The growing influence of the Illinois Policy Institute
When barbers employed by the state earn an average annual wage of nearly $66,000, compared to the average Illinois private sector barber’s $27,600, something is amiss, says the increasingly visible Illinois Policy Institute, which bills itself as a nonpartisan research organization attempting to bring specific ideological solutions to public policy.
The example, meant to show a disparity between public employees and their private sector equivalents, is one of 17 job titles the Institute used in its “Mind the Gap” report issued early last month. The report is prime material for stirring taxpayer anger, provides fuel for an anti-tax debate and exemplifies part of the Institute’s ideological bent – the state spends too much money, taxpayers are overburdened and government interference pushes out businesses, jobs and prosperity. Formed in 2002, the Institute backs “free-market” or “free enterprise” principles, which argue that the economic laws of supply and demand govern more effectively than any coercive bureaucratic entity.
With eye-popping reports like “Mind the Gap,” a $2.2 million budget and scores of angry taxpayers looking for something to stand behind, the relatively young Institute, with its established perspective, has the means to become a major voice in Illinois public policy. Whether that voice can be both compelling and worthwhile – truly nonpartisan and backed by comprehensive data – is a question that is now, and will likely remain, on the minds of those in Illinois’ political arena.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, for example, says the Institute is anything but nonpartisan and its work anything but actual research. Responding to the “Mind the Gap” salary report, AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall, says the Institute “cherry picks” its information, turning bits of data into “propaganda to serve that far right, extreme ideology. … What they like to call research is dictated by their preferred political outcome.”
AFSCME, a government employees’ union, is a natural adversary of the limited government-minded Institute, but Lindall also points to a report by the Center for Local and State Government Excellence released just weeks before the Institute’s “Mind the Gap.” It concluded that Illinois, in general, pays public employees about 13 percent less than their private sector counterparts – after accounting for age, experience and education.
The Institute’s CEO and president, John Tillman, says the opposing report is flawed and insists that his organization does not “cherry pick.” But he adds, “Our mission is to advance free-market principles and policies so we look for data that supports that.”
Getting heard
The ideas the Institute espouses are nothing new, Tillman says, but until recently no one in Illinois had been selling them successfully. “I believed no one was making the case for freemarket vigorously,” Tillman says of his decision to get involved with public policy about six
years ago. Previously the owner of several small businesses, the 51-year old grew up in rural Michigan before coming to northern Illinois 25 years ago. Tillman now resides in a small village in northern Cook County. The Illinois Policy Institute is the third free-market organization that Tillman has led since 2004. He joined the Institute in 2007. “I just wanted to add our voice … in an impactful way. I believed the public was generally with us.”
Working to strike the public’s nerve, the Institute is arguing for free-market in new ways and getting plenty of attention. Since 2007 the number of mentions or features the Institute has garnered in print and broadcast media has jumped from about 50 to more than 620 in 2009. The Institute’s founder, Springfield native Greg Blankenship, who left the group in 2009, credits Tillman with the Institute’s increased visibility.
Tillman says the Institute is “riding a wave that is a cultural phenomenon,” calling some of the Institute’s success a product of widespread
