Anti-tax Republicans move in for the kill

By Rich Miller

Last year, the state Senate Republicans tested anti-tax messages in their campaigns without much success. While almost all Senate Democrats had voted for a large income tax hike along with an expansio

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, September 1,2011

Why Democrats are angry at each other

By Rich Miller

A few weeks ago, I ran into a fairly high-level Illinois Democrat at a party in Springfield. He said he’d taken my advice and was reading the New York Times’ “Disunion” Civil W

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, August 25,2011

Would‘unveto fix regional supts. mess?

By Rich Miller

Way back in 1981, Gov. Jim Thompson got into a fight with the Illinois General Assembly over who should fund the salaries of county state’s attorneys. By law, Illinois was on the hook for two-th

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, August 18,2011

Ratings agencies worry about fiscal future of Illinois

By Rich Miller

As we are all too painfully aware, the past few weeks have been beyond crazy. Congress and the president took the nation to the brink of default. Standard & Poor’s lowered the federal govern

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, August 11,2011

The changing faces of the General Assembly

By Rich Miller

Redistricting is a time for stock-taking; for looking back and looking ahead. State legislators who’ve been around a while are suddenly faced with the often stark reality of signing on for anoth

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 21,2011

How Stand for Children snuck into the Statehouse

By Rich Miller

Stand for Children’s national director Jonah Edelman spoke a little too freely at an Aspen Institute event this month. Edelman openly bragged about how his group had outfoxed the teachers

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 14,2011

Why Quinn canceled union pay raises

By Rich Miller

There are lots of different angles to Gov. Pat Quinn’s highly controversial decision to unilaterally refuse to pay scheduled, contractual pay raises to unionized state employees, so let’s

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 7,2011

The counts they didn’t get Blago on

By Rich Miller

While Rod Blagojevich’s jury found him guilty on 17 felony counts last week, jurors found him not guilty on one count and deadlocked on two others. Not much has been written about those other co

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, June 30,2011

The Senate president’s side of the budget story

By Rich Miller

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has received a lot of bad press, sharp condemnation from Republicans and even some quiet criticism from his own members over the past month. But Cullerton made

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, June 23,2011

Why the Senate Dems backed down on spending

By Rich Miller

Gov. Pat Quinn was willing to offer up only the tiniest of face-saving possibilities to the Illinois Senate Democrats last week: Drop your budget demands, and we’ll talk about them this fall, bu