charter school authorization law in Illinois, which addresses the need for changing current laws for authorization and oversight of charter schools.
The Institute has released a new report illustrating how choice allows students to achieve. The report is entitled Chicago students prove they can compete...If given a chance
The Institute just released a report about how communities in Illinois are in need of better schools. The report is entitled Opening the Door to better schools: Reforming charter school authorization law in Illinois
Related Articles on Charter Schools
An Institute article reads: “Illinois needs to implement a full, comprehensive transparency program, requiring that state and all local governments receiving state funds open up their books in one easy-access website.”
The group is also partnering with groups who are working for transparency in local school districts as well.
The Illinois Policy Institute runs a transparency website, OpenIllinois.org which acts as a record for who is the state is posting their budgets online.
Tweet Illinois
The Illinois Policy Institute launched a website called Tweet Illinois, which allows the citizens of Illinois to find out if their lawmakers are on Twitter and follow them. Tweet Illinois is just one more tool for government transparency.
Illinois Open Government
The Illinois Policy Institute launched a website called Illinois Open Gov, which allows the citizens of Illinois to view how the state spend their tax dollars. It also gives Illinois taxpayers an unbiased look at raw spending data, provided directly from official government sources, and gives Illinois citizens a tool for researching, analyzing, comparing and sharing government spending data.
The Liberty Leaders program is developing “spokespeople for liberty” in Illinois by providing citizens with knowledge of free market policies and the know-how to get them turned into law.
Besides providing Liberty Leaders with background and key information on why liberty-based policy will work for Illinois, the Liberty Leaders program coaches individuals on effective civic engagement. Here are some
examples of how you can get involved:
Since the program’s launch in June 2008, Liberty Leaders have made over $3.5 billion in local taxpayer expenditures transparent and worked to stop a statewide tax increase–and we’re just getting started.
The Institute obtains all of its funding from private donors and foundations. It is not endowed and does not accept government funding.
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Its website says that it is “a leading voice for economic liberty and government accountability,” and that it engages “policy makers, opinion leaders, and citizens on the state and local level.”
The Institute is often referred to as a conservative, free-market, or libertarian
Libertarian
Libertarian may refer to:*A proponent of libertarianism, a political philosophy that upholds individual liberty, especially freedom of expression and action*A member of a libertarian political party; including:**Libertarian Party...
organization. According to the Institute’s website, it focuses “specifically on economic liberty and free market principles.”
Personnel
John Tillman joined the Institute in 2007 as its Chairman and CEO, and opened its Chicago office shortly thereafter. Tillman frequently appears on television and radio shows, including Fox News Chicago and the Jerry Agar Show.- Kristina Rasmussen, Executive Vice President
- Heather Wilhelm, Vice President of Marketing and Communications
- Collin Hitt, Director of Education Policy
- Kate Campaigne, Director of Center for Government Reform
- Richard Lorenc, Director of Outreach
- Katie Truesdell, Manager of External Relations
- Don Soifer, Senior Fellow
- Andrew Busch, Senior Fellow
- Leonard Gilroy, Senior Fellow
- Ryan McLaughlin, Public Affairs Counselor
- Jerry Agar, Multimedia Fellow
- Michael Demkovich, Marketing and Communication Associate
Current projects
The Illinois Policy Institute organizes its programs around a number of different policy centers. These include Budget & Taxes, Education, Health Care, and Transparency & Accountability.Pork Watch
In 2008, the Institute released a report, entitled the Piglet Book, which was published with Citizens Against Government WasteCitizens Against Government Waste
Citizens Against Government Waste is a 501 non-profit organization in the United States. It functions as a think-tank, 'government watchdog', and advocacy group for fiscally conservative causes...
(CAGW).
At a time when the Illinois state government is $1.5 billion behind in its Medicaid payments, has $3.5 billion late payments due other IL government suppliers and creditors and has unfunded pension liabilities of over $100 billion, the 2008 Illinois Piglet Book identified $686 million in wasteful Illinois state spending, including $1 million for the Illinois film office in Chicago; $40,000 for the Springfield Figure Skating Club; $35,000 for the Prairie Aviation Museum for a display gallery in Bloomington, and; $156,000 to refurnish cabins at the Touch of Nature Environmental Center at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. A 2006 Piglet Book is also available on the Institute’s website.
Education Reform
The Institute works with other Illinois-based and national organizations in the field of school choice, its latest collaboration being a poll conducted with the Friedman Foundation that found that 4 out of 5 Illinois parents would take advantage of a program such as school vouchers that would enable them to choose where to send their children to school.The Institute addresses charter school caps in Illinois, which have recently been raised, in this report: Eliminating all caps restricting the growth of charter schools in Illinois and creating independent authorities that will enable charter schools to open.
