Happy birthday, Illinois Policy Institute!

This plucky Illinois organization recently celebrated six years in the think-tank biz, spreading free-market ideas. It was started in 2001 on a shoestring budget by a “displaced” public affairs consultant, Greg Blankenship, formerly based in Washington, D.C.

Be glad the outfit he founded is still around, especially if you live in llinois. Because it’s effective.

For example, recent testimony by IPI guys at state budget hearings helped expose a concocted “gross receipts tax.” Blankenship says, “We had been outspoken on the dangers of taxing businesses, and were happy our information was used to make a difference.” The tax was defeated.

IPI had clobbered another tax scheme a couple years earlier, a proposed “swap” of income tax and property tax. Blankenship reports, “Our main goal was to point out why decreasing taxes and limiting government is good for everyone.”

I have another reason to celebrate the Illinois Policy Institute. The most recent feather in their cap is the hiring of John Tillman as their new chairman, a guy I’ve worked with at the Sam Adams Alliance.

John says advocates of liberty must explain the fundamental alternative of our age, freedom versus statism, in practical terms everyone can understand. For example, show how statism means you have to work 80 hours for wealth you could achieve in just 40 hours in an unhampered market, and folks are with you. As John puts it, “When the ideas are properly communicated, people choose freedom.”

They do. Good point, John. And good luck.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.