The Institute released a study of charter schools in Illinois highlighting the success of the school choice movement in Illinois. The report is entitled Unsung Heroes: Downstate and suburban charter schools thrive in Illinois.
The Institute has also released a report entitled Opening the Door to Better Schools: Reforming charter school authorization law in Illinois, which addresses the need for changing current laws for authorization and oversight of charter schools.
The Institute has released a new report illustrating how choice allows students to achieve. The report is entitled Chicago students prove they can compete...If given a chance
The Institute just released a report about how communities in Illinois are in need of better schools. The report is entitled Opening the Door to better schools: Reforming charter school authorization law in Illinois
Related Articles on Charter Schools
- Private Sector Educators, Public School Students
- Charter Schools: Accountability Creates Better Choices for Education
- Rockford--and rest of state--would benefit from charters
- Institute statement on President-elect Obama's choice of Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education
- The Illinois Education Solution
- Give students the choice to attend charter schools where kids perform well
Government Transparency
The Institute’s latest major policy focus has been in the area of government transparency, both on the statewide and local levels in Illinois.An Institute article reads: “Illinois needs to implement a full, comprehensive transparency program, requiring that state and all local governments receiving state funds open up their books in one easy-access website.”
The group is also partnering with groups who are working for transparency in local school districts as well.
The Illinois Policy Institute runs a transparency website, OpenIllinois.org which acts as a record for who is the state is posting their budgets online.
Tweet Illinois
The Illinois Policy Institute launched a website called Tweet Illinois, which allows the citizens of Illinois to find out if their lawmakers are on Twitter and follow them. Tweet Illinois is just one more tool for government transparency.
Illinois Open Government
The Illinois Policy Institute launched a website called Illinois Open Gov, which allows the citizens of Illinois to view how the state spend their tax dollars. It also gives Illinois taxpayers an unbiased look at raw spending data, provided directly from official government sources, and gives Illinois citizens a tool for researching, analyzing, comparing and sharing government spending data.
Liberty Leaders
The Institute runs a voluntary program called Liberty Leaders which gives citizens the tools necessary to ask for government reform and transparency. Currently the Liberty Leaders Program has representatives in many counties across the state.The Liberty Leaders program is developing “spokespeople for liberty” in Illinois by providing citizens with knowledge of free market policies and the know-how to get them turned into law.
Besides providing Liberty Leaders with background and key information on why liberty-based policy will work for Illinois, the Liberty Leaders program coaches individuals on effective civic engagement. Here are some
examples of how you can get involved:
- Write a Letter to the Editor
- Contact your legislators
- Attend Local Government meetings i.e. Village Board Meetings, Town Halls, County Board Meetings
Since the program’s launch in June 2008, Liberty Leaders have made over $3.5 billion in local taxpayer expenditures transparent and worked to stop a statewide tax increase–and we’re just getting started.
Government Reform
Finally one of the biggest projects that Illinois Policy Institute is running is the Reform Agenda for the State of Illinois. This comprehensive packet includes various actions that should be taken by the legislature to clean up the government. The Reform Agenda can be found here.High-Speed Rail
The Illinois Policy Institute recently teamed up with Randall O'Toole of the Cato Institute to do a study about the common myths about high-speed rail and more importantly the true cost to the Illinois. The study, "Taking Illinoisans for a Ride: False promises of high-speed rail" illustrates the true costs of high-speed rail proposals for Illinois.Health care
The Illinois Policy Institute has recently released several policy briefs addressing the issue of health care. Each brief tackles specific areas of the health care debate.- Adding Insult to Injury: Nationalized health care will cost Illinois 169,000 jobs, $4,418 per person, and shrink the state economy by 5.1 percent
- The Devil Is in the Details: How a sleeper provision in ObamaCare could bust Illinois’s budget
- Not What the Doctor Ordered: The scary side of government health care
- Does Expanding Medicaid Help the Uninsured?: Crowd-out Effect Suggests Fewer Are Being Helped Than Believed
- Making Patients Wait for Cancer Treatment: Certificate of Need program Rations Patient Treatment and Should Be Abolished
Publications
In addition to the yearly Piglet Book, the Institute publishes a bi-monthly e-newsletter and a quarterly print newsletter. Various staff members contribute to the Institute’s blog: Spontaneous Solutions.Funding
The Illinois Policy Institute is classified as a 501(c)(3) organization under U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Consistent with its tax-exempt status, the Institute focuses on educational outreach and policy work.The Institute obtains all of its funding from private donors and foundations. It is not endowed and does not accept government funding.